Nowadays the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology. In what ways has technology affected the types of relationships people make? Has this become a positive or negative development? v.14

The telephone and other new technologies have surpassed our wildest expectations since their invention, and they have revolutionized people’s everyday life, particularly the way they interact with others. New technologies, smartphones, the internet, and different social networking sites, have huge impacts on the relationships people make. For business people, they can hold a teleconference with partners who live in distant places, whereas before the development of the internet, people rarely had chances to meet or cooperate with anyone outside their immediate circle or community. Furthermore, they alter the way students who live far away from their home communicate with their parents. For example, WeChat or Skype are convenient tools for strengthening their relationships at almost no cost of money. Also, ordinary people can discover and join in discussions with people with similar interests in social groups, which provides them with an alternative way to make friends. On the other hand, I believe that this trend has more drawbacks than its benefits. Although they bring convenience to people's interactions, social media and electronic devices seem to tear the society apart. Rather than individual people participating in their local community, they are instead choosing to pay more attention to people online. When they indulge in a virtual world and talk with unfamiliar people, they are more likely to ignore people around them and weaken their ability to have face-to-face communication. As a result, communities are no longer forming close and supportive relationships, and eventually, the society as a whole will fragment. To conclude, although technology facilitates the way people communicate with each other, the addiction to new technologies will bring about undesirable outcomes to society.