Introduction
Modern technology in the world today is an essential part on which every aspect of people’s life is based. It is hard to imagine that there is a direction in the world today that does not involve modern technology. In that sense, in sense it could be said that this total conversion to digital era has affected people’s personalities, and the way they communicate with each other. The most influenced category of the population could be considered the young generation, and there are various reasons that could be listed for that statement. This study presents an analysis of the impacts of the modern technology on the communication skills, personalities and social behaviors of the youth in the technological context that characterizes the network society. It argues that modern technology despite having some negative aspects; in general, they have a positive effect on the youth. This paper is an outline of the main ideas that will be thoroughly analyzed in the study.
Overview of Technology
The technological development implemented a lot of innovations that are used in almost every branch in the society. However, the technology considered in this study covers merely some directions of these innovations. Thus, the first direction is informational, which includes the following:
- Online Media – That covers all sources of media information available in the internet, such as TV, radio, journals and etc.
- Online libraries – That include the available online storage of information, that include the private libraries and libraries of educational institutions.
- Online blogs – Somewhat a mix between personal diary and informational portals.
The second direction is communicational, where it might include the following innovations:
- Mobile communications – this covers mobile phones, communicators and text messaging tools.
- Online messengers – This all the available online clients that allow quick exchange of text messages.
- E-mail – A substitution of the post services, which allows receiving the mail to electronic address.
Some innovations might include a combination of the two directions such as social networks where it could be used as a communicative tool and a personal informational resource. Other directions could into the category of entertainment where it might include communicational aspects, such as video games, and specifically online video games.
Youth as a Category
The selection of the youth as the most influenced by modern technology lies in several considerations. First, the youth, unlike the elder generation, are raised on these technologies, looking at them as life essentials by default, where as the older generation, had to adapt to these innovations, and thus their influence is weaker. In 1997, university of Tampere carried out a research on the communication cultures among the Finnish youth and later extended their research to intercultural comparisons on the domestication of modern communication technology on the youth. It emerged that youth have been devising communication paths and shortcuts of their own that which have changed their communication cultures (Eija, 2003). Researching various statistical data, it becomes obvious that the scale on which the youth is using modern technologies is enormous, in way that it could be considered as phenomenon that requires a thorough study.
Drawbacks
As with anything in life, long-term addiction and excessive misusage might result in visible changes that can be considered negative in general. The drawbacks could be related to the following issues:
- Long-term addiction on online communication could result in the rejection of live communication and accordingly the confidence and loss of the social abilities.
- The total amount of information and its availability in the internet could result in forming loss of the appreciation of the information values and accordingly forming laziness in the young generation.
- Creating profiles in social networks could result in the young generation, especially with confidence problem to hide behind these profiles and living the lives of their created alter egos.
- Shift in the values where such criteria as education, behavior are replaced by profile personalization to make a good impression on other people.
- Real physical activities are replaced with their online analogues, which can result in health problems.
- Worsening of the students’ literary writing, if getting used to the internet instant messaging slang.
Benefits
Despite, the fact that the drawbacks of the modern technology are related to communicational and social issues, the benefits can be related to these issues as well. The benefits of the modern technology on the youth can be related to the following:
- The formation of interest groups in social networks can influence young generation in a way that they can find support in any direction they choose. This can form strong attachment and responsibility that later can transform into work relations.
- The internet conditional anonymity, allow young people to express themselves more freely, by posting their blogs, creative works, and thoughts. This factor can result in awakening of talents that in earlier times would have been missed, resulting in people living with a feel of lost opportunities.
- Despite the online communication being impersonal, the world of internet that are free of boundaries allow the people to be more minded and more politically and socially active and responsible. This factor can find its proof in the analyzing the number of young voters in the last election, especially, with the wide usage of political campaigns through social networks.
Conclusion
As no innovation resulted from development can be without “side effects”, it can be seen that, mostly the drawbacks are the result of any addictive usage. Accordingly, it can be stated that modern technology, if taken with control and responsibility, can be a serious aid in developing the personality of the youth and the way they communicate with each other.
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