Cyber Communication: Progress or Problem?

The internet looks much like the fiber optic effects inside this ball: a swirling twisting, intersecting mass of information.

This intriguing question has no one answer. Some say that cyber communication is the best thing ever, while others think computers are out to get us. When formulating our opinion, it is best to consider all of the facts. What’s good?  What’s bad?  It can be hard to tell.

With the invention of email in 1965, we began to be able to communicate across networks and across the world in seconds. Since then, the advent of instant messaging and social networking websites including Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter has revolutionized the way we communicate. When we used to pick up the phone, now we compose an email. Now when we need to ask a friend a question, all we have to do is open our IM client. Communicating has become amazingly quick and simple. The question is: are we moving too fast?

Datamonitor conducted a survey about communication in the workplace. The research surveyed 390 IT managers and 524 enterprise users from around the world. The results show how communication is evolving, that email has taken the workplace by storm. One hundred percent of workers surveyed by Datamonitor used email.

Landline telephones were second to email with 80 percent of workers using them, after which came mobile phones at 76 percent and instant messaging at about 66 percent. The survey also found that email enhances productivity. For example, memos can now be delivered to everyone, instantly, thus speeding up the exchange of information, and in turn, improving productivity. Instant messaging was found to hinder productivity as it often became a distraction if not properly managed.

Technology is a big part of our everyday lives. Adults and teens have become dependent on their cell phones. The need for mobile communications is not just for emergencies anymore, but for keeping in touch with friends and coworkers. 47 percent of teens say that their social life would end without a cell phone, according to a Harris Interactive study. More and more people are texting rather than calling or meeting someone in person. SMS, or text messaging, is the leading mode of communication for today’s teens.

Personally, I love to communicate through the internet. It’s easy and quick. Instead of taking the time required to schedule a meeting with someone and waiting to see them in person, I can just fire up a video chat with them right away. A whole world of opportunities is always available on the internet.

But with all of this openness and sharing comes a danger. We have to be careful what we share on the internet.  We’re putting our lives online for everyone to see. On Twitter and Facebook, many of us post our every move online– where we’re going, when we’ll be there, and for how long. An even more alarming fact is that Twitter has released a feature allowing you to put your exact location in your Tweet. Facebook has a similar feature in the works. Think about it:  Do you really need everyone to know exactly where you are at any given time?  Could too much information be a bad thing?

What if you came home after a concert to find your house robbed? Keri McMullen of Indiana had just that happen to her. She updated her Facebook status to say that she was going out to a concert, only to find that her house had been robbed 45 minutes after the show started.

The thing about putting your life online is that once you click Submit, any information you post is out there. Even if you delete it, it’s still out there, cached somewhere. Digital permanence, as it’s called, is something that many internet users cannot seem to wrap themselves around. If you post a picture you’d rather not have taken, but then delete it, odds are its stored somewhere in the world. That somewhere is something colleges and employers are great at finding.

Cyber bullying originated solely because of cyber communication. i-Safe Incorporated reports that 42% of kids have been bullied while online, and 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once. Once anyone joins a social networking site, information becomes public. There really is no way to fully protect oneself.

Another possible problem in the cyber world is Google. Google is a major part of our everyday lives. Google is still the only company with a name synonymous with searching. Most people say to Google something, no one says to Bing or Yahoo it. Google is a part of our modern culture. In fact, we can do just about all of our internet activities on Google–email, word processing, dictionaries, translators, and website hosting are just a few of the services many of us trust with Google. Google also owns YouTube, the number one video sharing platform on the web. Google tracks you everywhere you go on the internet. Every search, every link click is logged on their servers.

Google has even entered into the telecommunications business with its Google Voice service and its recently announced Google Fiber Optic networks. It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing Google. It even has its hands on your medical records.

Now we reach the pivotal question. Is cyber communication part of internet progress, or are we progressing so fast and so recklessly that it’s become a bigger problem?  Today’s cyber communication is a progress, a step in the right direction. The truth is, the internet is here to stay and we can’t go back. The internet has brought a world of information and instant communication to our fingertips. As a relatively new technology, the internet has its problems, but as we learn to use this technology more effectively we can begin to combat its current drawbacks.

As Bill Gates said: “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” He’s right. The Internet is our future, and we all need to embrace it.

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