Term Paper on "Communication Technologies"

Term Paper 8 pages (2449 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Communication Technologies

Rapid advancements in the field of Information Technologies have completely shaped the way we communicate and interact with the people in our society, social circle, workplace, and the outside world (Ruff). Through a variety of modern communication mediums, we are largely exposed to what is happening in our external environment (Picot, Reichwald, & Wigand,73). The super-fast internet, social media networking sites, blogs, television channels, radio, cell phones, and newspapers are the top communication channels widely used around the world (Costigan & Perry, 319). These channels make a huge flow of information 24 hours a day; keeping everyone highly open to the comings and goings in the world. The flow of information that comes from a variety of communication channels is considered to have some negative influences on the modern society (Neuron Global). This paper presents a set of opposing and supporting arguments on the negative impacts of communication channels in a critical manner.

Succinct Thesis Statement:

"A variety of modern communication channels are there to acquaint us with updated and across-the-board information on the events and activities around us. Is it useful for us to have such a huge flow of information throughout the day and from a variety of sources, or does it create disturbance and forgetfulness as we are unable to absorb all what we read or listen?"

Communication Technologies and Information Overload:

Information Technology:

Information Technology has made rapid growth in the 21st Century by introducing astonishing electronic devices and modernizing the traditional communication channels. With these communication channels, modern society is exposed to an extensive information stream; often referred to as information overload (Neuron Global). A number of researches have been done to look at the influences of information overload on the contemporary society. A large group of researchers believe that modern communication channels have made our life so easy by keeping us up-to-date with what is happening around us so that everything can be planned in a well-organized and timely manner (Costigan & Perry, 320).

Relevance and Importance of Information:

Converse to the beliefs of this group, some researches argue that most of the information which modern communication channels convey to the general public is hardly useful for them at that point in time (Ruff). It means these channels are conveying information that may be of interest for one party but useless for all other parties or members in the society (Picot, Reichwald, & Wigand, 74). Information overload also creates frustration and disturbance as people find it harder to figure out what is important for them and what is not. It is because extensive information streaming from a number of sources makes it quite difficult to understand things quickly and store them in mind (Neuron Global). Information overload is more or less caused by all the communication mediums of the present times including internet, television channels, radio, cell phones, newspapers, etc. However, they equally impact the human minds physically and psychologically (Ruff).

The impacts of information overload through Internet:

Internet is considered as the fastest and the most reliable medium of communication due to its super-fast speed, data transferring ability, 24-hour access, and presence all over the Globe. People who use internet to stay connected with their friends and coworkers are exposed to numerous business promotional aids, news, and current affairs of their country and the rest of the world. For example, when people connect through social media networking sites, they see a plenty of extra information on their connection sites. This information may be of some business concern doing online marketing of its products or services; a news channel addressing the website visitors to connect to its homepage and get updated with the latest news from all over the world, etc. (Costigan & Perry, 317). These are some common examples of how internet users are made to read and know about the events and activities of the individuals, corporations, and nations of the whole world. It is generally observed that a considerable portion on internet websites is covered up with the stuff that is totally useless for 95 to 99% population.

E-mailing:

Email is the fastest mode of communication on the internet. But it also has some negative influences on the contemporary society; both in social life and workplace. First of all, employees in an organization have to read and send a lot of emails on daily basis to the stakeholders of the organization. Information overload happens when they have to deal with lengthy reports, complex diagrams, graphs, tables, and other information material in the form of attachments with their emails. People who communicate with their coworkers and friends through emails also find junk and spam emails in their inbox. These types of junk emails create disturbance in the normal course of communication and work (Neuron Global).

Online Trading:

Similarly, online trade has become quite common since the evolution of Globalization to all the corners of the world. Now customers can explore the web and find out the latest offerings of top quality brands. This is a healthy sign for both the customers as well as the business organizations. But it also entails the phenomenon called information overload. When people search over the internet for their favorite brand, they have to pass through various stages to reach particular product of that brand. This thing also creates annoyance when they are unable to find the required product but get exposed to irrelevant commercial aids.

Negative impacts of information overload at workplace:

Employees at workplace also experience an information overload in their professional life. In their day-to-day tasks, employees have to manage a huge amount of data from various sources. At the same time, they have to keep themselves updated with the company's financial figures, industry trends, competitors' strategies, customer data, and the like (Tsai,108). Although it is a part of their job responsibilities; but too much information takes them into depression. Information overload also brings some negative impacts on employees' productivity. Due to heavy workload at the workplace and a continuous flow of information from various sources, employees become less productive and suffer from work-related stress (Eppler, 2).

Decision Making by Managers:

The decision making abilities of managers and supervisors are also affected by information overload. For instance, when managers have to decide between two alternatives, it is quite easy to choose one of them. Conversely, if they come to know that there are so many alternatives available, they will definitely have to make an analysis of the best among all. This thing is mostly observed when they have to choose a vendor for the supplies of their business (Eppler, 1).

Decision making further gets difficult when managers get the abovementioned information from different sources like internet, employees, word-of-mouth, business partners, investors, etc. Information overload also increases the time required to make a decision. When managers have to analyze too much information to reach a decision or conclusion, they take more time to interpret the available information and decide on it (Neuron Global).

Mistakes and Forgetfulness due to information overload:

When people are exposed to a heavy amount of information, they tend to choose some selected pieces of information from it. In this case, there are chances that they miss the important and sensitive information. The chances of mistakes also increase when they have to deal with a variety of information in a short time deadline. Information overload also causes forgetfulness as nobody can remember tons of information; especially when most of this information is quite irrelevant and useless. The risks of misrepresentation, duplication, wrong calculation, and contradictions also increase due to information overload produced by modern communication channels.

Impacts of information overload on social behavior:

Some modern researches conclude that advanced communication mediums negatively impact the social behavior of members in a society. Anxiety, depression, helplessness, stress, and drug addiction are the most common negative impacts which are caused by information overload from a number of advanced communication mediums. The behavior of people with their community members has totally changed (Eppler, 2). In the past, information was mostly obtained from friends, family members, and neighbors; but now everyone is dependent on television, internet, and phone calls. Rapidly increasing trend of mobile phone usage has also limited the eager to personally meet relatives and friends. Now every type of information is shared through phone calls and messaging (Tsai,110).

News Channels:

With the modernization of communication mediums and inter-connectivity of all the nations through satellite, people are able to stay updated with the current affairs, economic conditions, politics, and other national and international matters of all the nations in the world. News channels have played an important role in this regard. They have significantly increased in number in the last few years which also means that they have entered into a competition with each other. In combating other competitors, every news channel tries to bring as much information for the viewers as possible. This thing creates an information overload for the general public as it fails to take up all the given information in… READ MORE

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