Concerns about Digital media and opinions.

While surfing the web about digital media I came across someones comment in respond to a slideshow  this link will show you the comment http://www.slideshare.net/opentextcorp/the-impact-of-digital-media-on-society Dan prophet said on slideshow.net "We definitely have to be more aware of the impact of social media on society. I'm particularly concerned about the impact smartphones are having on conversation. Time and time again you see people playing on their smartphones when they could be talking and sharing things verbally with one another. I felt so strong about this that I wrote a piece about it at http://www.squidoo.com/smart-phones-ruin-society if you were interested." What  think he is trying to say here is that people aren't being socially interactive anymore and aren't communicating verbally anymore, because were are to busy on our cellphones. He's saying that we aren't paying enough attention to this as a society and its became a real problem. Dan prophet isn't the only person I've seen write about this or talk about this. I've heard many people especially from the older generation that our modern day society and generation has become less interactive with communication. I think it all depends on how you look at it. To me being interactive can mean either talking verbally in person or talking via Skype or texting messaging. Finding new ways to communicate to me is interactive even if it isn't face to face. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and even this site Blogger.com by Google is an interactive way to communicate. While some people don't see it that way I do. There are many ways to communicate and that's all because of the Digital media we have today. That's one of the positives about the whole thing. The fact we can communicate to almost anyone in an moments notice. However I do think talking verbally in person is important to young kids to develop social skills, and even in adults to maintain those skills. Dan prophet also posted a link about an article he wrote about digital media, it focuses more on how smartphones are effected our way of life.In this link you'll see videos and photos about Digital media and how it is used in modern day society link Here's the link again. http://www.squidoo.com/smart-phones-ruin-society

In this Article Prophet says "As the practice of using smartphones for business accelerates it will become more and more common to see employees on their smartphones travelling to work. By becoming more and more common it will get to the point where business will expect their employees to use their smartphones to deal with issues outside the office. The people who refuse to do this will be left behind, with a mounting workload. They won't be able to cope and so will most likely be made redundant by people who are willing to use their phone on the go and hit the unrealistic targets the company are setting." So What hes trying to say here is because Smartphones have so much power and so much influence on the work force, people will be expected to do some of there working career at home. Which can get in the way of family life or personal life. Also it can leave the people who don't have a smartphone behind or at disadvantage. This is certainly a Con about Smartphones and digital media. 

     Another strong comment Prophet makes that Smartphones may take our social skills away or damage them. In one piece of his article Dan Prophet says "Smartphones are without doubt great pieces of technology, but in certain situations people should make a conscious effort to turn the phone off and talk to one another. If we don't, we run the risk of becoming a very introverted society where conversation becomes less and less of a common occurance and runs the risk of being a skill, which only a few people possess." This could be especially true for young children, because we as humans learn social skills when we are young by communicating to others and learning different social styles. But if kids are to busy stuck in their phones, PC  video game console and television how can they learn social skills? You can't learn social skills through texting because you can't express emotion strongly though texting. Same applies for any other method of communicating without face to face. With the exception of on camera communicating such as Skype or ooVoo. But even that isn't the best way to learn social skills. 

   One more argument he makes that I won't elaborate more on is the texting while driving problem. 20 years ago people didn't text and drive for the obvious reason of cellphones being as big as a brick and being so costly. So no one died as a result of texting while driving or while on the phone and driving. But thousands of people (especially teens) have died in car accidents caused by texting and driving. And if cellphones never became popular those people would still be here today and this is defiantly a big problem in society. Overall read more of the article "Smartphones Impact On Society" by Dan Prophet It has videos, pictures, opinions and real life examples on how digital media has changed our lives.