New Media: Building Walls or Breaking Barriers?

When I was in second grade, I "piloted" a very rudimentary version of America Online and swiftly became email pals with a Japanese student. Whenever the "you've got mail" icon popped up on my desktop, I felt so elated, as no other member of my class had the ability to communicate with a student halfway across the globe. Yet this revelation and sense of wonderment that I felt almost two decades earlier has seemed to go in and out of style as time has marched on. The advent of new media has both expanded and limited my ability to communicate; a dichotomy that has manifested itself in the ways in which I interface with my family, co-workers and friends.

Similar to Hayma's experience, earlier this year when my brother moved to Mozambique for six months, Skype allowed me to stay in touch with him in a cost-effective manner. This innovation, combined with the introduction of the iPhone, further enhanced my ability to communicate with him (as I was able to download Skype right onto my phone). This development was certainly favorable, particularly since it seemed to shorten the geographic distance that separated us.

Yet the reliance on instant messaging at my current job has actually decreased both telephonic and face-to-face communication, a trend that I believe is not necessarily "for the better." The reliance on this form of communication deprives us of a level of connectedness that is lost in a world of emoticons and abbreviations. In particular, it seems that the absence of the data supplied by one’s tone of voice, a key piece of information that gets lost in translation over instant message exchanges, creates confusion. For instance, when the "Can you swing by my office?" messages pops open on my screen from my boss, I can't help but wonder if I'm in trouble, or simply needed to consult on a project.

The advent of new media has also been a double-edged sword within my circle of friends. In one way, email and social networking sites have enabled me to stay connected to a large swath of college and high school friends who now live in a variety of far-flung cities, states, countries and continents. Nevertheless, it has also made the process of "catching up" more detached and less personal, as updated Facebook status messages or mass texts seem to be the preferred way of relaying news. Building on this, a new gauge of how close you are to a particular friend may be ascertained by paying attention to which mode of "new media" is used to share a new piece of information. For example, if you found out that someone was engaged via Facebook, versus a text message versus an email versus a phone call, each type of communication represents a very different level of intimacy—and in this case, the most old fashioned means of communication- the phone call -reigns supreme.

The recent Hollywood blockbuster, "He's Just Not That Into You," satirizes this technological evolution as seen in the following clip: He's Just Not That Into You: It's Not Just Texting

In short, while new media has ripped down geographic barriers, it has also built up new ones around us, something that we must evaluate before deciding which medium of communication is preferable for the desired message.