Due to advancement in technology, some people believe that we are more sociable because people are more connected via social media and there are more ways to help people initiate conversations. However, some are against this idea and think that technology makes us less sociable as people spend more time on the technology instead of socializing, and prefer distant relationships over in-person relationships. Both perspectives will be discussed and the author’s opinion will be provided in this essay.
Thanks to internet, nowadays, people are more engaged as it allows us to communicate with each other using social media. This links us together regardless of our locations, as a result, long distance relationships are more successfully maintained. For example, international students could keep in touch with their partners and families via social media such as Facebook or Line, these platforms provides simple voice call and also video call, offering a excellent experience for users. Additionally, social media also invent creative features to help us initiate conversations. These features are, for instance, photo likes on Facebook and story replies on Instagram. This is due to the fact that people tend to start conversions with the others who interact with their posts.
On the other hand, modern technology also has its downsides. When people spend more time on technology, apart from social media, they unavoidably spend less time on socializing. Considering an online video platforms, YouTube as an example, socializing time of its users is reduced to be spent on the platform. Moreover, using more technology might mean being less sociable, as people might care more about what happening on their smartphones and ignore communicating with people around them. For example, a group of friends having lunch in a restaurant might individually surfing the internet without having any interactions with each other.
In conclusion, utilizing modern technology, such as social media, could assisting us on maintaining long-distance relationships and initiating conversations. However, it also makes us less care about relationships and prefer online interactions over in-person ones. In my opinion, overall, modern technology increases connectivity, given that users must also pay attentions to their in-person interactions as well.