The document discusses the undesirable effects of technology on personal communication. While technology has enabled new forms of communication, it has negatively impacted valuable in-person interactions. Face-to-face communication is more effective than electronic communication as it allows people to connect on a deeper level through body language, facial expressions, and empathy. Several studies have shown that as internet and technology use increases, time spent socializing in person decreases, and empathy and social skills among youth have declined. True emotional support and meaningful exchanges of information require in-person communication that virtual interactions cannot replace.

1. THE UNDESIRABLE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON PERSONAL
COMMUNICATION
As per the rapid development of technology, everything has changed their style and shape.
However, some changes seem very positive but on the other side, it affects many valuable and
intimacy-booster factors negatively. Keeping relationship alive with people through electronic
means is not as much effective as the real face to face interaction is, because face to face
communication will enable you to get more as compare to being engaged in wireless
communication. Thus, the upcoming discussion will reveal all the shortcomings of technologies
that affect communication pessimistically.
It's well-known that communication plays a vital role in human being society because maintaining
the relationship with family members, peers, relatives, and with all those who are close to us and
touches our lives in one way or another is indispensable. Simply if we observe people in our
community nearly half of them have access to some sort of technological means such as
Smartphone, computers, tablets, iPods, and much more types of devices to use it for stable contacts
instead of visiting and communicating closely and physically.
According to Larry Rosen, virtual communication is not commendable like real world interactions.
To see the enrichment and ubiquity of technological devices we are obliged to interact more with
virtual friends than real-world people. As addiction, communication through electronic means
takes more time than real-world communication even we know that it keep us in distance while
not perceiving each other closely and intimately, despite of this, still publics; especially younger
generations are using technological sources for communication and messages. And if we keep such
a way of communication constant it will not let us interact personally. One study, conducted by
the Kaiser Family Foundation, found people ages 8 to 18 spent more time on media than on any
other activity – at an average of 7.5 hours a day (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). It would have
been a very good thing that people had considered physically existed communication essential and
important. If they were aware that how much the real world communication is useful that may not
have been engaged as much in non-natural ways of communication as they currently are.
In 2010, a study proved that as internet use increased, time spent with family and friends decreased
while 39% of Americans spend more time socializing online than face-to-face (Brown 2013).
We may think as we are social by using electronic means for keeping relationship but according
to Sherry Turkle psychologist: not engaging in real world communication is just a sip of
communication because we cannot get comprehensive results from the virtual exchange of
information.
In virtual communications we cannot truly express our feelings and emotions as we do it in real
conversation there are some icons (emoji) that conveys our feelings in term of signs but these

2. artificial icons are equal to zero as compared to real facial expressions and emotions. In a
naturalistic field experiment, researchers found that conversations in the absence of mobile
communication technologies were rated as significantly superior compared with those in the
presence of a mobile device (Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan, 2014). People who had
conversations in the absence of mobile devices reported higher levels of empathetic concern, while
those conversing in the presence of a mobile device reported lower levels of empathy (Misra et al.,
2014). So this report clearly indicates the true effect of technology over the reduction of factual
relations.
The factors that are considerably important in the communication of an effective message are the
basic limitations of virtual communication and these are the vital things to develop communication
skill such as body language, facial expression, and eye contact. At the time that body language
conveys 93% of credibility in speech communication for instance, an individual will not send or
receive a very meaningful message to/from his/her friend electronically because he/she will
definitely use some informal and chatting language so the message may not be appropriate based
on the rules of effective communication. Hence, lacking these qualities will not enhance the
interpersonal skills of a person.
Emotional support among human beings is another essential issue that is needed in some cases
which can only be provided through natural ways of communication rather than virtual
communication because mental support needs real sympathy and it is only possible via real means
where two parties meet physically and share their concerns openly. A study done by the University
of Michigan showed that college-age people in the United States were 40% less empathetic today
than they were twenty years ago (Brown 2013).
Some popular social networks have also been created barriers to verbal communication like
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whats up and etc. And these are increasingly get recognition as an
alternative to verbal communication. Like texting, over four billion messages are sent via
Facebook daily (Eastman 2013). Most people can access it from their cell phones in addition to
any computer with internet access. An estimated 751 million people access Facebook from their
smartphones, a 54% increase from March of 2012 (Eastman 2013). These high usage rates mean
that less time is spent communicating face-to-face.
In addition, the adverse effect of technology regarding the lacking of real conversation is evidently
manifesting in job interviews. Since it very much significant that a job applicant must have strong
communication skill hence those who have wasted their time on non-natural types of interaction
could effectively chase the intended position. Because they have been spending more time on the
electronic means this is why they would not be as much successful as it is required. An article
written in 2005 reported that more and more employers are complaining about the lack of
interpersonal communication skills in job applicants and have subsequently pushed these skills to
the top of their required qualities for potential employees (Simons 2010).

3. In conclusion, as it’s said that life is like riding a bicycle so you have to keep balance to both sides
thus, maintaining this kind of stability and intimate relationship will come across typically through
personal connection and communication. At the meantime that technology affects this phenomenal
favor unconstructively. Consequently I claim that social contact with people is the basic necessity
of human beings and this is something inevitable among us. So, we reach to this conclusion that
nothing can replace the value of in-person communication, even the very best of technological
devices cannot be a substitute for interpersonal or face to face communication.
References:
1. Rideout, V., Foehr, U., & Roberts, D. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8 to
18-year-olds. Kaiser Family Foundation Study. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/8010.cfm
2. Brown, C. (2013). Are We Becoming More Socially Awkward? An Analysis of the
Relationship Between Technological Communication Use and Social Skills in College
Students.
3. Eastman, Hayley. (2013). “Communication changes with technology, social media.”
BYU: The Digital Universe. Brigham Young University. 7 Jul. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2015
4. Simons, Sean. (2010). “Technology destroys interpersonal communication.” Collegiate
Times. Collegiate Times. 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
5. Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Penguin.