I believe, like with anything, there are positive and negative effects that new media technology has had on interpersonal relationships. To start with positive effects, new technology such as cell phones, SMS, and networking sites such as Facebook and twitter, it has become much easier to stay in touch with old friends. I personally have had several old friends look me up on Facebook that live across the country from me and I never would have taken the time to look them up if it were not as simple as typing in a name on Facebook. In the article Loser Genereated Content by Soren Mork Petersen he talks about how he feels the users of Facebook ect. are being exploited by big companies, yet all the people he interviewed about it still were satisfied with the service they were getting from the social networking sites. It also makes life easier to get in touch with your social circle. Sending out a mass message to a bunch of friends is so much easier than having to call them all individually, or asking them to relay the message to other people and not knowing they will really do it.
Now with every positive there are naturally going to be negative effects. Some of the negative effects that immediately come to mind are the ease of contacting friends and family can interfere with work. Before this new media technology like texting and Facebook it was uncommon to talk to friends at work. Now it is much easier to do so, and many people will do it which leads to less productivity at work. On the flip side of that it is also easier and therefore has become more acceptable in many cases for employers to reach their employees on cell phones and things after work hours. This seems to have muddied up the line between work and personal life, where we now bring more personal life into work and in return also have work brought into personal time.
