I know it sound like a paradox, but it's not! Years after years, technology efforts have made possible for us to stay in touch wherever we are, so, how can this be a threat?
Since the introduction of the internet and mobile phones, people are becoming a lot more sedentary and clumsy when it comes to interacting with other humans. You don't have to go shopping no more, you can have it delivered to your house, or for instance, you don't need to swing by your best friends house to tell him about last night story, you can just text him through Whatsapp. They way I'm picturing it, one might think that technology is just making us more lazy, but that's not the only problem. I am finding these days a lot of people that don't feel comfortable anymore when interacting with other people; they might not feel comfortable talking to a waitress in a restaurant, or they might not even ask something that they want to know in a store because they don't feel like talking to an employee.
Of course, this doesn't mean that technology is the devil, if used for a good purpose, technology can be our best friend. Not only it makes our life easier, but it makes possible for us to stay in touch with people that live miles away. Technology isn't supposed to break us apart, it's meant to keep us closer together. I'm just afraid that we might someday lose our trail as technology progresses.
Have you seen "The Surrogates"? The philosophy behind the scenes is pretty much what I'm talking about here. You can find some thoughts about the movie here: http://bridgesandtangents.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/living-a-surrogate-life/.
What do you think about it? Do you think we are truly not taking consideration of the pros and cons of technology? or is it just me being too exaggerated?
I don't think you are exaggerating at all.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience, my family is currently going through this. At first I didn’t realise it but then it hit me.
Going to out to eat one Sunday afternoon, the first thing we all did after ordering was check our mobile phones, for what? I honestly don’t know what my parents were checking their smartphones for; they only really talk to one another. I was checking Facebook as you do every hour right?
But, back to the point, the progression of mobile technology and social networking does stop actual human interaction on a day to day basis. One of the only benefits I see of this is when the person you want to interact with is far away, where you can’t really travel to visit. Other than that, there is no reason why you can’t meet up with someone to catch up.
Interesting Post. This is certainly true. People check smartphones during meals which some people consider rude, as well as during days out on a regular basis. Due to the text messaging and social networks, grammer can sometimes be wrong as well as words being misspelt or shortened. certainly communication skills can be lost due to people becoming more isolated due to social media. Although social media has meant we can communicate with other people more than ever before, there are drawbacks, and the post shows this.
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