Face to face vs. ‘screen to sreen’ communication

The growing trend of using the computer as the main means of communication is putting face to face contact under threat. While it is true that the computer has improved communication to a great extent, it is also a fact that the indiscriminate use of this technological device as a means of communication can have some negative effects.

To begin with, the fact that nowadays people can contact each other while lying onto bed, wearing their pyjamas is making social meeting less and less frequent. To my mind, this is absolutely unacceptable. Communicating with our friends and relatives through the screen will never be as powerful as face-to-face contact, no matter the many technological devices to come. Face to face contact has the power of communicating not only words, but feelings, emotions, sensations. If we replace personal interaction with screen-to-screen communication to a full extent, we will lose the capacity of perceiving others’ feelings in the long-run, which will turn us into impersonal and cold beings.

Another risk of abandoning social meeting altogether is that people will end up meeting new people only via the Internet. At first sight you may think there’s nothing dangerous about it, but on second thoughts you will surely agree it’s a highly risky behaviour. Users of the internet have no guarantee whether the person behind the screen is good-natured or a murder. The potential danger is even more credible if you consider the number of teens that have been kidnapped after having met with the person they ‘got to know’ chatting.

However, despite these potential hazards of communicating exclusively via the internet, there are still people who believe, and even hope, computers can replace face-to-face contact to a full extent. Yet, to my mind they should reflect on the adverse effects that abandoning personal contact could bring about.

To sum up, I believe we should become aware of the importance of face-to-face communication among humans. Although communication via the internet is an invaluable source we can take advantage of, I do think regular social meetings should be kept and prioritized.