Analysis/Evaluation of an Argument - Essay Example

Although the internet and other modern communication forms have made communication to be cheaper and faster, these have major negative effects on humans and human relationships in society, as these undermine real relationships among people. First, Roger argues that modern communication channels, despite their rapidity, do not improve or nurture new relationships as compared to the traditional communication forms, but has only changed the nature of human relationships. This is evident through the fact that in the past, when one would pay another person a physical visit and fail to find him or her, this was more painful.

Today however, if someone calls another person on the phone, and finds the person off air, it is considered less painful. Additionally, letter writing in the past was intensive, and people would put in their emotions and express their feelings to the recipients of the letter, even though the letter would take several days to be delivered (par. 2). On the other hand, today, the email, which has replaced the letter, is fast, but people compose these in haze, and do not put their feelings in the words of their emails.

Therefore, the intensity of the message varies between modern and traditional communication forms, and this has an influence on the human relationships involved. . However, true friendship means action, as a true friend will be present to help and rescue another in time of need (par. 5). Therefore, since modern communication is conducted between people in different places, it kills the connection between people, thus weakening friendship ties. Furthermore, modern communication, specifically, social networking, does not promote personal relationships, thus bearing a negative impact on friendships (par.10). This is mainly because; the information of individuals is usually public, except for the inbox.

Therefore, there cannot be anything special between specific individuals, as all the people in a person’s network have the capability of learning his or her activities and interactions with people on the social networking site. Therefore, the fact that most modern forms of communication do not allow for people to communicate face-to-face, nor allow them to build personal relationships, is disadvantageous to friendships in society today. In addition, modern forms of communication provide individuals with a lot of freedom, which might be destructive to human relationships.

In social media, for instance, Facebook, anyone has the freedom of creating an account. Some people have therefore, used this freedom to create fake accounts, and develop their virtual false identities. By doing this, such people lose accountability and responsibility for their actions while online (par. 22). While others might use their false identities to engage in criminal activities online, others merely use it to protect their real selves from virtual encounters, because of their shyness.

Nonetheless, this level of freedom has to a higher extent, been undermining to the growth of virtual