The Social Impact of Electronic Communication

You probably receive an average of about 5-10 emails a day, and if your anything like me you probably take a quick glance and delete them unless something catches your eye. A large majority of us are seeing these emails throughout the day on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. Without even thinking about it we’ve gone from a form of communication that was simply looked at as a cheaper free version of the postal service to an instant communication tool used for a variety of reasons ranging from personal to business, and even pleasure. So what type of impact do all these instant avenues of communication have on us? According to a recent study by CDW IT Monitor (http://www.cdwitmonitor.com/nationalMonitor_may12.php) suggests that the use of smartphones and tablets in the workplace are increasing efficiency and productivity while lowering overall costs. But if you take a moment to think about it, does it not make sense? Of course you can be much more efficient on a construction job site when you can use an app to simply track all of the deliveries and their arrival times, or use a tablet to work through design issues with other construction bosses that may not even be on the site. In virtually every job I can think of I believe I could find a beneficial use for these new forms of communication. Nathan Eddy wrote an article for eweek.com (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Tablet-Smartphone-Use-Increasing-Worker-Productivity-CDW-779688/) where he broke down the CDW IT Monitor report (previously linked above) and in his article he states that the top three most common uses for tablets in the workplace are sales, replacing printed material, and workgroup collaboration.

Smartphones and tablets may obviously affect our working lives, but what about our personal lives? Being more instantly connected has had both its benefits and downfalls to our society. Some will say that we are creating a void in our personal relationships with others and that this rift is making interaction between people harder. Yet others believe that it has allowed us to be more expressive of our true feelings, albeit in some cases a little too truthful. Whichever side of the fence you stand on in regards to the issue one thing is seemingly not going to change, and that is that it is here to stay and getting faster and more connected every day. In my opinion I feel that we as a society need to learn how to use these technologies to adapt to the new social structures that are being created daily. I firmly believe that as time goes on most of us will adapt and learn that what we say is viewed by other people and not just floating around in space like a private journal; and some will have to learn the hard way but in the end all will learn. There is another dark corner in this room that only seems to be getting darker as we advance our communication abilities, and that is the old “texting and driving” issue. Many of us grew up when cell phones where first on the rise and at the time you could make a call while driving. It was dangerous then, but then text messaging hit the scene and it became a huge issue. Texting and driving was about as dangerous as it could get on the roads because your eyes where averted while typing. I fear that because a smartphone has more options for communication such as IM and email that they are even more distractions on the road. Eric Zeman who wrote an article on InformationWeek.com (http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/smartphones-tied-to-25-of-us-car-crashes/231001237) 25% of all US car crashes are from smartphone use while driving. It could be poor education in regards to use of phones while driving that is responsible or people just never hearing about the dangers in the first place. Many smartphones now either have apps available or come with them loaded already that allow drivers to use voice recognition to send the phone commands, this allows the driver to keep their hands on the wheel at all times and eyes on the road. It may be that these are the tools that need to be brought to light in a much larger scale.


CDW Corporation (05/15/2012) http://www.cdwitmonitor.com/nationalMonitor_may12.php

Eddy, Nathan, Tablet, Smartphone Use Increasing Worker Productivity: CDW (05/16/2012) http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Tablet-Smartphone-Use-Increasing-Worker-Productivity-CDW-779688/

Zeman, Eric, Smartphones Tied to 25% of US Car Crashes (07/8/2012) http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/smartphones-tied-to-25-of-us-car-crashes/231001237