People in today's world rely too heavily on the convenience of new communication technologies, including email, text messaging and social media. While there is no denying the importance of these mediums and how they have transformed modern communication, there is no denying the importance of face-to-face communication and the benefits it offers. Communication is a key element of human nature and we communicate for many reasons, which can be simplified down to three; persuade, inform and express. (Harper 2014) Technology improves the efficiency and frequency with which information is shared, but can reduce the three main purposes of communication; inform, express and persuade, decreasing their quality. This essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of introducing and using technology with respect to the three main purposes of communication. Persuasive communication seeks to have an effect on the recipient and is commonly referred to as goal-oriented communication. Technology has enabled the sharing of information between many more people than face-to-face communication could ever achieve, through mass media transmission. Using technology to increase efficiency and persuasiveness is often seen in advertising, public relations and politics. Advertising takes advantage of the ability offered by technology to communicate with masses of people easily and efficiently and uses mass media to present images in order to convince customers to buy their products. Social media can be used to present a positive image or "mask" of a person. A person can use this to their advantage as they can manipulate how other people interpret it, thus communicating an altered representative... center of paper... st ed. London: SAGE.Leber, J 2012. Questions for mobile computing | MIT Technology Review. [online] MIT Technology Review. Available at: [Accessed May 22. 2014].Lin, C. and Atkin, D 2007. Communication technology and social change. 1st ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Luhmann, N 1992. What is communication?. Communication Theory, 2(3), pp.251–259.McGlone, M 2005. Quoted out of context: Contextuality and its consequences. Journal of Communication, 55(2), pp.330-346.Medialiteracyproject.org 2012. Language of persuasion | Media literacy project. [online] Available at: [Accessed May 14. 2014].Walter Benjamin 1968. Hannah Arendt, ed. The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, Illuminations. London: Fontana.