Does the Introduction of Communication Technology Fragment Society?

Does the introduction of communication technology fragment human consciousness? (Sigh). I know for a fact that consciousness is defined as one’s awareness of his environment; it may also include one’s thoughts, memories, feelings and sensations. And, I also know that communication technologies are things that aid the transfer of messages and information. However, honestly, since Monday, this question has been circulating again and again inside my little brain; and every day, I’ve constantly been searching and thinking for the correct answer. I tried inquiring Mr. World-wide-web, yet I cannot seem to find the exact answer or the puzzles to the right answer. Nevertheless, when I read my report (Network Society), I saw glimpse of hope (I guess). I finally (and hopefully) got the answer. According to what I read, implicitly, segmentation of individual consciousness does not happen in the presentation of such technologies; instead, they manipulate one’s perception of themselves and of the world and, change our socialization ways, and limit our responsiveness.
Communication technologies such cellphones, i-pads, and the like, in one way or another, manipulate one’s view or perception of his self in his environment. In these cases, according to my report, these technologies tend to incline us to feel and move in a particular way. They seem to, sort of, control our movements – how we communicate, act, and think. For instance, in times when people get a hand of the latest version or model of the, say, Nokia phone, they tend to have the feeling of being sophisticated, that they are “in” in the “fablane;” that they have somehow improved their popularity; and that they look much cooler now than before. There is a drastic change in how one sees his personal self – more specifically, from being a “no one” to a “somebody.” This is quite true, I must say, especially these days when people (mostly coming from the younger generation) bend over backwards to do everything within their power just to be an attention-grabber and to improve their appeal and how they look in the society.
Secondly, when we say consciousness, it means our awareness of our environment (as stated above) so, that also includes the field of socialization – how we interact with each other. Because of such technologies, our ways of socializing changed. And also, somehow, because of the comfort and aid these gadgets provide, we tend to depend on them dearly to do the extent that we let them do the communicating job for us. I think, this is profoundly evident, most probably, in online dating sites. Nowadays, people can choose their love prospects online. They can exchange intimate messages and the like. However, the downfall of this is that we are not aware whether the person you are “virtually” in love with is indeed a true human being or the pieces of information he/she has provided you are genuine. You cannot be sure whether or not he is a poser, an alien, or a monster of some kind since in the online world, one can transform him/herself to someone he/she deems perfect. Thus, in this kind of communication our awareness of the surroundings is greatly restricted. We cannot clearly discern fact from fiction.
And lastly, communication technologies limit one’s awareness about the world. Media is one of the most-renowned communication technologies, and is very useful in our everyday lives. It limits our awareness of the world since it a world-known fact that information being presented in here is most of the time controlled and biased. It does not give the whole picture to the mass, thus, the perception of the people of the world is incomplete. Another manifestation that these technologies limiting our awareness is evident when people tend to rely too much on these things to the extent that we would just receive with open arms the information being provided by these machineries to us. Thus our minds become stagnant; because we don’t think anymore, all we do is receive and receive. An example can be detected in millions of students here and abroad. Due to the worldly fame of the internet, most do not write original essays and write-ups, they simply would search for the topic online, copy and paste the articles to the Microsoft Word, and pass it to their teachers. This phenomenon confines our awareness because we don’t expose ourselves to the real thing; we expose ourselves to the manipulated information served to us by these technologies.
Though, I know that my stand is very risky: I still believe that technologies of information and communication do not chip off one’s consciousness into bits. It is in the first place because, I cannot seem to imagine how a person would live or see the world if he will have a fragmented consciousness. To be able to survive, I believe, one should have a unified awareness of his surroundings. Yes, perhaps in the context of society, technology may fragment people into groups but not the person itself into many segments. Nevertheless, the things written above are from how I understand the data I read from different sources: the internet and my report. I cannot say or generally conclude that what I wrote above are correct, considering that we have different understanding about the topic; and, basically, what I wrote above came from what I think will be the most suitable answer to the question: does the introduction of communication technology fragment human consciousness?