Consequences of Connection: Loneliness, Reading, and Robots

Abstract

Modern communication technologies are reshaping the ways humans connect with one another as well as how we converse with machines of our own making. Our question in this essay is whether digital communication is changing the nature of conversation and, if so, what the implications may be for us as people. Our analysis identifies three sets of parameters for approaching these issues: linguistic (structure of conversations, communication medium, modulating the conversation to suit the perceived needs of our interlocutor, controlling the conversation), social (inner- or other-directed behavior, front stage or back stage behavior, strong or weak social ties, loneliness), and cognitive (level of intellectual engagement). We use these parameters to explore some of the linguistic, social, and cognitive consequences of electronically-mediated communication, of social reading onscreen, and of conversing with social robots.