The Communication And Information Gaps Around The World Essay

Overall, the evolution of technology has positively bridged the communication and information gaps around the world. In our society, there are over 36 billion text messages sent each day; over 1.19 billion active Facebook users; and 320 million active Twitter users each month. It stands to reason from these usage statistics that people have been positively influenced by social media and find it beneficial. But like all things in life, it’s not just sunshine and rainbows. There is growing concern that text messaging is harming our literacy skills and that Facebook and Twitter is serving as a breeding ground for activism. There is some slight truth to the latter argument, but it’s nothing that should cause alarm. In an article titled Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters?, Dennis Baron describes these mixed opinions when he writes, “All new means of communication bring with them an irrepressible excitement as they expand literacy and open up new knowledge, but in certain quarters they also spark fear and distrust” (332). I’m sure everyone remembers the days of sitting in a classroom and writing a note to a friend with a pencil and piece of paper. If it was a girl writing the note, she would put the letters BFF (best friends forever) or LYL (love you lots) somewhere at the bottom of the page. It would then get folded like origami and either passed across the room when the teacher wasn’t looking or handed off in the hallway between classes. This was a popular method of…