Some people believe that the ever increasing use of technology significantly reduces our opportunities for human interaction Other people believe that technology provides us with new and better ways to communicate and connect with one another

Modern technology has significantly changed people’s lifestyles, including vehicles and communications, when compared to a century ago. Especially, the way people communicate with each other has changed drastically. In regard to this matter, the given prompt presents two positions: one that the ever-increasing use of technology limits the opportunities for human interactions and the other that technology improves making connections and communications with others. I mostly agree with the latter for two reasons that will be stated below. However, I do concede that technological advancement may hinder genuine interaction with others.
First of all, as communication technology has enhanced, people are able to communicate with others free of time and physical restraints. For example, in the past, people had to rely on direct meetings to talk with others and share information before the invention of the telephone and the computer. People had to make a specific appointment in regard to the meeting time and place in order to communicate with one another. On the other hand, nowadays, people are able to communicate with others anytime and anywhere. Whether a friend is in a foreign country does not matter when it comes to talking face-to-face these days, and even if the friend is not able to respond to the call, one can just leave a voice or text message. These examples show that due to the technological enhancement in communication, people are able to freely communicate with one another with seldom restrictions of time and place.
Secondly, besides the freedom from chronological and physical obstacles, technological advancement has provided broader opportunities to communicate with a variety of people. For instance, people nowadays are able to utilize social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to talk and contact not only their friends but also foreign people who share similar interests. Moreover, people may communicate with their friends and strangers via online games including StarCraft and Overwatch, which increases the diversity in one’s communication. On the other hand, it was almost impossible to meet and talk with foreigners, or even strangers, since people’s scope of communication was severely limited to their hometown. Only affluent people were able to travel to foreign countries, and ordinary people were hardly able to think of traveling abroad. These examples present that technological improvement has widened the opportunity to communicate and interact with a variety of groups of people, which was inconceivable in the past.
Admittedly, the development of technology would likely impede one’s opportunity to engage in genuine interaction with others. For example, as people are able to have face-talks or messengers to communicate with others, they are less likely to engage in direct interactions and communications with their friends or acquaintances, which hampers their chance to form more intimate and interactive relationships with their peers. Moreover, even if they do often meet with their friends, they are obsessed with checking Snapchat or Facebook feed lines while in the meeting. This example presents that technological enhancement may inhibit the chance to be involved in energetic and interactive relationships with others. Even if they do have the chance to meet with friends, it is the technology that ironically disturbs the communication with one another.
In conclusion, technology provides people with novel and better ways to communicate and connect with others due to the two reasons that are discussed above. However, it should not be denied that the improvement in communication technology may hinder having genuine and dynamic interactions with others, which deteriorate the quality of communication.