The Changing Role Of Communication In The 18th Century

Throughout generations, there have been various ways of communication. From sending letters and important documents by carriers in the 18th century to a more efficient way in the 1900’s contributed by the creation of the internet. As technology improved, new modes of communication were created and the need to socialize increased. Today, social media is used by many people and for different reasons. However, it has reached a point where it has received negative criticism. Social media has clearly impacted and changed society negatively. Over the centuries, it is quite evident that the need to communicate is very important among people. With research and experiments, technology was close to improvement. For instance, the creation of the telephone

By the 1900’s, the internet was created and emailing someone became a more convenient way of communication. Marcia Clemmitt states that emailing “made up 75 percent of traffic on ARPANET, the world’s first computer network,” yet the computer network was not created with the intentions of socializing. Clemmit says that the computer network was created “to exchange data and access remote computing capability.” Technological creators noticed the interest people had in socializing through the internet. “AOL..one of the first tech companies..provide public access to the internet..home computers,” states Clemmitt. AOL allowed users to message each other through chat rooms, as well as allowing them to view who was online through a “buddy list.” The first social network site that was created was called, SixDegrees.com. Nicole Ellison expresses that social network sites are unique for the ability it has to

A couple of years ago, everyone would end their day spending time with their family, whereas in this era, we are mostly used to starting and ending our day with our technological appliances. The statistics of how many adults have been using social networks has increased dramatically. According to Pew Internet, seventy-two percent of adults were using social networking sites as of May, a clear increase of the sixty-seven percent that was concluded in 2012. When social networks had just started arising, only eight percent of adults indicated they were using social networks. Furthermore, the statistics for older adults has increased as well. Being digital immigrants does not change their ability to use social networks. Six out of ten users of ages fifty to sixty-four use social networks and forty-three percent are sixty-five and older, confirms Pew. T. S. Rao states that, as we put our complete attention towards technology, our brain adapts to it and slowly dismisses social skills, such as, reading facial expressions. Rao supports this statement by citing a Stanford University study, which found that for every hour we spend on our computers, face to face interaction with other people decreases by thirty minutes. Furthermore, the study also states that as our brain weakens with the use of technology, social interactions tend to become awkward and a person might misinterpret