Communication and Connectedness: The Real and the Virtual

Computers and other digital technologies, rightly called ‘just tools’, do ingenious things, but are they changing our sense of humanity? For millennia, face-to-face communication was our only means for connecting with each other. Two consequences of the new digital media are the blurring of boundaries between what is virtual and what is real and the creation of what is described as ‘new solitude.’ We are now able to ‘bring the distant close’, but in so doing are we making ‘the close distant?’ In this course we will address questions and issues including and related to: What gains and losses do we experience through the use of new technologies? Does the ease of electronic accessibility create or deter yearned for connection? How does the blurring of virtual and real boundaries affect inter-personal problem solving, the establishment of values and trust, intergenerational communication, the importance of family, the expression and experience of love as well as other emotions, and do e-devices affect the way we define life?