Original topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Original topic - Essay Example He uses extensive research and presents the works of eminent psychologists like Robert Krant and Vicki Lundmark and data from Universities to prove that the internet isolates a person gradually, breaking the person away from all social interactions and human bonds and capturing him in an online world, where everything may seem present but nothing is close to real. Anyone, who today depends on the internet for all forms of communication, interaction and work, may reject the claims made by the article even after statistical backups, but when you spare some thought to it, the fact gradually surfaces that, though the internet may have been a boon to humankind in ways uncountable, it carries a hidden curse with it- it cannot successfully replace human vocal communication or other forms of interactions and may be truly isolating a person from the real physical world. Stoll says that the use of internet communication retards the growth of our inter-personal communication skills.   Ã¢â‚¬Å" These electronic intermediaries dull our abilities to read each other’s gestures and facial expressions, to express our feelings, to strike up conversations with strangers, to craft stories, to tell jokes†, thus the very essence of vocal and physical communication loses in the war of â€Å"type-and-send† emotions. I feel that most of his points are valid. Internet communication can only convey words and never the feelings attached. When compared to face-to-face interactions or telephonic communication, internet surely fails as a tool to show emotions. The only forms of emotion that we may comprehend from such digital exchange of words are when â€Å"emoticons† are used, but that too, is not close to the reality. This slowly diminishes our ability to understand true emotions of people. For example there is difference between the feelings of being satisfied, happy, really happy and on-top of the world happiness, but the only emoticon that internet communicat ion uses is a smiley, which fails to shows the degree of emotion. I also agree that our ability to kick-start a conversation with a stranger is also reduced; we may think that just because we are able to speak to completely unknown people over the net, I am completely sure that, it would have been impossible to do so in-person. For example, on Facebook I have been friends with a Japanese girl and an Indian girl who were completely strangers but if I were to meet them in person, I would not have that courage to start and continue long friendly conversations. Stoll argues that â€Å"lack of close social contact† depresses a person and changes their personality. He presents the work of psychologists from Carnegie Mellon University to show that â€Å"online activity resulted in increased loneliness.† He refers to the work of another psychologist, Kimberly Young where it is seen that people who are active online for increases number of hours feel odd, shy and out-of-place w hen having a face-to-face interaction with others. I believe that this point is completely valid. People who are shy and have no communication skills may feel that the internet helps them communicate and reveal the true them but this is completely wrong to me because I think that the internet helps them create a virtual world in their mind and makes them adapt to it. These internet communicators become good at making friends and interacting online, knowing that others cannot see or feel them but in reality when these same