has personal electronic technology increased social connectedness?
Strictly my opinion- No! To be connected to someone, one has to "see" that person, look in their eyes while you "visit"; watch their body language, share their space; touch their hand. We have increased our ability to communicate verbally, but not contextually.
These sites will help you form your own opinion.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_confirms_our_new_connect.php
http://www.astra-project.net/node/127
I was wondering how we increased our verbal communication but not contextual? What does this statement mean?
contextual communication includes hand, eye, body movements, and what is happening around the speaker. Verbal communication is what is heard.
You can find some of that contextual disconnect on this board at times. People forget that all we see on Jiskha are words on a computer screen. We cannot hear the intonation in a person's voice, cannot see any attendant body language -- in short, we read our own experiences into other people's words, mostly without realizing it.
For example, in this post -- http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1246154231 -- I read rudeness into Grendalyn's second post. Could I have been wrong? Possibly. She may have intended to be amusing rather than rude, but whatever she meant by all those exclamation marks (as well as her words "rigth now") came across to me as words from a rude, spoiled child who couldn't even wait one minute for a teacher to reply.
Am I wrong in that assumption? Possibly. Are there ways to make sure my words are not also misread in this forum? Probably. What do you think a person could do in a forum like this to make sure his/her intentions are not misread?