Face To Face Communication Analysis

Jenna Wortham’s article, “I Had a Nice Time with You Tonight On the App,” is her response to Sherry Turkle’s argument that electronic communication is a replacement for face to face communication. Wortham argues that face to face communication is actually enhanced by electronic communication. Using herself as an example, Wortham starts by mentioning the time she and her boyfriend lived 3,000 miles apart and because of smartphone applications they felt as if they were in the same room together. She also argues that because of all the instant-messaging applications, like Facebook, and Twitter, friends and families are always connected to each other and are easily able to figure out what is going on with them. She believes this type of communication

She ends her argument with statistics from a blog posted by Ms. Friedman stating that 74 percent of couples believe the internet had a positive impact on their relationship and that 41 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds in serious relationships agree that the internet is what helped them get closer to one another. While electronic communication has its positive attributes, it doesn’t help enhance face to face communication; instead, it causes society to be more isolated (Wortham 393-397). As technology advances more people become reliant on it. First using technology allows a person to physically separate themselves from others and communicate mostly through a screen. Because of the physical separation, it’s easier for a person to either stop talking to someone without properly closing the conversation or portray themselves in any way they want. This type of reliance on technology is one of the reason why society is becoming isolated. For example,

At the end she makes the claim that it allows her to have honest conversations with others. She says, “I’ve had some of my most emotionally intimate and honest conversations with friends and romantic partners on mobile devices” (397). Because Wortham uses mainly herself as an example it makes her claims more narrow. For example, in Turkle essay Turkle shows how Aubrey typically portrays herself the way others want her to be. She says, “Aubrey tries out a “flirty” style. She receives a good response from Facebook friends, and so she ramps up the flirtatious tone. She tries out “an ironic, witty” tone in her wall posts. The response is not so good, and she retreats.” Even though there are people like Wortham, Aubrey’s example is more like the example of students who went to high school with me. Because of the ability to have a screen as a buffer many people would use that as a way make themselves appear the way others believe they should be simply because it’s easier to be someone