Is the Internet the best way to talk? Who Knows?

Superior. It is a word which means that something or someone is at the top of something. Better than something. In this case, one form of communication is to be better than the others. It is at the top, nothing better. Can one pick one form of communication and say that it is better than every other form of communication? Seeing as how there are many facets to every way of communication, it is incredibly difficult to argue that one form is superior to every other kind. However, there are some that are clearly better than some others, with one to keep in mind that just might make the case that it is close to superior. First of all, the top forms of communication should be put out. It should be noted that some will be collapsed together mostly for the sake of convenience. If one were to look at all the different ways of communicating, it would take more than a page or two to analyze them. Anyway, there is verbal communication face to face, verbal communication not face to face (phone conversation), physically written communication (books, letters, notes, etc), and virtual communication (everything typed up onto a computer, television, text messages, the internet, etc). So we have all of these different ways of communication broken down into these very dense and broad categories. Which one could be best? It would be good to start that investigation by looking at communication.

To start, communications are a form of interaction between people. This includes indirect communication between the author of a book and the reader of that book, though it is, for the most part, a one sided communication from the author to the reader unless the reader somehow establishes a conversation with the writer outside of the book. Therefore, written communications are still communications between people. To extend this reasoning, a lot the information we get about the world comes from words written down in some form, virtual or physical. Most of what we say is based off of these written down words we have learned in some form. Due to the introduction of literacy and writing, we have been able to retain knowledge and build upon it at quick rates. What we learned as kids came from other people who learned it from other people, most often with the origin of the source of the information relatively unknown. There is a huge fountain of known knowledge. Drawing upon this knowledge which is passed onto others through written means, radio, or other people who heard it from somewhere, we are participating in secondary orality. A sort of indirect communication of other people’s found knowledge, communication. Since our knowledge base builds upon itself, it is nearly impossible to speak and not be participating in this secondary orality.

With all of this in mind we can start to look at which form of communication is closest to superior. It could easily be said that virtual communication is far superior to other means, even if you just use the internet and computers and compare them to everything else. They can hold massive amounts of information in small amounts of space, are easily accessible and transported, can still communicate with other people through digital means (instant messenger and e-mail), etc. However, there are significant disadvantages to this medium which start to make it look less superior. For one thing, humans are social creatures, and do best when socializing physically with other people face to face. One learns to read actions, facial expressions, body language, say the right things in the right situations, all that goes with an interaction with two people in a face to face meeting. When one is communicating via virtual means, there is simply no way to get this across, so that socialization is lost.

The other forms of communication do still provide information, but all of that information could easily come from virtual means, such as an internet database or newspaper and therefore be secondary orality. However, that orality still serves to spread information which may not spread like it does via virtual means. Surroundings can serve as motivators for conversation and set a background for conversation, as opposed to anything which might come from a computer simulation of that (chat rooms, video chat rooms, etc. There is also definite quality of authenticity which comes from being in the “real world” that one does not quite get from the virtual world.

Is virtual communication the most superior form of communication? The answer is yes in relation to being connected to people and information in the most efficient manner possible. Focusing on the different facets of the forms of communication though, each one has their own benefits to be gotten.

Citations:
1. Crowley, David, and Heyer, Paul. “Communication in History - Technology, Culture, Society.” Orality, Literacy, and Modern Media. Ed. Bowers, Karon. Person Education, Inc., 2007. 66-72.

2. Gardner, Howard. “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading.” The Washington Post 17 Feb. 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502898.html

3. Jacoby, Susan. The Dumbing of America.” The Washington Post. 17 Feb. 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html