"Little plastic boxes pressed to our heads
Sending through space all the things that we've said
Now we may never lose touch,
But we forget how to feel
Deceiving ourselves that that contact is real
Technology is winning..."
Now, admittedly, technology is also doing a lot of good, so just railing against technology as a blanket statement is not fair. It is amazing to think about how quickly technology has advanced, even over the past ten years, and what is has done to our communication landscape. Letters have become emails, discussions at the coffee shop have become online message boards, chat rooms (does anyone use them anymore?) have become comments back and forth on Facebook and casual interactions with the people you see daily have expanded exponentially to all the people you know or have ever known, through text messages, Facebook status updates and Tweets. Now we just post things about ourselves and hope people notice us by commenting on them. It seems like the whole cultural landscape has become so narcissistic. I confess, I'm tempted these days to delete my Facebook account, and at least retreat technologically back to communicating through email.
Is this technology creep we see in our communication a good thing? Text messages are definitely convenient, but is the convenience worth the way it cheapens conversation and relationships to a simple exchange of information or answer to a question? I completely admit how quick and easy a text message is and all the instances where it seems to be a benefit. But I can also think of the countless times where it is easier to text someone and get a short response, rather than engaging them and having a conversation.
I think why this has been on my mind lately is that time is so fleeting and hard to find. We are so busy with life and are living at such a high speed that we need our communications to keep up. We are so busy with work and tasks, that we are squeezing people in and around the things we have to do. I don't think this is a good trend. The car has become when most of my phone calls and text messages happen. Which means, for the bulk of my communications, I'm sitting by myself, rather than with the person I'm communicating with... so I lose tone of voice, body language, etc.
What can we do to slow things down? I know some people that don't get text messages on their phones... And there are still the few hold-outs that don't have Facebook...
Maybe we should go back to letter-writing?
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