Level: Advanced
Aim: To present and practice the basic organisation pattern and the components of an informative essay from an advantage and disadvantage analysis perspective.
A. Discuss the questions below.
1. Do you think online communication is an effective way of making contact with people?
2. What kind of tools do you use mostly for digital telecommunication?
B. Read the essay and analyse the expressions.
ONLINE COMMUNICATION
From emails to instant messaging to social networking, today’s society has a larger variety of methods of communication than ever before. One of these methods is using online communication and nowadays there are a lot of disputes about it. Some people believe that it brings huge amount of benefits and partly they are right. On the other hand, others think that society is destroyed by this virtual world of communication online. Despite having numerous advantageous sides, disadvantages of online communication outweigh the benefits.
It goes without saying that there exist various advantages of online communication. First of all, online communication provides immediacy – there is no delay between when you press enter with an instant messaging program, and when your text appears to your correspondent. This is also carried through using online communication for video chatting and voice chatting through VoIP networks. Furthermore, online communication gives us freedom. We can choose whom we would like to communicate with and what we would like to chat about. For instance, we can meet people we have common interests with. It is a great way of exchanging experiences and asking people their opinions about anything we would like to know. Yet if we do not like the format of the conversation, topic of the discussion or something else, we can easily finish such undesirable conversation.
Although there are some advantages of communicating online, there are also various drawbacks. The greatest disadvantage of online communication is the fact that it provides no direct communication among people. An online friendship does not have the same contact as a physical one, such as meeting up in person, contacting over the telephone, and having a conversation as it does not allow you the physical experience and comfort of having a friend by your side. Another negative side of online communication is that it may be making it more difficult for people to communicate in the more traditional one-on-one or face-to-face manner because online communication does not allow users to see one another or speak face-to-face. The situation causes lack of personal interaction and it may result in loss of social skills. One’s way of getting along with people cannot be practiced simply through the Internet. Though the use of video chat can allow users to speak face-to-face virtually, chat programs and e-mails do not always allow it.
One further disadvantage of online communication is the limitations of the method of conveying the message to the correspondent. Due to non-existence of paralinguistic communication features, conversations are mostly expressed in written words – text based rather than spoken language. Text-based communication lacks vocal inflection and facial expressions that telephone and personal communication have. In face-to-face communication, however, several elements come into play to foster good communication, including non-verbal cues and tone of voice. When someone says something in a gruff tone, you’ll generally understand that he’s upset. Likewise, crossed arms or a pinched face can indicate someone is not comfortable. In online communication, you won’t have those luxuries, though. Instead, people sometimes rely on punctuation or even emoticons such as the smiley face to share moods or emotions. In spite of the fact that this is an evolving aspect of online communication, some people have no skills of using it.
To sum up, it is obvious that there are pros and cons of online communication. Although not having any restrictions in virtual life and the opportunity of being flexible and free are the major benefits, it could have some certain weak points such as developing social skills and communicating the message in an effective way. In fact, for individuals who are not good at expressing themselves through writing or who are not familiar with the use of a keyboard, online communication can be frustrating. Therefore, one needs to be aware of the negative sides of digital telecommunication to avoid possible negative impacts on personal and social life.