doi: 10.56294/gr202442

REVIEW

Social lack of communication and technological development

La incomunicación social y el desarrollo tecnológico

María de las Nieves Veloz Montano¹ *

¹Centro Especializado en Servicios Educacionales. Municipio San Miguel del Padrón. La Habana. Cuba.

Cite as: Veloz Montano M de las N. Social lack of communication and technological development. Gamification and Augmented Reality. 2024; 2:42. https://doi.org/10.56294/gr202442

Submitted: 26-10-2023          Revised: 14-02-2024          Accepted: 19-05-2024          Published: 20-05-2024

Editor: Adrián Alejandro Vitón-Castillo

ABSTRACT

The development of today’s society imposes the challenge of incorporating information and communication technologies (ICT), which has favored the productivity and efficiency of business processes, generally leading them to have better levels of profitability. This technological development can consider the media as an instrument of collective socialization, however, the process of digital virtualization is causing a fracture between the real and virtual world, a model of coexistence typical of globalized societies, characterized by extreme individualization and the virtualization of the communicative experience, we do not face the society of lack of communication, considering it as a process that prevents a fluid and healthy two-way interpersonal relationship. The article raises the hypothesis that we live in the century of individualization, of the loss of human relationships, caused by the spell caused by new technologies and that promotes detachment between people and the excessive preference for virtual communication.

Keywords: Social Lack of Communication; Technological Development; Digital Virtualization.

RESUMEN

El desarrollo de la sociedad actual impone el reto de la incorporación de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) que ha favorecido la productividad y eficiencia de los procesos empresariales generalmente llevándolos a tener mejores niveles de rentabilidad. Este desarrollo tecnológico puede considerar los medios de comunicación como instrumento de socialización colectiva, sin embargo, el proceso de virtualización digital está provocando una   fractura entre el mundo real y el virtual, un modelo de convivencia propio de sociedades globalizadas, caracterizado por la extrema individualización y la virtualización de la experiencia comunicativa, no enfrentamos a la sociedad de la incomunicación, considerándolo como un proceso que impide una relación interpersonal bidireccional fluida y sana. El artículo plantea la hipótesis que a vivimos en el siglo de la individualización, de la pérdida de las relaciones humanas, ocasionadas por el hechizo que provocan las nuevas tecnologías y que promueve el desapego entre las personas y la preferencia desmedida por la comunicación virtual.

Palabras clave: Incomunicación Social; Desarrollo Tecnológico; Virtualización Digital.

INTRODUCTION

Technological development and the new social conditions prevailing in an increasingly globalized world impose communicative practices that have contributed to the development of society; at the same time, it has its dark side that, in recent years, has reached worrying levels because it favours the lack of communication between human beings.

The valuation of communication as an act of transmitting signs, words, and messages fetishizes social relations and the instrumental reason in communication, dilutes the distinction between the means and the end, and alienates a relationship to appreciate it as an articulation between things.

The social nature of individuals, interdependence, and social conditionality makes communication an intrinsic quality for people to integrate into communities. The conception of communication as the transmission of words or messages reduces the richness and complexity of social relations to the signs used in the communicative interrelation.

The rigidity and standardization of signs or words’ literal or semantic meaning are not imposed on communication between subjects engaged in specific relationships, near or far, in real or virtual time. It is the relationships that give meaning and significance to the signs. Therefore, identical words refer to different contents among the actors of the communicative relationships and can have contradictory meanings in different contexts.

Communication supposes the existence of a particular socialization between interacting subjects in such a way that the motivations, needs, situation and conditions of people, as well as their experiences and knowledge, are present in communication.⁽¹⁾

The peculiarities and complexity of social relations confer attributes to communication. Thus, they cannot be universal or absolute; they will be relative to the particular circumstances of the interlocutors but also to the time and space where communications occur. The communicative relations articulate the conditions of the environment, its moments and circumstances, which propitiate and condition communication.

Technology has had exponential popularization, and it is common to observe car drivers texting with their cell phones. At the same time, there is congestion or waiting at a traffic light. Similarly, people walking down the street without looking at anything other than their cell phones because it seems that nothing is more important than the note that arrives on their mobile devices is a situation of concern, and that has lacerated the verbal communication between people.⁽²⁾

It is not strange today that in any family gathering or social event, people stop talking to each other to imbibe the world of the Internet through any of the countless types of electronic equipment that the market has put in the hands of consumers. Interrelation between people has been limited to “I like” signs or a smiley face expressing fleeting emotions in response to a statement made by one of the hundreds of contacts we now have in our accounts.

Another concern is that the correct use of the language has been losing space quickly; the writing of messages in haste always seems to haunt this type of application, leaving spelling and grammar itself being left in the past. There is no longer any concern about writing with order and clarity; we assume that our receiver will fully understand what is being expressed. The worst of all is that, in most cases, they do understand it.

