Technology makes communication easier in today's world. Many people Essay

Technology makes communication easier in today's world. Many people choose to work at home in front of a computer screen. What d - Essay Example However, there are number of adverse effects of this trend, though only visible in the long term. Less communication leading to isolation One would easily assume that working from home using computer helps reduce wastage of time on travel to and fro. However, it also means that people no longer interact with others in the community. In other words, when someone works from home using computer, he shrinks into his own private world and does not get any chance to interact with other people, even the people next door. In simple words, it leads to alienation of individuals in the society. As Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark et al (1998) state man is a social animal that requires constant socialization, the absence of which will lead to many physical and mental illnesses which are seem to be increasing in the present world. For example, the increasing levels of stress related problems are attributed directly to the modern working culture, and thus to the use of computer that restricts social int eraction (Kraut et al). This, in turn, will lead to problems like high blood pressure. These issues are accompanied by all those problems which are associated with sedentary jobs in general starting from obesity. In addition, computer can be termed an asocial means of communication. The normal way of communication people have is to spend more time with ones friends and family and less time with strangers. However, computer altered this concept totally. Now, people prefer to spend more time with strangers whom they meet on the net and less time their near and dear ones. In other words, the entertainment offered by computer is totally asocial in nature. Impact of telecommuting on family Family, as the basic unit of society, requires proper attention and is the sphere where telecommuting has the greatest impact. To begin with, it is a common concept that when one works from home, he would get more time to interact with his family, thus leading to an improvement in familial relations. A ccording to many, it also provides time flexibility. However, in practice, what is seen is quite contradictory in nature. People often tend to spend more time on work than their usual working hours thus reducing the time spent on social interactions. In addition, there is more possibility of their work spillover affecting their family relations and family situations can affect the quality of their work. In addition, working from home takes away the usual concepts of weekend holidays and other free times and thus, instead of helping the people have more freedom, it only adds to their tension as many a time, working independently involves more care and responsibility than working under supervision. Effect on the quality of work It is often found that telecommuting seriously affects the quality of work done by employees. There are various reasons behind this fall. First of all, the raw recruits are denied the chance to interact with the more experienced ones who might be happy sharing their work-related experiences over a cup of coffee. In the office culture, a junior may get a ridiculously simple solution for a jargon nagging him for many days from a senior who had such experiences in the past. In addition, for bosses, it provides a chance to give a warning to an employee who errs very often. In fact, work-related knowledge grows only