Abstract

Communication is the foundation for social interaction and therefore society itself is based on communication. This means that every huge change that humanity has experienced derives from a technological discovery related to communication. As a way of studying the impact of technology in society and its power to influence human and natural environments, we propose to analyze how communication technologies have helped transform society as a whole. "Communications are the basic elements of social systems": Starting from this Luhmanian proposal and the theoretical approach of Social System's Theory, this paper offers an analysis based on the impact that communication technology has had on social development over time. Language and writing, as the first communication techniques, have been followed by a series of technologies, such as printing, telephone, radio, television, internet and cell phones, which are nowadays smarter than ever [37]. These new technologies have increased the amount of communications, making world society more complex than ever and accelerating social changes. This last observation introduces the possibility of proposing the arrival of a new era.