Social networks have indeed contributed in several ways to social interaction. However, in another sense, it has been destroying it because communication between people is becoming increasingly superficial as there is no time for reflection, only for the reaction to this or that statement, often with signs and abbreviations.

It is necessary to control the use of thousands of applications in the digital market, but since it is almost impossible to do so with the whole, at least we need to decide to lower the levels of their daily use significantly.⁽³⁾

Each mode of action is part of a community that models it through the communicative processes in particular times and spaces; in no way is it the manifestation of absolute beings without thought, history or culture; on the contrary, each communicative subject is the individual representation of his life in society. This quality gives the contents and meanings unpublished to all communication, as particular and diverse are the relationships between subjects in each environment and time.

The communicative interaction between people assumes a common life and culture in a shared context. The social communication framework is important for interpreting its contents because the subjects of communicative interaction do not do so in a social vacuum; social time-space is implicit in all communication.

Understanding symbols, signs, or messages requires knowledge of the context, which is neither anarchic, arbitrary nor necessarily identical to the interlocutors. Communication is impregnated with implicitness, spirit, symbols, community atmosphere, culture, and time. Communication expresses the sense of belonging and representation of totality but does not replace it.⁽⁴⁾

The communication created by people integrated in determined social spheres is not a communication for all; on the contrary, it constitutes insurmountable barriers for those who do not belong to a community. The communicative frontier is more powerful than the walls that separate peoples. Walls often need to be stronger in the face of communication barriers, which can separate people, nations and societies in common spaces through the misuse of technological advances.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are all those tools and programs that process, manage, transmit and share information through technological support. They range from classic technologies such as radio and television to new ones centred on the Internet. Within the latter can be included a wide variety, the most used among young people are the computer, cell phone, tablet, game console and television, with all the web of options offered by the Internet, with special focus on the whole world of online social networks. All these new technologies positively affect adolescents, but it should be borne in mind that they can also pose great risks to their health, especially in the new generations.⁽⁵⁾

New technologies, especially the Internet, have revolutionized the world of information, and adolescents have known how to take advantage of all their benefits. Some of the advantages of new technologies for young people are:

They improve communication. Thanks to new technologies, it is possible to continuously and permanently communicate with people from anywhere in the world at any time. In other words, geographical barriers to communication have been reduced, almost eliminated.

They facilitate the socialization process. Teenagers use social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, as well as chat applications such as WhatsApp chats and Messenger. Through these new technologies, young people feel integrated into a social group with which they can share their hobbies and concerns. In addition, the possible anonymity and the absence of eye contact make them express themselves and talk about topics that in a “face-to-face” conversation would be tremendously complex for them.

Easy access to information. New technologies have made it possible to access all types of information content much simpler and faster, without the need to travel and obtain any information at the moment. In addition, they help solve everyday problems related to coexistence, day-to-day experiences, etc., and obtain information for their studies.

New ways of learning. New technologies make it easier for young people to access training through courses, workshops, conferences, and webinars (classes and seminars transmitted live online in which they can participate) without the obligation to attend them in person. It is a type of training that can greatly enrich knowledge and enhance the development of mental skills.

Leisure and entertainment. New technologies allow access to multiple leisure and entertainment resources such as blogs, online newspapers or magazines, games, movies, series, music, live concerts, etc. New forms of leisure also enhance multiple psychosocial skills.

Adolescents are a particularly vulnerable population group in being able to develop risk behaviours related to the Internet and new technologies, being at an age characterized by difficulties in measuring risks, the false sense of invulnerability, the need to socialize and the need for privacy, so the use of technologies also represent for their disadvantages, some of them are:

The problems associated with new technologies that most frequently affect young people are their excessive use and personal safety problems, which overshadow the many advantages of new technologies and turn them into tools that can cause serious harm to adolescents.⁽⁶⁾ The most frequent problems are listed below.

Interference with other activities: study, exercise, sports, leisure, sociability... Excessive use of new technologies generates multiple distractions that shift attention from important day-to-day activities to excessive use of these technologies, to the detriment of other important activities such as study, exercise, cultural leisure, and even socializing more in person with friends. In addition, the need to plan a schedule that helps to perform all the necessary tasks favours the idea that new technologies interfere even more.

Lack of privacy and misuse of personal data. Teenagers often use new technologies without taking the necessary security precautions, so young people and children put their privacy at risk and may be leaving sensitive personal information completely unprotected.

Excess of available information. The large amount of information available through new technologies poses a risk regarding the time invested in finding specific information, both in locating and filtering it, taking time away from other, more important daily activities.

Inappropriate information. This same excess of information makes it easier for adolescents to find inappropriate, unreliable and unverified information through new technologies, which can influence their perception of the world and their behaviour. The Internet has much information concerning violence, racism, radical movements, gender violence, homophobia, sexual practices...

