By Melanie Dunn
Do you remember the days when the prime source of information was not a news App on your iPhone, but a bulletin on the television, radio or even an article in a newspaper?
And when you wanted to talk to someone that lived far away, you either had to ring them on the telephone or send them a letter through the mail.
In a world where technology is ever-evolving and people are relying on the media, the internet and social media for much of their day-to-day life, the idea of having to send a letter to someone for the purpose of keeping in touch may seem ludicrous to today’s youth.
The rapid explosion of social networking and microblogging websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace has resulted in an alarmingly high reliance on technology for people to see what is happening in the world around them, as well as seeing what their friends are doing.
“These days people can’t live without technology and we almost feel ‘naked’ without it,” says Curtin University Communications student Samantha Clews.
“It’s a way of keeping in contact with people as well as a way of expressing ourselves,” Ms Clews says.
Similarly, the growth in social networking has been fuelled by the transition from internet on a computer to mobile phones that are also capable of connecting to the internet.
Through this increased internet and social media activity, a new language had begun to develop between users, sometimes known as ‘text language’.
Although convenient and quick to type, this particular way of speaking may be affecting the way that people speak verbally in everyday situations and as a result, their interpersonal communication skills are said to be starting to suffer due to dependence on nonverbal interactions.
In recent years, examiners have had to clearly direct students not to use ‘text language’ in their written examination papers, which is a clear example of how large an impact non-face-to-face interaction is having on today’s youth.
So this begs the question: why have forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the products of the Apple empire (in particular) become so engaging?
“The increased user-engagement on Facebook is due to the proliferation of third-party applications; particularly ones that serve a useful function, such as travel planners or book-sharing programs,” according to Sandra Hanchard, a senior analyst with the Experian Hitwise website.
“Additional features for connecting users, such as ‘People You May Know’ has also helped increase user traction on Facebook,” she said.
So, it is popular due to the ability to keep in touch with one another and because there are applications that are actually useful for day to day activities.
We live in a society that depends on the swift communication of information in order to keep our lives rolling and today people cannot seem to live without some form of technology.
While it may be distressing to see how reliant we are becoming on technology, this cultural phenomenon can also be seen as a window of opportunity for businesses and politicians to promote themselves or a company.
“Social networking is now an essential part of peoples’ daily online routine, providing a level of engagement and reach that far exceeds most other content categories,” according to Will Hodgman, the executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region for comScore in a press release.
“Understanding how to leverage this audience successfully is both a challenge and a significant opportunity for most digital marketers today,” he said.
It is likely that many Australian politicians have accepted the challenge as an opportunity to reach the young generations and convey their message in an effort to connect with them.
Certainly former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd embraced the opportunity and started using Twitter and, although mocked on television shows such as Rove and Yes We CanBerra! for this, he continued to use the microblogging site as a way to communicate with the people.
The reliance on technology by a global audience is growing at an alarming rate as the world becomes more modern and technologies are manufactured or updated.
Apple, for example, is almost singlehandedly responsible for the introduction of portable music devices of the 21st Century, and has since then grown to become an important part of peoples’ lives, not necessarily through social networking, but through music.
The Apple iPod was a breakthrough in portable music technology and the company brought out different versions of the original design at a phenomenal rate.
It seemed that no sooner had the iPod Classic come onto the market, when they released the iPod Mini, followed by the iPod Nano, the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Touch and more recently, the introduction of the iPad.
One YouTube clip addressed the rapid release of the first few iPods (which at the time were becoming smaller in size), claiming they were all soon to be redundant due to the introduction of the iPod Invisii, an iPod that was so small that it appeared invisible.
Although somewhat satirical, it can be considered as a glimpse into the future when, not only will the original iPods be unavailable anymore, but other forms of media are wiped out in the technology boom.
In the near future, print media such as newspapers, magazines and books could be seen as redundant as these forms of media are becoming readily available for little or no fee online or on an iPad.
This change is becoming evident in schools as they are now embracing the technology boom by introducing the iPod Touch as an educational tool.
“Every Year 8 student at Warwick Senior High School has been given an iPod to use during class and school hours to research, access school-created information and download relevant applications,” the West Australian’s Jayne Rickard wrote On 27 October 2010.
The article quoted Warwick science Teacher Mark Weber as saying: “It is also about changing what we do in the classroom to embrace technology”.
It is clear that social networking and technologies are becoming fully integrated into our daily communication and this is especially evident if you happen to be sitting on a train or bus.
The odds are very high that there will be a large proportion of commuters listening to a portable music device such as an iPod, watching something on their iPhone or iPad, texting at the speed of lightning, or maybe doing a combination of the three.
Even at work, people always check their phones as soon as they get on their break and may even Tweet about how boring their day has been and how they would like to be at the beach, all in under 140 characters of course.
However, in many institutions and workplaces social networking and microblogging sites have been barred on computers.
This indicates that people are becoming so reliant on these sites that they cannot go more than a few hours without checking their accounts.
“I think that people now rely on these 'new' media too much,” says Curtin University Communications student Tom Atkins.
“If you look at Facebook, you see people disabling their accounts in order to keep from going on when they have an assignment due,” he says.
Although it appears to be having a negative impact on peoples’ daily lives, there is also the issue of convenience when it comes to social networking sites, as Mr Atkins points out.
“I reckon people are using Facebook and Twitter so much, mostly because it's a quick and easy way to get in touch with each other, especially if people are on different phone networks to you so that it's not free to text or call,” he says.
So although we have the ability to call or text someone, we still are resorting to social networking and microblogging sites to communicate with one another.
When it comes to social networking though, in all its forms, is it appropriate to be divulging so much information to an internet site that over 500 million people can access?
Although there are privacy settings that can be activated so that certain aspects of one’s profile are not visible to someone that is not a ‘friend’, “people are realising that what they put on Facebook can be seen by anyone and everyone, no matter the privacy limits they have on their page,” says Mr Atkins.
“I think that although these social networking sites are incredibly popular now, their popularity will decrease with time though they'll probably need to be given an alternative, like one that contains Skype and Facebook possibilities but has no real privacy concerns,” he says.
This is what happened to one of the ‘original’ social media websites MySpace; it died out because Facebook came along and offered more than they could.
So it seems inevitable that social media will continue to grow in both popularity and content as technology advances and the impact that this will have on us as a population is likely to be both disastrous, in terms of interpersonal skills, and revolutionary, in terms of the increased use and dependence on particular media.
So yes, the idea of sending a friend a letter just to say ‘hi’ does seem quite ludicrous to today’s youth, but it is coming to a point where we have to embrace the change and adapt to the imminent technological lifestyle that is ever-evolving and is just beyond the horizon.
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