Are people becoming less social because of technology? This is a more complex question than you may think. Technology has rapidly advanced in recent years, and has become a large part of our daily life. When I was younger, I remember when cell phones were built like a tank, didn't have a camera and were limited to calling and texting. That quickly changed once cell phones advanced. Nowadays it seems normal that most people you know own a smartphone and a computer; a smartphone is now something that once could be a device that would be straight out of a science fiction movie.
During all of this technological advancement, the way we communicate with one another started to change as well, for better or worse depending on how you look at it. For those who have distant relatives and friends, everyone can now communicate with one another on a regular basis through video chat, messaging or social media. The family vacation photos you once had to get developed now can be posted instantly in high definition on Facebook or Instagram. Email is no longer something that is limited to a computer. If you have a smartphone, then you have access to your email account in your pocket.
These are all examples of things that are not negative, and they enhance or aid the communication. The biggest change, however, is that people talk to one another on the phone, or in person much less frequently than before. This doesn't include everyone, since the usage of technology varies from an individual person to the next, but it is easy to compare how social this generation is to the past. When I hop on a bus or walk to class, many people are staring at their cellphones or listening to music. Even I am guilty of this, since it becomes a habit to check your cellphone, even if you don't expect a text or Facebook message. This is mainly because of instant news and communication at our fingertips. Twitter offers even faster news than a website, since as soon as someone hears about something, it gets posted before an article is published on a news website, appears on TV, and well, before it gets printed in the newspaper.
Smartphones obviously still have the "phone" in the name, but I can't remember the last time the phone part of it was advertised. There is more emphasis on large, high definition screens, apps, messaging and the camera. Texting replaces most of the communication between myself and my friends. It almost seems odd when I remember there was a time not too long ago when I would call my friends or ring their doorbell to see if they wanted to hang out. Additionally, playing video games with friends used to mean that you were in the same room together, and that slowly evolved into playing a game with each other online instead of in person. Nothing is stopping anyone from calling one another or visiting someone in person, but for many people texting and Facebook messaging has become a habit that is hard to break.
Is technology making people less social? I don't think so, and it seems that everyone is just as social with one another as they were in the past. The big change is that communication is easier. People are now communicating in different ways, and there are more options. The more personal methods of communication such as talking in person or calling someone on the phone are now being pushed aside. This easier method of communication of texting is dull compared to talking to someone in person, and in many ways I wish I could hop into a time machine and go back to a time when there was no such thing as a handheld device. Imagine a university like Michigan State in the past, where students had to call one another or knock on a friend's dorm door to compare chemistry notes. Nothing is stopping anyone from doing this in the present, and many still do, but perhaps if people start to communicate more frequently in person, more people will follow suit.
