New Media Technology and Studying Abroad

How more important is communicating when with your friends and loved ones when you are in a foreign country than when you are in your home country? I’d say pretty important. With the advances in technology, such as Skype and Face Time, we are now able to have face to face communication although there are great distances between us. The combination of new media technology along with the study abroad experience is what Adrianne Stoner discussed in her lecture. Her focus was on the cultural shock you experience while studying abroad and if your ability to use new media to connect with your family and friends back home would lessen that experience.

I found her subject of research very intriguing because you don’t normally think about the cultural shock you will experience if you decide to study abroad. When you consider studying abroad you usually are in the honeymoon phase before you even arrive in your new country and once you’re there you never think it will end. The U-curve graph that Adrianne showed really highlighted the fluctuations in emotions that you will feel once you experience cultural shock. I also think it highlights the importance between interpersonal communication and impersonal communication.

Through interpersonal communication you continue to develop bonds and closeness and this type of communication usually takes place with people you know, people who you have a close relationship with. You feel more at ease and you’re comfortable and you usually trust the person that you are speaking with. New media technology allows you to maintain that interpersonal communication with your family and friends back at home. Once the honeymoon phase ends and you begin to experience cultural shock, you really start to feel isolated and you begin to thank the high heavens that someone thought of Skype and Face Time so you can connect with you loved ones back home. Due to the fact that you don’t personally know anyone abroad mostly all of the communication you have will be very generic and impersonal.

Impersonal communication is the conversation you have with the cashier at the gas station, a coworker, even a distant relative. These people don’t really know you, you barely speak, and when you do it’s usually serving a purpose to move you from point A to point B. So when you’re abroad, it can be very hard to deal with the fact you don’t have anyone to connect to personally. And if you can only speak and understand a tiny amount of their language, then your impersonal communication is definitely being used for functional purposes.

The last question Adrianne asked is if your constant connection to your family and friends at home thru new media technology takes away from your study abroad experience, especially if your “cultural shock” is lessened? I would love to know what her research proves, but I think that it could possibly take away from your study abroad experience. If you will only be abroad for maybe six months to a year and you spend half of that time home sick and talking with your family on Skype, your experience will definitely be limited. You would be inhibiting yourself from learning the new culture, interacting with the citizens and enjoying your time in another country. However, if your time abroad is longer than a year, as Adrianne’s U-curve model displayed you will eventually adjust to your new surroundings and then master them. Although, I still think any large amount of time spent experiencing cultural shock will have an impact on your experience abroad you will have more time to make up for it because of your longer duration in the country.