One of the most repulsive and defining attributes of our generation is technology. Yes, technology can be extremely helpful when it comes to school projects, navigating yourself through unknown territory, and multifarious other tasks that must be completed throughout the rigours of daily life. However, even though technological innovations have seemingly been quite successful in improving the quality of our livelihoods, it has also done an extreme disservice to our ability to socially interact. And by socially interacting I don’t mean poking someone on Facebook, or replying to a “friend’s” tweet, but actually being able to hold a real face to face conversation.
But the shocking reality of it all, is that, everyday I witness the same scenario: a whole table of “friends” sitting silently, enslaved by the beckoning aluminosilicate glass, “communicating” and stalking the every thought of their “friends”. While the irony of it all is thanks to social media we know exactly who people are, right down to their absolute favorite food or the reason why they can’t stand so and so, yet face to face we can barely string together sentences or let alone say a simple hello.
Additionally, according to Joe Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, “we could argue that we are being ‘cyborgs’ whenever we use contact lenses, sit at a computer screen, watch TV, listen to a walkman, or wear trainers designed to improve athletic performance.” Moreover, specifically adhering to the nightmare that has become social media, as a society we are becoming more dehumanized and yet more narcissistic with our need to share and even to gloat about all of our accomplishments, stellar family life etc. But if you really think about it, what we’re looking at is merely converted bits of 1s and 0s, little bits of data, just electrons that stroke our perceptions of reality that is so heavily mediated that we are no longer experiencing life first hand. For, we are so obsessed with making it seem like we are having the time of our lives through sharing photos, videos, status updates etc but in all reality we are missing everything that we are experiencing.
Furthermore, what ever happened to actually talking on the phone or try this one on for size, ringing someone’s doorbell and actually physically spending time with them outside the puissant grasps of the cyber world? To me, one of the most irksome occurrences is when you call someone and immediately after you leave a voicemail they text you back, and refuse to actually talk to you on the phone even though they want to have a full out conversation with you. Nowadays the closest we ever actually get to hanging out is an awkward facetime session where you each just awkwardly stare at something outside the field of view of the other person, or simply chit chat while having your full undivided attention on a completely different task.
When it comes to my fears of the future, I don’t fear that we are bringing up a generation that is not mathematically superior to other nations, however, I fear the day when generations to follow are no longer articulate and can not express themselves efficiently. for, what’s the point of having all this knowledge, if you can not effectively share it with others?