Janice Atkin, the Reach Out Pro Teachers Network Project
Manager, talking about the ways technology has affected
communication...
Has technology really changed the way we
interact with others?
We hear a lot in the media about how young people of today can
no longer interact in face to face as the majority of their
communication happens online, but is this really true? Is the way
young people communicate and interact with each other really that
different? We also hear a lot about the cyberbullying epidemic? But
is this any different to the school yard bullying that has always
been around?
In order to answer some of these questions we need to think of
technology as both a communication setting and a communication
tool.
When we think of the "settings" where young people hang out
today they include online spaces such as Habbo Hotel (www.habbo.com.au) and MSN chat.
These online "settings" play a similar role for young people of
today as the telephone did previously.... and parents still ask the
same question of their teenagers - "what could you possibly need to
speak to them about - you've just spent 6 hours with them!" The
dynamics of the relationships are the same - there are still
"best friends", falling outs and make-ups, the main difference is
that they often happen very publicly online.
If we compare the tools of today with previous years we also see
lots of similarities. Remember back to the days when you were at
school - for some of you it will be more recently than others. When
I went through high school, in the early eighties, if we wanted to
get a message to our friends across the classroom we would write it
on a piece of paper and either pass it along the row of students to
the intended recipient or make it into a paper airplane and throw
it across the room. These days the "tool" has changed, and the
messages are sent by SMS. In the eighties, communicating if you
were ending a relationship usually happened via a handwritten note
- "You're dropped!" Similar situations are happening today - only
the "You're dropped!" message is delivered via SMS.
Situations of playground bullying were also propagated through
written notes, either as notes passed around a classroom or worse
still, written on the toilet door! There is very little difference
between this and the cyberbullying of today, it's just the toilet
door is online and is called Facebook or MySpace. The dynamics and
resulting hurt associated with the bullying are the same - there
may not be any physical harm to the victim, however, the emotional
harm is just as serious.
So my take on the technology and relationships debate is that
the dynamics of relationships have not changed significantly over
the years, only the tools and settings through which the
relationships are played out have changed.
But what do you think? Is this a too simplistic way of thinking
about it?