Technology Puts Unforeseen Barriers Between People
Whether you talk, text, chat, sms, tweet, post, call, page, beep-beep…whatever your choice method of communication, someone you know is going to do it another way. Then what do you do? When you are a texter, and your mom is a talker, and your suddenly tech-savvy grandma is Skyping, it becomes a mind-blowing blur of electronics and gizmos and gadgets. Have we reached the plateau of communication? Have we so inundated ourselves with ways to stay in touch, that it is putting us further out of touch?
There are more people on the earth than there have ever before been, yet we are further apart than ever. If we lose our cell phone or Blackberry, we might as well be lost in the Amazon. In fact it is that much easier to lose friends as well. How many times has someone gotten their feelings hurt because we didn’t answer their text because we were out of range? How far will we go with all this fantastic technology before we become burned out with it and go retro (carrier pigeons, maybe)?
Maegan Carberry has learned the hard way the roles modern communications devices play in humans’ lives, and the fallout that can occur if folks don’t handle things nicely. According to Maegan’s February 16, 2009 article in the Huffington Post, “Manners 2.0: A Guide to Technetiquette“, she had to endure a short lesson on etiquette in this technologically advanced age, just because she was looking for someone to move a bed to her house.
According to Maegan, she did the typical ‘girl’ thing, and got upset with a platonic guy-friend because he didn’t answer her text right away. So, she established some guidelines for having sane relationships here in the world of cyber-everything. Maegan points out somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten how to be human, how to live life ‘off-line’. This is definitely a case in point. As the world becomes evermore technologically advanced, the way we deal with our fellow human beings follows suit. At this point, the Sandra Bullock movie “The Net” comes to mind, although what would it really hurt to be able to order pizza from your computer? This blogger longs for the day when such luxuries come to rural areas.
However, not having real-life encounters with our fellow man starts to send us in a dangerous direction. People need to be around other people, it is fact. With the advancements in technology, you don’t ever have to leave your house if you live close enough to a big city that has grocery and take-out delivery. You literally don’t have to leave your house. That is kind of weird, if you think about it.
And so it is with communications these days. At any given point during the day, you may see hundreds of people, alone in their cars, talking on cell phones, or (perish the thought) texting as they drive. While all this new technology makes it easier to expedite life on every front, it also puts the rat-race in meth-gear. Humans today are so busy ‘getting stuff done’, that we don’t stop to think about why we are doing them. Why do we run so hard from every activity during our day? Who deemed it essential to have so many things to do in our lives we can’t take time to sit down and eat dinner with our families?
Picture the scenario: Mom, talking on her little Star-Trek ear-thingy Blue-Tooth, barks orders at her assistant at work, while picking up each of the three kids from their different practice lesson. They cruise through the drive-through (which cause no small amount of confusion as Mom tries to simultaneously scream at her assistant and place her order, as the kids pull each others’ hair out in the backseat) in their over-sized SUV (which Mom and Dad both have to work overtime to pay for) and order dinner, which the kids will eat in the car (Mom had a Slim-Shake this afternoon, so she’s cool, and Dad’s still at work). Then they all fly into the house to do homework and take baths and go to bed and do it all over again tomorrow. Dad makes it in sometime after the kids go to bed. This weekend they are all headed off in different directions (again in the over-sized SUV that was necessary for the family to continue to live and thrive).
This is what happens when people stop talking to each other, and when it becomes acceptable to send whole answers in one letter: K. Which means, “Ok, I got your shortened, abbreviated text message, and am in agreement with whatever you said.” One letter. Our language has devolved into one letter. People have devolved into mindless robots going about doing whatever everyone else is doing. Surely someone wants to take a breather from this maelstrom of electronic activity. And Maegan Carberry just needs a bed moved.
Image by Suzy Pym
Posted in Social Networking. Tags: social media ethics
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