How Technology Shapes Daily Arguments

When considering the impact of technology on my daily life, I can immediately identify many ways in which I have become reliant on technology. Daily communication for many is so deeply impacted by the widespread popularity of mobile technology and instant access to information. Access to this information of course, shapes the very nature of our conversation. Simple fact checking or referencing in the past could not be done during the course of an argument or a discussion. This is where the role of mobile technology has succeeded in changing the very nature of our discourse. For my blog posts, I have chosen to focus on how access to this vast amount of information has shaped our daily interactions and communication. I often find myself in many heated debates with friends and strangers regarding many different subjects. Like most people this usually involves hot button issues such as politics or something as simple as finding out where something is located. Many of these arguments have lead to mobile fact finding through the use of search engines on smart phones. There often is a long break in an argument that consists of each of us using our phones to pull up articles or facts and figures to discredit the others point of view. Many times, this information is gathered from sources that are far from independent or unbiased. This use of technology has not only changed the pace of verbal communication, but also the content through the prevalence of such sources on the internet. But perhaps the greatest way in which this impacts daily discourse is by allowing instant access to such opinions without any critical thinking or analysis. I often notice the increased willingness of people to regurgitate this information without giving thought to the meaning or the message they project. I find this is most prevalent with those that hold a radical point of view such as conspiracy theorists or political extremists. Instant access to information and opinions through the use of a smart phone has aided and hurt public discourse, but most importantly it has shaped it into a new form.