Technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, iPhone and Kindle are just a few examples of everyday applications, and new technologies are being developed rapidly. Have we reached a point where we cannot function without communication technologies? We employ communication technologies in many different areas because of the advantages instant conversations provide. In this essay, I will argue that it is not plausible to function without communication technologies.
Functioning is being able to maintain our present mode of living, the way we communicate, learn, earn a living, and prosper.It is not plausible to maintain each of these aspects, in their present form, without communicative technologies such as the telephone and the internet. We, as individuals in the western world, have integrated communication technologies into the way we function. We could remove telephones and the internet from our individual lives, but we would not function in the way we do presently.
In this essay, I will provide evidence as to how each aspect of the way we currently function would decrease with the removal of telephones and the internet.As communicators we would lose the ability to connect over large distances, as students we would lose a valuable information source, and as prospering employees we would decrease our efficiency, losing jobs and our standard of living. The primary use for communication technologies is simply communication. Communicating is essential to humans, being able to connect with people around us allows us to feel that we are part of something greater.
Currently communicating can be having a physical conversation, making a phone call, sending a text message or email, using instant chat, or participating on social networking sites.Only one of these does not require a communicative technology. We use the internet and the phone to feel more connected than ever before. “The internet has become the routine appliance of a large chunk of the developed world” (Wellman and Haythorthwaite 2002, 13).
To continue connecting with people, whilst removing telephones and the internet, would require engaging purely in physical conversations. This means foregoing the instant connections we have with people in distant countries, states, and towns.Reducing the number of connections we have with people is not functioning in accordance with our present mode of living, and as such, it is not plausible for us to function without communication technologies. From communicating comes learning which is primarily “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught” (Oxford Dictionaries s. v. “Learning”).
The world of learning entails copious use of the internet, even from a young age. Refraining from using the internet in urban schools or universities is possible, as libraries are still a valuable source of information.For those students in isolated areas refraining is not possible as internet is the only viable means of learning. There are huge advances being made in the realm of learning, including cloud computing. This is the idea that information and applications can be stored in cyber space instead of one computer; anybody can access them. Johnson, Levine and Smith (2009, par.
11) state that staff and students in the K-12 sector can already access virtually unlimited data storage and countless programs, with basic machines and internet access, via cloud computing.To reject the internet’s teaching potential would be to learn at a reduced level compared to how we currently function as students. To learn without the internet is not plausible, isolated children would not have a fundamental or advanced education and urban students would fall behind those that are utilising virtual information. Having an education is important in the employment industry and earning a living is paramount to functioning in today’s world.
We must be able to hold down a paying job, as money is the only means of survival. Profitability is a driving factor in the western world of capitalism.Increased efficiency is a proven way to increase profitability. Telephones and the internet are an integral part of many, if not all, workplaces as they increase efficiency via instant communication. Litan and Rivlin (2001, cited in Sanchez, Rata, Duarte and Sandulli 2006) recognised that productivity growth could be triggered by the internet. They saw the internet acting as a catalyst in relation to enhancing productivity and efficiency.
When an individual abstains from using communicative technologies within the workplace, efficiency decreases, profits fall, and most employers would not continue to employ them.Without an income to satisfy basic survival needs, people turn to the government or revert to a subsistent way of living. Living like this, is not functioning as we know it today. It is not plausible to earn a living without the use of internet and telephones as efficiency increasing communication tools.
In the economic realm, prosperity is a large goal; as Pressman (2006, 17) relates, economies grow, prosper, and increase standards of living through greater productive efficiency. We can raise living standards, primarily, through increasing disposable incomes.Money is the medium that allows us to experience joy and fulfilment, such as, culture, travelling, or indulging our children. Each of these endeavours requires money to pay the people providing them so they can earn their own living.
To prosper, and increase our standard of living as individuals we have to earn a living, it is not plausible to earn a living without telephones and the internet, and therefore it is not plausible to prosper, as we do in our present mode of living, without communication technologies. As individuals in the western world, we function as communicators, students, and prosperous employees.It is not plausible for us to go without the use of telephones and the internet because our standard of functioning would decrease. Abstaining from using communication technologies will result in diminished connections with those that we love, and a decreased level of learning in rural and urban areas.
It also means reverting to a subsistent way of life, which ensures a lower standard of living as disposable incomes cannot increase. Living without telephones and the internet, as individuals in the western world, is not plausible, as it results in living at a decreased level of functionality compared with our current way of life.
