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

Advances in technology have without doubt influenced the way we communicate with each other in a number of different ways. While some of this change can have a negative influence on the way we interact, my view is that overall modem technology typically improves communication in personal relationships. It is clear that technology has changed the way we communicate in several respects. Perhaps the clearest example of this is that nowadays many people prefer to keep in touch to their friends and relatives using applications and social networking sites like Facetime, Skype and Facebook Another way this change is evident is how the email and texting have almost completely replaced the letter as the primary form of written communication. Because these modern forms of communication are typically much more convenient and instant, one result is that we can communicate more easily with people who we do not see on a daily basis. I would argue that these innovations have mostly improved personal relationships. The principal benefit is that it just so much easier to stay in touch with people we might otherwise lose contact with. It is for example now very straightforward to keep in contact with friends from university who move to different cities after they graduate and this means relationships last longer. The only real drawback is that sometimes people become so addicted to their online social networks that they stop communicating with friends in the real world. That, however, is a minor issue. My conclusion is therefore that new forms technological communication have in fact largely improved human interaction because emails, texting and social networks enable us to maintain friendships which might otherwise be lost.