The good, the bad, and the ugly
Imagine waking up in a world with no cell phones or Internet. Flashback to the early 1980s. Computers were the size of a fridge. People had to wait days, weeks, and sometimes even months for responses to calls and letters. As is the case with everything, these delays had both pros and cons. In this article, I’ll examine the ups and downs of communication, both then and now.
I interviewed four U of G students to ask them about today’s means of communication.
Marco Aramini said, “The Internet helps me quickly and efficiently gather precise information for my field, criminal justice and public policy.”
Victoria Lawson added, “Internet is helpful for getting more interpretations and details, compared to textbooks.”
Francesca Morandi-Bonner, a biomedical sciences student said, “I like the convenience and ease of CourseLink. Email, course updates, assignments, and grades are all here. But sometimes the Internet is unreliable. You have to go to multiple sources to ensure you have authentic information.”
Frida Lopez stated, “Not having word processors would be hard. My handwriting is messy and typewriters don’t have a backspace button to redo the typing.”
In terms of communicating with friends, Aramini noted, “Social media’s ability to get you a higher quantity of ‘friends’ and contacts may raise your status, but this doesn’t mean the quality of these relationships improves.”
Communications devices change rapidly, which renders previous versions obsolete. In the ’80s, Councillor James Gordon hired an agent for his band Tamarack. She agreed to work for them if they bought her a state-of-the-art typewriter. The typewriter became obsolete just three years later. “Technology changes can be very exciting and social media helps with marketing, but constant communications with everyone can also be overwhelming,” said Gordon.
As an ’80s U of G student, CFRU DJ B-Sides Mathews said that his professors required students to borrow reserved articles with a limited time to read them — sometimes only an hour. Consequently, photocopying costs soared. Now students can download required readings, easily saving time and money. Before Google, people had more difficulty sussing you out.So, when launching a children’s theatre company at age 16, I’d make cold calls to kids’ camps pitching my shows. When I got someone on the phone I’d play a recording of busy office sounds, giving the impression of an established theatre troupe with staff and an office. This helped me get theatre gigs. With today’s Internet, it would be harder to convince people that I was an established professional rather than a 16-year-old since my Facebook page or Instagram would surely have given me away.
The Internet offers ease and breadth of information sharing, but can also curb your face-to-face communications. With the anonymity of the Internet, it’s easy to disguise yourself with a fake name and photo. This enables the dark side of the Internet to emerge with things like cyberbullying, child luring, and fraud.
There are many good, bad, and even ugly sides to communications, both then and now. Since we are humans and not machines we get a lot more information through a combination of all our senses. Today’s communication devices save time, but perhaps there’s something to be said for taking more time to be here now in real life.
Instagram: @maddysmom_4u
Art by Barbara Salsberg Mathews