I just watched the movie, 'You've Got mail'. It reminded me of a time when email was different - when people took the time to say something real. I guess then it was still a novelty. It seems these days people use it as a quick and easy option.
In a world of email, instant messages, cell phone texts and social networks it seems to
me that people have forgotten how to really communicate and interact with each other
on anything other than a superficial basis.
Technology seems to be taking the place of human interaction. It seems
these days, people use it as a cop-out way to communicate without
having to actually commit to conversation or any real human interaction. We
send quick emails and say things like - 'Hi, just a quick note to see how you
are' which is fine, but if we really want to know, wouldn't we
take the time to really find out? Or worse - We forward something that
someone else forwarded us! I absolutely hate forwarded mail - It's not even an original thought.
Today, we e-mail and instant message each other all the time, and many people
spend hours on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Are these ways of communicating
taking the place of actual human interaction? Why call or meet our friends for
lunch if we can just use our computers to catch up with them?
There are other ways we seem to disconnect from the real world too. With the
popularity of Mp3 players and Ipods, we have discovered another way to slip
inside our own worlds and ignore the outside reality. I can't deny that the
digital music player is a wonderful thing, but it does seem to have put a
certain distance between people as we walk around, headphones blasting, oblivious
to the other people around us.
I think that cell phones are perhaps the most isolating technology. Instead of walking from place to place chatting
with people along the way, we grab our phones and then txt instead of call! We have
taken all the humanity out of communicating at all. Any time we are bored we pick
up our phones to distract ourselves instead of making a connection with the people
around us or in many cases, the person right in front of us - A huge pet-peeve
of mine is when you're having a conversation with someone, they get a txt, read
it and then actually reply to it while you're still in the middle of what was a
conversation. It's rude! I see it all the time and it seems to me
that people don't seem satisfied with what's right in front of them. They
need more - more half-hearted, non intimate and superficial communication.
Don
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