Email is fast becoming one of the most disruptive technologies of this century. This new technology, as well as ones similar such as Skype and instant messenger, has taken over language and the development of rhetoric adding specific terminology that is now commonplace within many communities such as the college campus. Email is changing the way we communicate with each other, not only in the business arena but in areas of personal communication as well. Email has altered the way we relate to one another with rhetoric and has changed business practices that are now simplified and made easier through the use of this new medium. Through the development of email, it has changed not only communication practices but also social norms throughout the United States within the confines of romantic as well as professional relationships.
Letters have been in use throughout history for hundreds of years and with the evolution of technologies comes the letter’s cousin: the email. Many of the characteristics that were attractive in the letter remain desirable for email as well. These included the need for people to be in constant communication with each other and the want to feel close to another human being. In the article Journalism History we see this point brought to our attention with the passage, “essentially the idea is that correspondence can make people far apart feel close physically and/or psychologically/emotionally, or remind them how far apart they are”(Journalism history). This is interesting to note that while yes, email allows people a link to their family and friends however, it does make the user painfully aware of the fact that they are not with that particular person experiencing everything they are experiencing and everything that is taking place in the other person’s life. Long distance relationships are a key example because while it may fulfill a need at the time, such as companionship, in the long run it has been my experience the couple ends up yearning for more intimate physical contact and break-up.
The existence of letters is something relatively new in the form of communication. It was near impossible to have a mass transportation system with the ability to deliver mail up until recently in 1775. The letter, which is similar to email in the way that it eliminates personal contact among people, has changed how we communicate. There is the feeling associated with sharing an email and how it allows you to become linked with that person however, we also have to examine the effects that sending this email is having subconsciously versus the holistic process of sitting down to write a letter. Logging on to your email account, you are bombarded with ads and subtle propaganda; these advertising slogans take over your home page. In the book Letters, postcards, Email, by Esther Milne this point is brought up front and center “during the course of writing an email a Gmail user might discuss plans for an overseas trip which could prompt the display of a series of advertisements concerning particular airlines” (Letters, Postcards, Email, 156). This leads us to ask the question how much of that email and in the end the trip you will be taking, is your own original thought and how much is it influenced by the media culture we are surrounded by today. In the scary sci-fi short story about a fictional community with machines controlling every aspect of their lives we see how from this overwhelming presence of technology the ability to form a thought is hampered. “When the Machine Stops” the main concern of the lack of ideas as exemplifying by Vashti “Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them resembled a prostrate man.’No ideas here,’ murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a metal blind” (When the machine stops). From this technology overload Vashti is unable to appreciate the majesty of the mountains and deems it unworthy of her. This shows the scary depiction of what could happen if we got so accustomed to the use of technology that we couldn’t form thoughts with out being connected in to some form of information highway.
From email’s presence we have developed a dependency not only on the mail system but on the information system of the Internet and email as well. If the Internet were to break down then our communities would find it to be exponentially harder to gather information and stay connected with family and friends. Email is ingrained in everyday business practices in the corporate world as well as educational communities. This reliance on email is seen throughout campuses in Greek organizations and student groups. The Internet helps the Greek system with their recruitment process and gives them publicity. Overall email helps these organizations grow and expand through new forms on communication. However, this new expansion does breed dependence on the technology and it is safe to say that if email or the Internet were to break down then many of these groups would fall into chaos and turmoil.
One of the largest advantages present in the use of these new communication technologies via the Internet is the ability to connect to more people than you would have otherwise had the privilege of getting to know or stay connected to. However, with this change in communication also comes a change in the practice and rhetoric’s involved. This is seen when people engage in online relationships and a large catalyst for this is email. There are several studies including “Getting Hyper-Personal” where this is the central theme involved in their research. The research shows that some people even claim that the visual anonymity and lack of co-presence adds to the magic of online relationships and it goes further claiming “letter writing and thus emails and text messages are an important social practice in terms of modern relationship maintenance” (Getting Hyper-Personal). This new medium is allowing relationship, romantic or otherwise, to exist and it gives a select group of individuals something that was previously missing out of their past existing relationships. While for many people this allusive element can not be pinpointed, for some what has been missing is constant attention and showing of affection that is represented in each message. On a more academic basis many in the college atmosphere find it easy to collaborate and share ideas via the Internet and it allows them access to trade and swap data when it would have otherwise been impossible.
We have seen a new type of relationship spawned through the development and the technology that has come about from email such as Skype and Facebook Chat. We see this new type of social relationship through Julian Dibbles book Play Money where we saw, in several cases, how these virtual worlds was the cause of the deterioration within several relationships, including in the end a cause of great controversy within his own. The reasoning behind this was “it was a parallel life”(Dibbel, 7). This new way of communicating allows the players of Ultima Online, a virtual game, a way of breaking off from their real lives and in a sense merging it with their new one found online and the medium they are using to interact and communicate apart from MMORPG chat room is via email. This new form of communicating and connecting was also part of the basis for the movie “Second Skin” which follows several MMORPG players and in particular a couple who happen to meet through the Internet.
