Technology helps us stay connected with others, which is especially helpful if two people live far away from each other and technology is the only way to stay connected. How does technology affects relationships? Technology helps us to stay in touch in real time without having to write long letters to each other where we wait for months to receive a response. That’s good, right? We have never been more interconnected than we are today. However, the level of interconnection has its own price especially if we don’t know how to use technology in order to communicate with others properly and correctly.
The main issue is that we don’t understand that technology can’t replace face to face communication with others. Once we start believing that technology is enough for us to stay in touch with our friends, loved ones and family members, that’s when we have a problem.
Much has been written about technology’s negative effects on one’s psychology, from addiction to isolation. Technology often becomes a drug that keeps us away from the physical and real world that we have to live in. Like any other addiction, the main cost is the quality and number of relationships that we have with others. We have every right to enjoy our communication with others on Facebook, but we have to understand there is a great difference between communication on Facebook and in real life. The problem is when we are subtly and slowly replacing real face to face communication with our online communication that we sometimes have with people we never met face to face. We may have the feeling that we are establishing an important relationship when spending our time chatting with others, but too much electronic-related communication can lead to a strong sense of social isolation.
Writing LOL will never be a substitute for hearing someone’s laugh which has the power to lift our spirits and helps us feel better when we are not feeling well.
When talking about how technology affects relationships, it’s important to remember that we can’t resolve an issue by communicating with others online. Many of us are guilty of this. Why? People are often not comfortable with face to face confrontation and they prefer to write about uncomfortable and confrontational issues rather than talk about them.
Electronic devises can’t transmit emotions like in person interactions can. Technology disables us to see other people’s reactions and we are happy to live our lives knowing that we didn’t do anything wrong when we hurt someone through communicating with them online. Technology affects relationships when we argue online, write about difficult topics and comfort others. Technology is not a good match with emotions. That’s the main reason why technology affects relationships negatively. By using technology, we can’t display empathy. Often, we find ourselves sending a message that we did not intend and that leads to more confusion.
When it comes to online communication and relationships, we should only communicate about facts. We should never write something in an email or chat that we wouldn’t say out loud to that person.
If we need to talk about something difficult, unpleasant and uncomfortable, technology is not the way to go. In person, communication is more difficult but it’s a choice that any adults must make in order to see a positive outcome and in order to personally grow. For conflicts, we choose online communication since we feel it’s easier, but in reality, it’s even worse. Technology has a great impact on our relationships, but we are the ones who decide whether that impact will be positive or negative. How we use technology determines how technology affects our relationships?