What Kinds Of Ties Do We Gain Or Lose As We Move From Traditional Or Virtual ?

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Digital versus Traditional Communication
Technology has changed the way the way that people interact and this is bound to be the trend going into the future. Traditional means of communication however, form the backbone of the communication channels. With the advent of the social media, there are new frontiers of communication that have been opened. People are able to keep in touch with their friends, acquaintances and even family across the globe. In an instant one is able to send out messages to reach out thousands of people on their networks. A simple message can be circulated in a matter of hours to reach millions of people. These are abilities that most of the traditional channels of communication would not have achieved however, this is not to say that the traditional methods are not effective. They have their limitations but there are situations that require the old channels of communication. This is also the case when it comes to the new and digital means of communication in reference to the kind of ties that they break and there are those that they gain. Gladwell and Gopnik, point out to the various elements of the two in reference to their gains and their losses. Between the new digital channels of communications and the traditional means of communication, there are losses and gains when using either and it is important to consider them going into the future.
The Old
Traditionally, communication was a much more involving process and required the commitment of the parties to interact. The commitment of the parties refers to the level of persistence the parties had to maintain communication. Sending letters ad making landline calls to even a hundred persons is a task that requires the parties’ commitment to the process for the level of efficiency to be achieved. It took more time and effort to communicate to a hundred people than it does today with the level of technology. This is unlike the case with Olivia and her mother who are experiencing setbacks with the lack of commitment from digital communication. ‘It seemed obvious that Ravioli was a romantic figure of the big exotic life that went on outside her little limited life of parks and playgrounds—drawn, in particular, from a nearly perfect, mynah-bird-like imitation of the words she hears her mother use when she talks about her day with her friends’ (Gopnik). During the 1960s in the civil rights movements, the level of communication was highly structured. This is one of the elements that is associated with traditional channels (Gladwell). There had to a hierarchy which determined the flow of the information that was shared between the members. This is a movement that was associated with high level of efficiency, from the way that they passed their information to the feedback systems. Given the sensitivity of the processes that they were involved in, they needed decisions to be made from a central rank and then dispersed for them to be followed to the latter. Martin Luther King Jr. was at the helm of the communication chain. Effective decisions had to be made and fast. The traditional approach of a hierarchy and structure was quite crucial (Gladwell). As such, the traditional channel...