Interpersonal communication today is influenced by technology and exists in a media driven world. Technology is so involved in our personal relationships that it actually mediates communication between two people. The technology that we have today such as new media has created a different media environment which has changed the context for our personal relationships. The change in context has changed the way that interpersonal communication occurs.
Today technology has made people communicate more superficially than ever before. To a certain extent, people are judged based on their social media presence causing them to work more on their image on social media rather than their in-person social skills. This hinders the ability to have meaningful encounters in real life because people tend to try to be their manifested social media image based on what they think others want them to be rather than just being themselves.
A media example of how communication is influenced in this way is displayed on the episode “Nosedive” from the Netflix series Black Mirror. In the episode, the main character Lacie goes to a car charging station to charge her rental car. Lacie has an older rental car so she goes up to the attendant in order to ask for an adapter because the new plugs do not fit her car. The attendant is not helpful, however Lacie is superficial and compliments the attendant while giving him a high rating on social media in hopes of getting a reciprocal rating. The attendant in return gives Lacie a low rating and claims that he did so because they did not have a meaningful encounter (“Nosedive.”) The attendant could tell that Lacie was not being authentic and just wanted to boost her rating on social media. Without the existence of this new technology the communication between Lacie and the attendant would not have been influenced this way.
Interpersonal communication is also influenced by technology because technology mediates communication between two people. The technology is the way that people are able to communicate, which is important because the medium provides context making the medium just as important as the message itself.
A media example of how technology influences communication as a medium can be described from the episode San Junipero of the Black Mirror series. In the episode the two main characters Kelly and Yorkie communicate through a virtual reality technology that brings them to a place called San Junipero which acts as a virtual afterlife. The two are not dead but are able to test this technology with limited time access. In one particular scene Kelly and Yorkie are having an argument and Kelly drives away and crashes her car causing her to be ejected through the front windshield. Yorkie comes over to help Kelly up, however as she was getting up Kelly disappeared from San Junipero and went back to reality because at that moment, she exceeded her time limit (“San Junipero.”) This shows how the technology of San Junipero mediates the communication between Yorkie and Kelly because they only communicate through this technology. Today this can be interpreted as a metaphor for our communication and how it is mediated by technology in our media driven world.
In the case of our communication today and the communication between Kelly and Yorkie, the communication is made possible in the first place due to the existence of the technology. In situations that communication is made possible by technology, it is also possible for the communication to be terminated instantly if one chooses not to use or is unable to use the technology. This is highlighted by how Kelly disappears instantly when her time runs out. Today it is common for interpersonal communication to happen through cell phones which allows for communication to end abruptly and a term such as ghosting can occur.
Technology also influences the way we communicate by having influence on the way we deal with conflict. According to Chapter 6 of the book Communication in the real world: An intro to Comm Studies, the author discusses avoiding as a style of conflict management. Avoiding is a way of not directly communicating about a conflict and just ignoring it (Jones.) This is not the best way to resolve a conflict because it could evolve from avoiding a certain topic with a person to avoiding a person altogether which could end a relationship. With technology today it is easy to hide behind a phone and avoid conflict. Some might feel that it is even easier to end a relationship through that technology than to confront the issue or end the relationship in person. An example of this kind of avoiding connects with the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror when Kelly goes to different time periods to avoid Yorkie and the conflict that they both want something different for their relationship.
New media has also influenced the way we communicate interpersonally. In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich claims that “we are in the middle of a new media revolution – the shift of all culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution, and communication” (Manovich). This change in culture and technology has led the creation of a different media environment. With the emergence of new media, computerized technology is a mediator for human communication.
This new media environment has led to change in social behaviors and how we communicate. From Aljazeera’s Media Theorized, Marshall McLuhan’s idea of the medium is the message can connect with my idea of how our communication is influenced by new media (Al Jazeera). Each medium provides a different context that makes the way people communicate different. For example, in Nosedive the people live in a social media driven society. The people in nosedive communicate their pleasure or displeasure of one another by giving each other ratings that affect their social standing. This relates to our media driven world because in our media environment we use our own social media to communicate with one another.
Works Cited
Jones, Richard G. Communication in the Real World: an Introduction to Communication Studies.
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. MIT Press, 2000.
“Media Theorised Reading Against the Grain.” Al Jazeera Interactives, interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/the-listening-post-media-theorised/index.html.
“Nosedive.” Black Mirror season 3, episode 1, 21 Oct. 2016. Netflix.
“San Junipero.” Black Mirror season 3, episode 4, 21 Oct. 2016. Netflix.
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