In several clips we see how the couples’ relationship evolved and changed via online communication and how it impacted not only their social skills and their ability to meet a partner the natural way but also it seemed to breed volatile and complicated relationships. However these relationships may have been founded through online role playing communication this is a branch off of email and this new advance technological communication has allowed us many new mediums in which to interact.
Changes in the composition of relationship is not all that has evolved since the use of email and the Internet as a forum for communication. There is the ever-present issue of what many people feel is the deterioration of the English language through the use of electronic mediums as a way of broadcasting our thoughts. The Gutenberg Elegies is a prime example of how many fear that from the use of improved electronic telecommunications we will eventually see the down fall of eloquent language, even if such eloquent language was transmitted through the computer instead of a paper backed book. Sven Birkerts states, “Words read from a screen or written onto a screen…have a different status and affect us differently from words held immobile on the accessible space of a page” (Gutenberg Elegies, 154). Even in an interview Birkerts again voices his concerns when posed a question about the increase in writing prevalent on blogs and through email. He then responds “my intuition is that there will be much more TYPING, and much less writing and the effect of all this communicating will be the depreciate the stylistic and rhythmic qualities that are the very soul of communication”. Birkerts shows us his wary prediction of the fate of the English language and email is just the medium he is critiquing voicing how the more we communicate than the less we actually have to say. (Is cyberspace destroying society?).
Ted Kaczynski gives relatively solid advice supporting many of Birkerts’ claims. While many of their concepts are not directly related, the opposition to technology is at the core of both men’s arguments. Kaczynski uses the argument relating the creation of technology with the waning of the private self and in most cases this is true. The Internet and email are all about connecting to one another and the spreading of ideas. Nothing involved with electronic communication deals with the individual: the sole purpose is to connect to others. The development of all communications in the past has served this purpose. It has filed the void missing in sending information. Whatever the effects of this constant need to communication is will not be known though in these next few decades it can only be seen throughout hundreds and hundreds of years.
Still in the same realm discussing changes dealing with linguistics almost every college student with some way of communicating through the Internet has seen the ever present “LOL” or “BRB.” These meaningless phrases might not represent much but when they are carried out into everyday language which I have been witness to, it does though mark a change in linguistic patterns and what people deem acceptable jargon to use in a social setting. In the article Global Englishes and the sociolinguistics of spelling the researchers examine the differences in Jamaican language through blogs and email from the Creole dialect to the common English dialect. We see through increased communication with blogs how people are exposed to new language and new spellings of the same words. This shows how culture within in the Jamaican community is changed as a result of their increased involvement with the Internet and email. Email has made it so they are able to communicate within not only their dialect and people but also be affected by communities around the world. This change in the dialect of the Jamaican culture represent a shift in cultural attitudes and changes within the very structure of their speech due to the increase knowledge and increased exposure to the Internet.
It is still unclear about the effects of this new technological age will have on the spoken and written word but we cannot dismiss the assertion that this deterioration we are laying witness to is a natural cycle. When thinking about the evolution of language there is no denying we do not speak with the same eloquence that was prevalent in the seventeenth century however, we have to note that a great deal less people had the means or resources to write back then. Now so many people throughout our community have the opportunity to express themselves and their opinions, which in the end could lead to the differing level of intelligence embedded in everyone’s writing. It is unfair to assume that every person with a blogger account or any person drafting an email would put the same attention to detail that was used in drafting the great literary works of the century.
It is hard to decide in the end what the best solution or outcome is when it comes to email and the innovations that comes with these new communicated technologies. On one hand they help our communities stay connected and interact on a different level, they allow relationships to occur where they would have otherwise not and they create a medium for the easy distribution of ideas and information. However, on the other hand all of this progress can’t occur without a price, the price being the deterioration of the English language and of our dependency on technology in general. Whichever concept might carry the most weight the fact is that these technologies are here to stay and it is unlikely that we will be eliminating email and the Internet any time in the near future. Our communities have become so dependent on the use of email and other developing communication technologies that it would break down many of the organizations that rely on them today. While we should look towards the positive, we should also be wary about the effect email is having on our generation and try to make it have the least negative impact on future generations.
Citations:
Milne, Esther. Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Tonkin, Sarah. "Getting Hyper-Personal." Global Media Journal 4.1 (2010). Print.
Siff, Stephen. Journalism History 36.2 (2010): 118-19. Print.
Forster, E. M. "THE MACHINE STOPS ..." NCSA Web Archive Bounce Page. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html>.
Dibbell, Julian. Play Money, Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.
Kaczynski, Ted. "The New Civility: Union Thugs Target Ann Althouse." Big Government. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/03/17/the-new-civility-union-thugs-target-ann-althouse/>.
Hinrichs, Lars. "Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling: A Study of Jamaican Blog and Email Writing." English World Wide 32.1 (2011): 46-97. Print.
"Digital Culture - Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?" The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.htm>.
Parker, Philip M. Email Webster's Timeline History. San Diego: ICON Group International, 2009. Print.
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006. Print.
Wu, Timothy. Master Switch. [S.l.]: Atlantic (Uk), 2011. Print.
Sundqvist, Anett. "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication 26.4 (2010): 255-66. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment