Saturday, November 13, 2010

Emotional consequences of communication technology

Technological communication has such a impact on our lives. Being on email/Facebook/chat,cell phone, etc. makes one so much more available to people, with its joys and disappointments.  

I was so upset to find out this week that a friend I had made on Facebook and met in Egypt in December had died two months ago. I had not realised that he had departed as people had been tagging his photos and I thought it had been him doing the tagging. I sent him a message but he had not responded. I went to his page to check his last activity only to find condolence messages. He was gone. 

This morning on chat a friend tells me her mother has just gone.

Partner has gone overseas, but obviously did not organise RoamOn with his cell phone before he went. I never thought to check. I knew he was going to use his Australian cell phone while he was there. There were no SMSs and I thought … until I realised that the silly guy had not fixed his South African cell phone.

We teach about email/Facebook/chat/cell phone technology, etc. not thinking of the emotional consequences.

No comments: