Impact Of Technology In Interpersonal Communication

Technology and Interpersonal Communication

How technology and social media have impacted the way we speak to each other face-to-face.

I remember the first time I was cognitively aware that it was happening. It was out at dinner at a popular downtown pub. As I took to my seat and awaited my order I scanned the restaurant and that’s when it caught my eye: a family out to eat together. Two parents and two young teens. Neither of them spoke a word to one another, nor did they look at each other. Instead, the screens on their phones lit up their face in the dimly lighted pub as they stared down their phones, tuning out the company around them. The scene was familiar and saddening. It wasn’t just the one family. It was multiple families and multiple …show more content…
To shorten the definition, interpersonal communication is an exchange of information between people. Person A sends information to Person B. However, this information is encrypted or coded. Person B sees that this information is there and that it comes from Person A, but Person B needs to provide feedback or ask questions to Person A to further decode the information. As Person B responds to Person A, the intended message becomes clearer and because Person B is providing this feedback, the information communicated is becoming more and more how Person A viewed it before it was originally sent over. There are more aspects to communicating interpersonally. Feelings can be portrayed through facial expressions and tone. Body language can can also be a factor when gauging somebody’s mood. In short, interpersonal communication is engaged communication between people. This type of communication is extremely difficult to do through text messaging or social media because it doesn’t invoke feelings or allow us to see facial expressions or hear