How has technology reduced and/or increased social interaction?

As our population continues to increase, so does our technology. We are all the same. We are all affected by change. The success or failures of technological developments were - and are - often not expected. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth's personal physician, Dr. William Gilbert invented the electroscope which detected electromagnetic energy in the body. Dr. William Gilbert coined the word electricity. There were many after him that had their hands in the development of electricity as well, but he created the word. Then the interest in wireless began and thus Samuel F. Morse in 1837 invented the telegraph. He improved on Joseph Henrys invention using wire to transmit the signals. Written codes were produced on the paper and these codes were called Morse code.
The first telegraph line was from Washington to Baltimore, spanning 40 miles and the first message sent was on May 1, 1844 where Alfred Vail sent the news that Henry Clay was nominated to the Capitol. On May 24, 1844 the message, "What hath God Wrought" was sent from the old Supreme Court chamber in the United States to his partner in Baltimore, this message officially completed and opened the line. Until 1877, all rapid long-distance communication depended on the telegraph and then in 1879 patented by Western Union the telephone switch board begins. (B. Eric Rhoads, http://www.qsl.net/n7jy/radiohst.html, 8/17/2011). From this point on many devices and technological developments were to follow.
In the 19th century new ways of communicating and new power sources began to completely change where and how people lived. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in1793 allowed seed extraction from short-staple cotton to no longer be a problem and while the southern states became more and more reliant on slaves to work their fields for cotton the northern states became more industrialized, inventing new ways of communicating, new ways of travel and they believed that every person should be free to work for themselves and to contribute to society or so that is what the history books tell us. The southern and western part of The United States were enjoying all the profits they were making from cotton while leaving behind used up land once the crops were picked. They were being blinded by the fact that their economy was based on using slave labor, the north and east were leaving them behind technologically.
All sides were content with this arrangement, but it was not to last. . . soon egos and selfishness became the order of the day. It was these egos and selfishness that were the true cause for The Civil War in The United States that resulted in the deaths of over 600,000 civilians. There is nothing civil about war and obviously if each side was fighting with each other than no one was united. (Gross, Ariela J. (2011). America Past and Present, 277-279) Business men and government wanted to move half of the population out of the agriculture era into the industrial revolution, and so the people were forced into an unnecessary war against one another, resulting in massive civilian deaths of people from all sides and races. Today the effects of the civil war are still felt to a certain degree and has been weaponized to continuously keep strife between African American and European American citizens. I fear beyond full permanent repair.
Moving forward, the next big communication invention was the radio. The actual inventor of the radio had to be decided by a Supreme Court case in 1943. Although unknown by many, Tesla was the true Father of the radio with his patent from 1898. The radio was used for communications and sending and receiving messages during World War I and then eventually was segmented into the civilian sector and was used for family entertainment. Many families would gather around and listen to shows together on the radio beginning in the early 1920's.
(Rhoads, 2011) Initially, when the radio was introduced to the American family it brought families together and was a means of communication about events in the area, but as time went on, the radio become more than just a resource for information. The radio transformed into a device that not only broadcasted the local news, but also ushered in the age of D.J.'s (Disk Jockeys). D. J's offered the listener various choices of music entertainment.
The next amazing invention that became available to the family was the television set. For those families that could afford this new invention, the invention of the television was truly fascinating and provided a device with a screen that actually allowed the user to see other people and scenes on a screen. A family could now watch a program rather than just listen to the program on the radio. The earliest television sets available for mass distribution became available in the 1930's and only the rich could afford such a luxury, but eventually the price came down and by the 1950's the average working family could afford a television set, and now it is estimated that every household has at least two and half television sets. Unfortunately, many people depend on T.V. as their social interaction . . . especially children. Results from a study conducted by The Nielson Company in 2016 estimated that children between the ages of 2-5 watch 28 hours of T. V. every week rather than spending this time on a physical activity.
Next came, the personal computer, one of the biggest technological advances to spring our generations forward. The early 1990's saw the personal computer became a house-hold friend to the general public and it was the windows operating system along with AOL internet service that provided everyday people an easy to use communication's system without having to memorize the dot.com language. This began a whole new world for socially awkward people to start conversations with other socially awkward people resulting in meaningless relationships that often went nowhere and sometimes went too far. People would find themselves on their new computer for hours and hours losing track of time and the new era of personal computing had begun. Email became the new way to communicate. Little did we know this was a pre-curser for texting and how communication is widely done today. Symbols started to replace words and so did acronyms. Funny how what once seemed a very odd way of communication in the late 80's early 90's is now the mainstay of communication to this day. . . BRB (be right back). LOL (laugh out loud). It all makes me laugh out loud.
During the early 2000's my daughter would often ask me, "How do you already know all the words to the new songs?" I explained to her that many of the so-called new songs were really just remakes of older songs. It seems that many of today's technologies are remakes of old ideas that have just been enhanced. Some new advancements that have improved communication, especially in the work and school environment are teleconferencing. Teleconferencing has significantly reduced the need to travel as well as given many different companies or schools, even continents apart the ability to broadcast and talk with each other. Because of these enhancements and wireless technology many people that used to commute long distances to their job can now do their jobs from home on their computers. This has definitely reduced the amount of one on one or on-site communication between an employer and an employee. The employee today may only meet with their boss once or twice a month to go over what has been achieved and what needs to be accomplished.
With such social networks as Google hangouts, YouTube, and Skype, anyone with a personal computer and internet access with a camera can talk to one another and see them from virtually anywhere in the world. This technology is not just limited to our personal computers, but also can be accessed using our cellular phones such as our I-phones and Droids. These phones are called smart phones, but sometimes these smart phones are a little too smart and will change the words that are being typed, so a person may want to proof read what they have typed before they hit send. If not, a message that was supposed to read: Honey I will be home for dinner . . . could read . . . Honestly, I will be home for dinner. One word changes the whole conversation.
Many people today have thousands of face-book and twitter friends within the virtual world. Some people on face-book go as far as updating all their friends on everything they are doing such as: going to the bathroom or going into a store. Basically, some people give a play by play account of their personal life and update their status every five seconds. I suspect these people must be very bored or lonesome individuals, and this may be when a person may want to ask themselves, do people really need to know that much personal information? Maybe some people do like to read everything about their friends or maybe they don't, but the nice thing about technology is the user makes the choice whether or not to entertain or even view this information.
Texting while talking has become a normal everyday interaction. If someone is in a class or at work, the person's cell-phone should be on silent and the person most defiantly shouldn't be having a conversation with someone else on their device. . . especially since their attention is supposed to be on a customer or a teacher. Unfortunately, I fear the addiction to technology has created a generation that no longer values giving undivided attention to the person in front of them. I believe technology can increase communication between people if used correctly and does reduce the need for long distance travel to see people, but even with increased communication via the internet nothing is more real than the personal touch.
Sarah