"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." --Albert Einstein
You get into the car, turn up JBieb’s “Sorry” (whether you are a fan or not, it's catchy) and head out to dinner with friends. As you are driving the short 10- to 15-minute ride, you see the brightness of your friend’s iPhone light up the backseat as quickly as you see her attention removed from the conversation. She sends a few texts and then pops her head up to jump back into the conversation, but you approach the restaurant within a few moments after. Unnoticed, everyone exits the car to head in for a night out with some good food and good company.
The host brings you to your table and you spend the night laughing, catching up and thinking of new plans for next time. As all this is going on, you take a moment to look around the restaurant outside of the small bubble that is your table, and you see easily more than 50 percent of the people around you poking at their touch screens; not having conversations, just being busy bees on their phones. We have stepped up from calling while at dinner, but just because you are physically talking to someone on your phone doesn’t mean it's OK to let that hold more water than the conversation you should be having with the friends right in front of you.
Plain and simple, you have heard it more than once: PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN. Now, the all-caps text might be a little harsh, but it adds emphasis. Really though, your tweets and Instagram feed will be there when you are home, but the friends sitting right in front of you might not be. As someone who studies media, I feel like I can notice this situation, but also tend to analyze it a bit more, and a good conversation with a friend will never hold the same value as a Facebook comment. Yes phones and mobile devices have become a large part of our everyday lives, whether or not you use one yourself. The people around you do though. This does not mean, however, that their conversations should replace the face-to-face ones you have.
That is why this article began with this infamous quote by Albert Einstein. It is heard more often today than it should, but he is correct. When you are communicating through your phone, it is still a conversation, but it is a different kind. I compare it to when people use the expression of something “skimming the surface.” Texting and calling are great for making plans or asking quick questions, but so many social cues and expressions are taken away when the conversation is solely through Messenger or WhatsApp. No emotions or feelings can truly be seen in a text, even if you send a decent amount of emojis. It's a conversation that skims the surface and does not (and should not) have a higher value than the face-to-face conversations you have. With a world constantly connected and updating every minute, take a second to put your phone down and catch up with the people you are with. You will be pleasantly surprised at how different the time you have is. And I promise that those feeds, tweets and texts will be there for you when you get home.
