The Internet has
really impacted the way we communicate to each other verbally. Everything is on
the internet nowadays and society is finding it harder and harder to come face
to face and have a conversation with each other. Although it is a wonderful privilege
to access anything we want on the the internet, it has also taken away the
sense of belonging and engaging with people on a personal level.
For example, Texting
is one of the ways I see people losing that close connection. When you are having
a conversation with your friend, you might not get an immediate response as you
would like compare to when to when you are talking on the phone. Texting gives
people more time to think about their response rather than just getting a
regular response. There are also different tones in texting that might mislead
people to thinking something different than what you originally intended to
say.
Another example
is social media and the media in general. Social media is a huge factor in this
decade and some people have built their whole lives out of it and can possibly
not function without it. It takes away the aspect of socializing physically. You
can walk into a casual restaurant or any where you can possibly meet people,
even at the dinner table at your house and find out that at least 60% of the
people are on their phones. Its sad that we are slowly losing interactions with
one another but this is what it slowly coming to. A world of people living in
another virtual world. Although, there are so many wonderful and great things
about the internet and media, it also has its downside, but it can also be up
to people to make a change about this and create more physical interactions
with people.
I've never had a conversation with "society", so I can't say whether him/her/it/they do in fact find it hard to have a face to face conversation. But I personally, as someone prone to stuttering, relatively inarticulate verbally, and somewhere sliding down the Asperger scale and thus unable to quickly pick up on non-verbal cues -- vastly prefer written asynchronous and interactive conversations.
ReplyDeleteTo use your example of "Texting" (why the capital T?) -- I feel all the reasons you list (more time to think, different tone) to be an advantage over a phone call. Expecially on a cell phone call when I am constantly colliding with the other person trying to speak at the same time.
If you are having a face to face meeting with someone and they look down and use their phone, reach over and put a finger on their screen -- and hold it there. When they look up all startled say, "I'm up here" and make the hand motion women make when they attempt to redirect male attention towards their face.
I somewhat agree with you on this but I also think that texting and social media are tools that can be utilized in order to share more experiences with more people you care about. It certainly makes it easier for me and my friends to plan things on Facebook or in a group chat then to find the time to all meet up in person ahead of time and make plans. I think phones are coping devices for a lot of people, and if you see a lot of people in a place on their phones, its usually a strong indication that they don't want to be there. Whether this is a good or a bad thing I can't really decide, but its certainly a thing.
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