Impact of Technology on Personal, Social and Business Communication: A Critical Evaluation

With the advent, adoption and widespread use of information technology the interpersonal & business communication has been changed drastically over a period of centaury and so in this research work I would like to critically evaluate the technological factors affecting communication primarily at personal, social and business level under the light of modern technological expansion.

Communication acts like a blood line to our existence. Emerging technologies have deeply impacted on productivity, pace of development and quality of life in general but technology has been acted as double-edged sword. Increasing level of social singularity, more online relations, lies and deception in daily behavior (social media), decay of interpersonal skills and increasing addiction of smart media and internet is on the rise.

In a business environment communication technology has improved information exchange within and outside an organization. With more people participating in decision making process and open discussions efficiency has been boosted. But at the same time procurement of new technology, training and data protection can be very expensive.

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   Quality of relationships at personal, social and business level has seen downfall but that does not mean that smart gadgets and internet has only impacted negatively. Fast and easy access to countless resources has been resulted in versatility and expansion of human mind socially and academically.

In contemporary social and business condition there is clear need of more and more research on this issue in order to use information technology in an efficient and less lethal way.

As suggested in the working title supporting ideas for each topic given below has been provided with evidences and facts taken from peer reviewed studies suggesting the scope of research. To prove the feasibility of suggested topic I have chosen three different areas and after going through few published articles, periodicals and other acclaimed sources I have tried to establish the fact that in all three areas there is noticeable capacity for exploration.

1) Personal level 2) Social level 3) Business level

1. DECEPTION AND DESIGN

We all use smart phones and communication applications to be constantly in touch with each other. There is a general behavior we all have experienced that at some point we all lie with each other for number of reasons.  A study in social psychology called Deception and design: Impact of communication technology on lying behavior reveals that lying is an important and frequent part of online social interaction. With proliferation of information technology developers are met with very critical issue that needs to be resolved and I strongly believe that a lot of work is being done to tackle this problem. Research shows that design features like synchronicity of interaction i.e. a state in which individuals are working at the same time for a common motive and messages are being exchanged in real time, recordability of the medium i.e., the degree at which interaction between two or multiple individuals is automatically documented and co presence are responsible for lying behavior by participants. These features must be considered by both designers and users in order to detect the deception. Hancock, Jeffrey& Thom-Santelli, Jennifer & Ritchie, Thompson (2004) and George, J. F. et al. (2018).

2. THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE INITIATION OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Similarly, in the next topic is in social domain I have taken the issue of interpersonal relationships. A study (McQuillen 2003) shows that there is a concern about how technology is impacting the health of interpersonal relations as world is becoming continually small and distance between cultures and countries is decreasing but at the same time more and more people are inclined towards using technology for almost everything without leaving the comfort of their homes. Internet is being used for almost every need of our lives and almost everything is being delivered at our doorstep, a trend that is causing more and more isolation.

Secondly, study reveals that online relationships are on the rise. The trend which is connected with the use of technologies like instant messaging, chat rooms etc. has affected the process of building and development of relationships adversely. People met using multi user domains to build new relations. But it seems like even though word is a smaller place ironically the closer we get the further apart we appear to be. The quality of life is on the stake as relations we built online are less likely to develop as long lasting and enduring relationships. Repercussion of computer mediated relationships has become a major issue. There is a clear need to tackle this issue because if we stay in the state of denial, we could reach on the verge of losing our social institutions like family and marriage in no time.

3. TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Technological communications affect culture, effectiveness, and business relations, it has played very important role for customer relations and also helped in removing geographical boundaries with the help of internet. Technology has helped businesses in fields like human resources, security & confidentiality, research, e-governance, customer relation management etc.

Last supportive argument in favor of feasibility of suggested topic has been chosen in the domain of business. Studies by Brooksbank, R., Kirby, D., and Kane, S. (1992) and Jeanette K. van Akkeren, Angele L.M Cavaye (1999) revealed that although technology has brought many boons for business communications all over the world irrespective to their size and origin. The study highlights issues in small scale industry like perceived lack of business benefit, lack of time and most importantly mistrust of IT industry.

Lot of research has been done to prove the advantages of even basic internet facilities in business communication like web presence and web portal, but there is not much literature available about how small-scale companies can bring and use even entry level internet technologies to communicate with large number of customers for their benefit. So, there is lot scope of research to find factors affecting entry level technological adoption.  

Communication is an essential element for the growth of civilization and culture we live in.  We have always been exchanging ideas and sharing our opinion with each other. Technology has changed the whole scenario as it developed remarkably. Along with other areas it has impacted on how we communicate with each other. Age of satellite and internet has changed communication a lot. Research and development in Information and communication technologies provided us with wonderful electronic devices and application. But the change has come with a price. Technological development has affected adversely on our social and personal conduct.  A critical approach has been adopted in this research taking data from established work to throw some light on the problems that came along with technological development.

Ideally technological advancement should give provide us ample opportunity for socio economic development. The whole purpose of development and progression in technological field is to facilitate the humanity in a very positive way and steer it from one step to another. But in reality, we have been struck hard adversely. I guess we could not foresee all the consequences technology brought us. In reality we are more isolated; more deteriorated socially, our ability to communicate as a social being has been affected badly. Previous studies mentioned in this work proved that behavioral problems are increasing and people who design devices and applications need more data so that they can come up with solutions to the behavioral problems, users are facing by overindulging in online social acts. Deteriorating interpersonal skills and interpersonal relationships are causing damage to the sanity of users. On the other hand, simple adoption of web presence by businesses is not easy to acquire. There is an element of mistrust while conducting business online because a lot of sensitive information has to be provided for provider and end-user. Even in some developed communities, entrepreneurs are not ready to use the technologies even though there is clear evidence of profit and advancement.

Objective of this study is to identify and highlight the technological factors affecting the communication in contemporary socio-economic domain by going through informed and established studies.

References

• Hancock, Jeffrey& Thom-Santelli, Jennifer & Ritchie, Thompson. (2004). Deception and design: The impact of communication technology on lying behavior. Conference Proceedings on Computer Human Interaction. 6. 129-134. 10.1145/985692.985709.
• George, J. F. et al. (2018) ‘The Effects of Communication Media and Culture on Deception Detection Accuracy’, MIS Quarterly, 42(2), pp. 551-A9.
• McQuillen, Jeffrey S. “The influence of technology on the initiation of interpersonal relationships (1).” Education, vol. 123, no. 3, 2003, p. 616+. Academic One File, Accessed 31 May 2019.
• Brooksbank, R., Kirby, D., and Kane, S. (1992) ‘IT adoption and the independent retail business: The retail news agency’, International Small Business Journal, Apr-Jun, vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 53-61
• Jeanette K. van Akkeren, Angele L.M Cavaye (1999) Factors affecting entry level internet technology adoption, Journal of system and information technology, Vol. 3 issue: 2 PP.33-48