Social Aspects of Communication

Communication services arise as a response to social needs, including personal interaction, collective behavior, learning and socialization, and organized communication. These are met by an increasingly varied range of biosocial and man-machine processes. By the year 2000, it is possible that 20 or more such processes will be in widespread use. The planning and provision of services in response to demand involves a complex set of relationships between industrial production, occupational groups, governmental and nongovernmental service industries and regulatory bodies, primary social groups, and formal institutions. Models of these relationships may be called sociotechnical systems. They are particularly necessary to avoid crude technological determinism, which is present in much writing on the future of telecommunications and overstates the ability of mechanical devices to deal with social issues. The capacity of telecommunications to replace face-to-face interaction, to substitute for transportation, or to revolutionize education is not borne out by the evidence. Research on the social role of the telephone is now producing firmer evidence on which to base policy decisions.