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Sean Sapp
Professor Reed
Comp 1
10-01-15

Learning To Talk
Ding ding.
Blip blip blip.
Hello?
Hey.
Hello?
Can you hear me?
Hello?
Helllooo?
Hey!
Oh hey, can you hear me?
Yeah!
Communication effects our lives everyday. Our realities are shaped by the language we
speak and the words we hear and say. We convey our deepest emotions and our most mundane
daily dialogue through body language, social cues, and myriad of subtle nuances. Someones
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tone and dialect can have an enormous impact on the message they are relaying. When we tell
each other stories or discuss issues, however valuable or seemingly insignificant we perceive
them to be, we are not merely explaining our reality but also creating it to some degree.

We are like a child which has just learned to stand upright and walk. It is a great event,
but a year later he has forgotten that he could not always walk. (Bellamy Pg.#285)
Is social technology and our constant accessibility creating a tighter knit global
community or is it turning us into a collective of castaways?
According to psychologists the internet is changing the way that children learn and their
capacity to focus. All of our personal realities are altered by our surroundings to some extent.
Anytime we react to anything its questionable whether our reaction is genuine or if it is in some
way modified by our social environment. Everything comes into play, for example: our
upbringing, the music we listen to, the religion we subscribe to, people we admire, books weve
read, and a plethora of other factors can

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influence our behavior. Is our perception completely ours, or are we often mimicking what we
believe our perceptions are supposed to be based on our manipulated persuasions?
On March 7th 1876, 29 year old Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for his
revolutionary new invention -the telephone. (History.com)
Devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Tesla in
1909, though it wasnt until 1996 that the first fully portable phone was made available by
Nokia. It was able to text, e-mail, fax, and access the internet. Interesting side note: and Im not
sure if it was merely a coincidence, but Nokia sounds a lot like Nikola (Teslas first name). It was
11 years later in 2007 (only 8 years ago!) that androids and i-phones were released marking the
first time that the touch screen format we are all familiar with was made available.
As of January 2014:
90% of Americans own a cellphone
64% own smart phones
(Pew Research Center, Internet, Science, Tech.)
More people than ever before are able to stay in contact anytime, from almost anywhere.
You can reach Grandma across the country at the push of a button. Shoot a text to your friend in
Japan. Send an e-mail into space and back in five seconds. The possibilities are seemingly
endless.
This is good yeah?

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Though some would argue that we are missing out on a great deal of face to face
interaction due to our preoccupation with various other forms of communication.

How many times have you missed entirely or only heard half of what someone said
because you were texting? Is dividing your attention between the person you are with and your
phone not sending a message of its own?
Anywhere you look, no matter where you are, you can probably see someone using a cell
phone. No doubt most everyone has witnessed first hand the disappointed looks on peoples faces
when the person they are with is paying more attention to their phones than they are to them.
However, there are probably just as many people who arent the least bit bothered by it. I have
seen whole families or groups of friends wired into their devices in public. Each perfectly
content in their own little worlds.
On one hand the convenience that these technological advancements in communication
have allowed us is amazing and unlike anything we have ever experienced before. On the other
hand it appears to be changing some of the fundamental patterns in our social fabric and
interpersonal relationships. Its hard to say what is next, how it will further effect our realities or
where it will lead us as a society. Though one thing is certain: communication isnt what it used
to be.

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(Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, Pg. 285 Originally published by Ticknor &
Company in January 1888. Print.)

(This Day in History, published March 7th 2014, History.com)

(Mobile Technology Fact Sheet published in May 2015 by Pew Research Center,
Internet, Science, Tech.)