In the twentieth century a lot of changes and innovations have taken place. New technologies are invented and our environment changes. Especially communication and information technology has been changing at an increasing pace. We become more and more familiar with new technologies as they are slowly but surely replacing old-fashioned ways of communication. In professional correspondence email is making communication with business partners all over the world much easier.
This way of communication has the advantage that distance disappears as we communicate with other companies almost instantaneously all over the world, whilst we save time and costs, but it also has disadvantages such as the depersonalization of human relationships and security issues.

Emails can be sent and recieved anywhere in the world and make sent information

accessible almost everywhere. Also an email can be sent at any time, unlike making business

phone calls to a company in another country for example, where different time zones might limit

the time frame during which the business partner is available. Furthermore emails are sent

instantaneously and offer the possibility to request a delivery information for the sender and in

addition can be stored or printed out as written proof. It is the fastest was of written

communication and it helps saving a lot of time as information is being sent back and forth.


According to Geld (2003) all correspondence can be administrated on screen, replies to

business offers can be written, revised, saved, and forwarded to other parties, all without masses

of paper being involved. In fact this makes it possible to save many costs that used to incur before

the invention of this technology, such as expenses for paper, stamps, envelopes or even

phonebills. An additional advantage is that some companies can advertise more effectively by

sending the same email to many recipients without having to write or print it out many times

and put it in an envelope for each addressee. Moreover the excess use of paper is an

environmental issue as well that can easily be resolved by taking advantage of this new

technology which is free of charge.






However, as the use of communication technologies increases, mindfulness and

interpersonal skillfulness seem to decrease. “Is Communication Technology (…)” reported that

technology is a medium that helps communicating, but is not synonymous with communication.

Therefore the ability of communicating effectively with others does not increase with the

improvement of information technology. According to Baldwin and Flood (1996) no real face-to-

face conversation takes place when communicating through other mediums. All non-verbal

signals and nuances of conversation, such as facial expressions, pauses, posture or body

movement are absent in an email. In addition certain differences might remain unnoticed, as the

persons do not see each other while they communicate which can cause complications, such as

cultural misunderstandings for example.


In addition internet security is a widely known problem. Of course it concerns emails and

even some companies’ entire computer networks as well. For instance “Email Security Issues”

(n.d.) reports that any email can easily be read by co-workers or computer service departments.

Furthermore personal information, such as email address, login name and even real name is

compromised when people access websites of third parties through their email account.

In the past there have also been many cases of computer viruses being sent in an attachment via

email that caused minor and in some cases even major damages to computers or even entire

networks.


In conclusion the improvements of communication technology have a huge impact on the

communication between people by making communication easier and faster and also a lot

cheaper, especially concerning communication across countries or continents. Nevertheless the

depersonalisation of human relationships by strictly communicating over the internet has a

negative impact on the ability to interact with others and it also appears to be quite risky as

security is not always guaranteed. In fact one of the most important factors is how a

message or information is communicated to another person. Therefore improvements of

communication technology do not necessarly make people better communicators as technology

does not provide any help for that as its main task is to accelerate the information proccess and

not to improve the author’s writing skills.


References:


Baldwin, B. & Flood, T. (1996). Rhetorical Dimensions of Cyberspace. Retrieved October 14,

2004 from http://wac.colostate.edu/rhetnet/rdc/edintro.html


Email Security Issues (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2004 from
http://www.counterintrusion.com/images/Email%20Security%20Issues.htm


Geld, S. (2003). Advantages of email. Retrieved October 16, 2004, from

http://zongoo.com/article605.html



Is Information Technology Making Us More Effective Communicators? (n.d.).

Retrieved October 12, 2004 from http://www.ivysea.com/pages/ldrex_0301_02.html

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