Technology has helped us to become the first species capable of adapting to various settings. However, others may say little by little, technology is slowly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with each other as humans. Alone, it is disconnecting us from the world around us and leading to an isolation in today’s society.
Let me explain what I mean. The other day, a good friend of mine, James, gave me a call to see how I was doing while in graduate school. While the phone rang at work, I automatically turned the volume down, so the ring would not be loud in the space with other colleagues. Subconsciously, I told myself I would call back when I returned home. Later on that evening, the thought of calling my good friend turned to a text message over the phone. And guess what? It was short with four lines at the end of the conversation.
The next day at work, I wondered what that conversation would have been if I just picked up that phone and said, “Hey, man! How are you doing, my good friend?” I felt a disconnection between us. While technology has allowed us some means of social connection that would have never been possible before and has allowed us to maintain long-distance friendships that would have otherwise probably fallen by the wayside, the fact remains that it is causing us to spread ourselves too thin as well as slowly ruining the quality of social interaction we all need as human beings.
Is this where we are headed, non-verbal communication with one another? If this keeps up, we may lose our voices all together. So we ask, are we losing touch with what is natural, human Interaction? The lack of interaction means we are effectively cut off from others by technology, yet we do not see technology as the real cause of lack of interaction. Technology has had a negative impact on how we simply make conversation with those we care about. With all the cool gadgets and innovations that come out each year with technology, it blocks our sense of personal touch of interaction with those we love.
As I sat in my office thinking of the different aspects of influence technology has upon our society, the convenience of technology that allows us to share our status on Facebook, take photos on Snapchat and find friends on satellite enables us to create bad habits that hinder our textual communication that would be a normal reaction between two people, but it turns to limitations and shortcoming of dealing with human beings.
Ultimately, technology is improving our society overall. I am not discrediting the benefits and advancement of what technology has done for mankind. At the same time, we need to be more aware of the detriments it can bring when it comes to keeping connection with people we value, love and care about.
