Every minute that passes us, three new lives are brought into our world. They are brought into an unknown place in which, in time they will lead. As these new generations begin and quickly pass by in what seems like blink of an eye, our world seems to be disintegrating into a new generation in of itself, or can we even call it a generation? We as a whole are succumbing to technology. The digital world, which we created, has evolved our society by downgrading the world we have in front of our eyes, and our sense of communication. Without a doubt, technology has very dutiful purposes in our society, but at what cost and what point do we have to say stop, if we have the strength to do so. Is the upcoming technology really worth losing what is most important in human development, communication? In my eyes, and I hope many others it is not worth losing personal interactions and face-to-face communication.
As technology continues to thrive, the sense of communication dwindles, and people lack the vision that communication is absolutely necessary for us to flourish as individuals and prosper in our limited number of days. It is a proven fact that we use communication for relational reasons; it meets our physical needs because we allow the communication between others and ourselves that encourage our well being as well as benefiting our physical and mental health. It is easy to conclude that most people lack the realization that the advantages personal interactions and face-to-face communication offers. I personally feel that my generation, and the newest generations rising are being introduced to technologies that diminish the true sense of communication.
Although technology allows for the remittance of communication, it neglects the promotion of face to face and channel rich communication contexts. What others also disregard to understand is that communication plays a huge role in driving our identity process, and it creates who we are and how others perceive us? If someone sees you as attractive, intelligent, and shy you would begin to view those qualities as a part of who you are. Thus, this proves that how we communicate with others, and how others communicate with us plays a major role in what makes up our identity.
I have come to understand that as communication weakens as new generations grow, people lose the ability to become competent communicators which an extremely important skill to have to be successful in life. Good competent communicators are able to emphasize different parts of their identity in various situations. For example, during job interviews an individual would stress your organized, self-sufficient side, but while you were hanging out with your friends you would portray your funny, care free side.
However, with the lacking promotion of face to face communication, I fear that the upcoming generations, along with my generation will not be able to distinguish the different aspects of their identity, if they can form a true identity at all. With this new cohort of technology developing, it adapts and evolves our society. Many people witness technology as a problem solver, a way to resolve anything. In some instances, I must admit, that yes technology aids us in solving complications and various difficulties, but this does not mean it should be a solution to all the societal problems we are presented with.
Civilization is fixed on technology and its novelties, we including myself, find ourselves addicted to our personal technologies that make us feel more connected to others and the world. Whether it includes video games, cell phones, computers, or even tablets, we have uncovered that we are unable to disassociate with these things that we claim to “love.”
The more we claim to love and care for material items, especially in this instance technology; we lose the true definition of what it means to love something real, a person. Not only do we lose the real sense of what love is, which also promotes our identity by making us caring, understanding individuals, but we also lose the desire to interact with others on a personal, face to face level. I have drawn that society lacks to see that our identities cannot be technological; our identity has to be made up by personal feelings and affections that promote our well-being.
With society’s fixations on technology and the digital world, we fail to know the true connotation and sense of who we are. We are orienting ourselves not around meaningful conversations with friends and family, but surrounding ourselves with our technologies. Regardless of the fact that these technologies allow for a type of communication, it creates deficiencies of channel rich contexts. Channel rich contexts allow for individuals to communicate face to face in which we are able to witness a person’s facial expressions, gestures, and mannerisms.
An individual’s facial expressions are their biggest centerpiece for displaying their emotions and feelings. Nonverbal communication is often considered more reliable than verbal communication because it is the primary means of communicating emotion, and our emotion is a powerful influence on our behavior. We are able to grasp a great deal about people by watching their facial expressions and listening to their tone of voice. If we continue to abuse technology in the ways that we do, we will lose our immediacy behaviors that convey attraction or affiliation. For example, when two people flirt they use their eye contact to signal attraction. Can we really be attracted to someone who sits behind a screen? Could we be attracted to someone who we lack intimacy with, and touch? It is a known fact that touch is the only sense we cannot live without because it contributes to our physical and mental well being.
The more we communicate using technology, the more we lose our sense of self. Our identity makes up the person we are, and with technology evolving the way it is we will lose sight of our identities. The sense of childhood is slowly diminishing as more and more children stay inside on a gorgeous day, to play video games or watch television versus going to the park or playing dodge ball. What society needs an intervention, something that promotes the rightful use of communication that in the end make up the people that we are. Unfortunately, with more people seeing technology as advancement rather than a deterioration of our communication I do not think we will see that day ever come.
As we remain to stay fixated on technology we will endure losing sight of what being a human means. We will lose our memories of the welcoming scent and taste fresh air, the chill that stings us in the winter, and the heat that scorches us in the summer. If we continue to go on the way we are living, we will lose the sense of identity completely because we are losing the interest to make personal connections with others. Although there are ways to communicate via technology, it takes a toll on our identity and what we value. We have to really evaluate what we want our life to become, a life where we value technology becoming our new identity, or a life where we value making interactions in person to help develop our sense of who we are and the type of person we strive to be.
