Communication technology and modernization’s impact on social dysfunction in Bangladesh: Addressing remedial measures

Abstract

Modernization is the replacement of traditional structural elements by modern ones and networks have become the basic units of modern society. A new society emerges when and if a structural transformation can be observed in the relationships of production, in the relationship of power and in the relationship of experience. These transformations lead to an equally substantial modification of social forms of space and time, and to the emergence of a new culture. We are living in the information age where a communication technological device like cell phone, internet, TV/radio etc. are not just modern technology but also used for making calls, video calls, sending text messages, chatting as well as in these devices users can use many features like operating system, facebook, you tube, third-party apps and user interface, reminder of important tasks, calendar, online libraries, dictionaries and so many more. Overall, it is arguably true that people tend to "take the easiest route," thereby becoming more dependent on technology. These are wonderful technological tools that can do almost anything and makes our life easier. But, these modern communication technologies are being abused by the users and have many bad impacts on our personal and social life. The relationship among modernization, communication technology, crime and deviance is highly complex in the network society. Many from the younger generation and students are highly dependent on smart phones and internet. They spend most of their time in using these communication technologies. People are too involved with their technological devices and hardly have time with their friends and family in real life. Addiction and dependence of using the most sophisticated communication decreases the academic performance, face to face communication skill, social relation and also created many psychological problems like depression, anxiety, insomnia and mental break down etc. Teenaged and youths are just getting addicted to these and cannot leave their communication technologies even for a few minutes. Criminals are also abusing these technologies for various purposes like cyber crime, cyber stalking, demanding extortion, eve-teasing, threatening, illegal use in examination, organizing criminal activity etc. Dysfunctional uses of these technologies have many bad impacts on our social norms and values, cultural, economic, politics and environment as well. So, dysfunctional use of modern communication technologies can bring many miseries on us and now a day it’s a matter of deep concern to everybody. The study objectives were to investigate different aspects of communication technology, modernization and social dysfunction; communication technology based crime & deviance; its causes & consequences relating social dysfunction in Bangladesh. To conduct the study, purposive sampling method is used and total sample size (n) was 150. To supplement the survey findings case study, Key Informant Interview and non participatory observation were also took part in the study. The present study also gave some suggestive measures those can play a significant role for controlling dysfunctional use of communication technologies.