Impact of Technology on Communication

    What are the challenges that face organizations today that use the Internet to communicate when conducting their business?  Doing business in the 21st century has changed dramatically with the widespread use of the Internet, becoming the biggest tool that an organization has for communicating with customers, employees, and suppliers (The Economist, 1999).  With more businesses now choosing to allow their employees to conduct business online there has been a communication breakdown, leading to confusion. Communication technology that uses the Internet has become the standard norm by which an organization communicates, with a growing amount of businesses using the Internet over the recent years for electronic mail, real time chat, instant messaging, file transfer protocols, and teleconferencing (Morrissey, 1998). The Internet, developed in 1981 by the department of defense and originally called ARPANET, is a transformational medium that has had an enormous impact on an organization’s ability to communicate.  However, with more and more businesses using this technology, there have been some serious drawbacks. 
    The Internet is an impersonal medium across which we communicate, limiting our ability to really see the other person's body language or hear the tone of their voice; therefore, our words must communicate what our nonverbal language and tone cannot. This gives rise to the question of how people can efficiently communicate using the written language.  Communicating on the Internet means that we are no longer doing this face to face, but instead we are communicating over the impersonal Internet. Communication affects every aspect of an organization’s daily business.
    The Internet is a world that has emerged during the last half of the 20th century.  It has been considered one of the most important inventions and its impact is just now starting to be measured and understood.  Communication using the Internet has become more attractive to an ever increasing amount of organizations due to the rapid growth of this medium.  Various technologies, from communication programs, such as electronic mail, to more advanced programs, such as Internet based inter-organizational systems, are now in wide use by many organizations to meet their needs.  Unfortunately, with the rise of the Internet there has been a breakdown in human interaction and communication, impacting organizations of all types and sizes.  With most businesses now communicating in the global economy, the difference in languages and individual linguistic abilities have resulted in a barrier that prevents people from understanding the message.  Miscommunication due to a lack of understanding has become a major problem, the result of the development of jargon, internet acronyms, and slang in the way we talk over the Internet.
    The Internet is a convergence of interconnected computers whose impact on the communication by organizations has been enormous.  Organizations are now able to conduct their business with customers and suppliers in a more streamlined and efficient manner. This has led to many businesses having a website which allows people to conduct business online (Kedem, 1999).  But, unfortunately, this evolution in the way we communicate over the Internet has also come with risks for organizations; most have been caught completely off-guard as new internet-based models have been introduced. The Internet as it relates to the communication point of view has seen the rise of new developments and techniques that allow businesses to stay in touch.
    The one constant that we know is that the Internet is constantly changing and evolving. Advances in communication software and technology, coupled with the demand by organizations to communicate over the Internet, and has created a new type of environment in which organizations communicate in today's world. The best way in relieving the problematic situations that can lead to a major breakdown in communication is the organization developing a training program designed to address the issues of improving communication competence and proper use of netiquette.  In developing a successful working solution that would ensure proper communication across global business boundaries, several variables must be addressed first.  The differences between the sender and receiver in regards to attitudes, information levels, communication skills, social systems, and sensory channels; the attitudes of both, defined as one’s generalized tendency to feel one way or another about something; and  finally, the knowledge level of both, how knowledgeable we are and how confident we are in our knowledge.  A plan of action first taking into account these variables then developing an effective knowledge base for communicating in the business environment is the best way to handle the issue of communication using technology.
 
References
Kedem, Carmella (1999).  The Social Impact of the Internet on Our Society.  Retrieved on July 24, 2009 from http://www.math.umd.edu/~bnk/CAR/project.htm
Morrissey, Charles (1998).  The Impact of the Internet on Management Education:  What the Research Shows.  retrieved on July 24, 2009 from http://technologysource.org/article/impact_of_the_internet_on_management_educati...
The Net Imperative (1999).  Retrieved from The Net Economist on July 24, 2009 from http://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel/economistnetbusiness.htm