"Human," "Communication," and "Technology"

Abstract

Research focused on how technology facilitates, reifies, and transforms human communication is interdisciplinary in nature. This is as it should be; technology touches upon so many different aspects of the human experience regardless of how the academy is structured. Computer science and engineering are key to the development of hardware and programs that facilitate social communication. Sociology and anthropology contribute to our understanding of the influence of technological adoption on societies and cultures. Psychology helps us to understand how cognitive processes effect our engagement with social technologies and vice versa. While these perspectives are important, the field of human communication is uniquely situated to understand how technology and human communication processes are deeply intertwined. Our field is deeply devoted to the study of how people engage in symbolic processes to co-create meaning. This “meaning” is translated into entertainment, news, relationships, organizational structures, cultural concepts, and policies. In addition, symbolic processes become our technologies. Technology can both be a communicative act as well as facilitate communicative acts. For example, a design choice on a website or the construction of an algorithm to a social feed are communicative acts in and of themselves. Yet, in addition, messages shared via that website or the posts that create the content shared through that algorithm are also communicative acts. Thus, constructed meanings are woven through social technologies. This journal, Human Communication & Technology provides a specific home for communication technology scholars. Although there are many journals focused on technology, this journal provides the opportunity to publish research centered on the way human communication processes intertwined with technology creation and use. The remainder of this essay considers the importance of each of these components: the technology, the communication, and the human.