Social isolation and delay in the development of social skills. Adolescents’ continued use of new technologies can generate social isolation when they stop carrying out activities with the social groups to which they belong, and with this, social skills, essential for many areas, can be affected.

New avenues for bullying. One of the biggest problems caused by the Internet is the creation of new ways of harassment, facilitating anonymity and fake profiles. In the online environment is called cyberbullying is harassment carried out using new technologies; it is about subjecting the person harassed through humiliation and blackmail, as well as threats, through the use or dissemination of information, photography or private or personal videos through social networks, applications such as Whatsapp, etc. Cyberbullying, or online bullying, is something that is alarmingly proliferating among young people.

Another new and very worrying form of online harassment is grooming, a series of deliberate behaviours and actions carried out by an adult to gain the friendship of a minor by connecting with him emotionally and trying to lower his inhibitions in order to abuse him sexually.

It favours sedentary lifestyles and overweight. On many occasions, new technologies restrict the space for games and leisure activities to the use of electronic devices, with hardly any mobility, which favours a sedentary lifestyle, and thus, overweight in adolescents. 

Difficulties in falling asleep. There is a direct relationship between the quality and hygiene of sleep and the misuse of new technologies. Vamping has recently been established to define the use of new technologies until the wee hours of the morning before going to sleep, which is also on the rise in the younger population. The scientific explanation behind this phenomenon is that in the retina of our eyes, there are cells that receive bright light during the day and send messages to the brain, indicating that it is time to be awake. The brain thus slows down the release of the sleep hormone until nighttime, when it starts generating it again. However, the eyes, like electronic devices, receive direct light at night. In that case, the brain will not be able to perceive the difference between day and night, which can cause sleep disorders such as insomnia or nightmares.

Addiction to new technologies. Some adolescents use new technologies for a long period not only for the search for gratification, considering the use of new technologies a pleasurable activity, but also to reduce the level of anxiety caused by not using them. In other words, they have reached the point where they have become addicted to new technologies, and if they do not use them, they suffer great anxiety. 

Several studies have shown that excessive exposure to social networks and electronic devices has been associated with a series of negative psychological effects on people, especially young people. One of the biggest problems is increased anxiety and stress related to the use of technology. The pressure to maintain a perfect online presence and constant comparison with others can lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem among young people, especially when idealizing their peers’ lives on social networks.⁽⁷⁾

For all people, excessive use of social networks can contribute to social isolation and emotional disconnection. Although one may have hundreds of online friends, one may experience a sense of loneliness and alienation in the real world. Dependence on online validation can also hinder the development of meaningful and satisfying interpersonal relationships outside the digital environment.

Another important psychological effect is the impact on sleep health. Exposure to blue light emitted from electronic device screens can disrupt circadian rhythms and hinder quality sleep, negatively affecting mental health and cognitive functioning. Lack of adequate sleep has also been associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.

In this article, we have explored technology’s complex and multifaceted impact on socialization and its consequences for miscommunication between people. We have reviewed related aspects, from the benefits of global connectivity and access to information to the risks associated with overexposure and dependence, and have analyzed how technology has transformed how people relate to each other and develop social relationships.

Undoubtedly, promoting responsible and relational use of technology to avoid isolation among people plays a crucial role today, being a global concern while recognizing the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital era.

CONCLUSION

Deregulation in the use of ICTs favours the lack of communication between subjects, organizations or societies, destroying communicative interaction and liquidating democracy, citizenship, sovereignty and organicity between people, peoples and cultures.

The main component for adequate technological progress and the eradication of the lack of communication between people is the logical rationing of the use of new information and communication technologies applied to healthy educational environments and enhancers of active, fluid, intelligent and coherent communication between people, peoples and society in general.

REFERENCES

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8. Ukwetang, J., Nja, C., Eneyo, E., Ambe, B., y Anthony, B. Usage of information communication technology (ICT) and academic performance of students in tourism in selected secondary schools in Calabar Municipality in Cross River State. European Journal of Social Sciences, 62(3), 79-88. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/BenjaminAmbe/publication/353755997_Usage_of_Information_Communication_Technology_ICT_and_Academic_Performance_of_Students_in_Tourism_in_Selected_Secondary_Schools_in_Calabar_Municipality_in_Cross_River_State_Nigeria/

FINANCING

The author did not receive funding for the development of this research.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

AUTHORSHIP CONTRIBUTION

Conceptualization: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Data curation: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Formal analysis: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Acquisition of funds: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Research: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Methodology: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Project administration: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Resources: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Software: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Supervision: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Validation: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Visualization: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Writing - original draft: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.

Writing - proofreading and editing: María de las Nieves Veloz Montano.