I’m mad at technology this week.
I know that many generations would be grateful to have the technological advances that most of us are fortunate enough to consider routine.
But there was something that those generations had that many of us don’t seem to have – the ability to withdraw from the world when they wanted to.
I’m not encouraging isolationism, but I am encouraging time that should belong to a person without any sort of interference.
Believe it or not kids, I actually remember a time when interacting with a person in a non-face-to-face fashion was picking up a landline phone, dialing a number and asking my friends’ parents if they were available for a quick chat.
Now, however, you can reach a friend by calling, texting, Facebook messaging, tweeting, and emailing. Yeesh!
As someone who enjoys privacy and alone time, I have grown to somewhat resent the constant bombardment of messages that invade my days.
People are constantly clamoring that their messages be viewed and be answered immediately and then, if I don’t want to go online, they get upset that their communication lines aren’t being met.
There’s no reason other than pure selfishness that people demand that their messages be viewed with the utmost importance.
Let’s be clear for a moment: I’m not talking about messages that are of importance in regards to school or personal relations. I’m talking about the annoyance of constant accessibility.
Believe it or not, there was a time when your time was in fact your time. It was a beautiful time when people couldn’t constantly badger you with emails and Facebook messages.
The head of campus media here at St. Xavier University – the incomparable Peter Kreten – has a habit of not going on social media during the course of his weekend. An approach that I think I may adapt for myself.
I am something of a social media addict. Whenever I go online, like clockwork I almost go to Facebook out of force of habit before doing anything else.
I have become a cog in the machine that I wish to escape.
Now, I’m not trying to sound like an antisocial. I actually really like it when my friends send me goofy links or tag me in posts or stories.
It helps me keep tabs on the people that I love who are now strewn throughout the country.
But it becomes bothersome at the point when you must constantly stay connected and are stuck at a computer as opposed to going outside and enjoying life or rather applying yourself to something that is more interactive and social – like talking to a real person…in person…with words…. Whatta novel premise!
What I’ve noticed is that people are becoming addicted to social media so that they can stay connected.
But in recent days I’ve started to question what exactly are they connected to or if they are even connected at all.
There’s no real connection when you are talking with someone via Facebook or Twitter or even texting.
I remember receiving some important family news by seeing a Facebook post as opposed to hearing from the person themself in person or (at the very least) in a phone call.
Is this what the world has come to? Families –often considered the most tight-knit group that a person can belong to – communicating to one another via impersonal Facebook posts?
I shudder to think that this is the truth, yet can’t help but think that resisting this notion is futile. We live in a digital age, where everything is mediated by boxes of lights and wires.
I’m not saying that these connections are bad – the virtual ones, that is. But they are nothing compared to the interactions that humans have when they meet face-to-face.
There is nothing better, communication-wise, than the upfront honesty and beautiful nuance that an actual conversation can provide.
So go out into the world! Get away from the idiot box, not-so-smart phones, computers and tablets.
Talk to someone. Learn their stories. Look them straight in the eye and see the earnest complexity that a real conversation can contain.
Brian Laughran
Senior Viewpoints Editor