The Impact Of Technology On Human Interaction
We live in a world where doing something without the use of technology is unthinkable. Our worldview has been reduced to something on a tiny screen that we carry around everywhere. It seems that in the last few years, technology has taken over most of our lives and it has been near impossible to keep up with this change. Human interaction has taken quite a toll after the usurping of technology. There are many points that come to mind when thinking about this sudden change. Although I belong to the younger generation, I too can see how things have changed with the passage of time.
Conversation is the most important part of any relationship. Talking to people is how you build trust, human emotions come to life, new ideas are built upon. Our creativity and imagination have an outlet that exceeds the one of putting pen to paper. There is a feeling of transcendence after you have a good conversation with a person. Solnit says, ” It is a shallow between two deep zones, a safe spot between the dangers of contact with ourselves, with others. ” This happens to be true. It feels as though we do not have deep and meaningful relationships anymore. After all, how can you when the only way you interact with another person happens through some sort of electronic medium. I feel this in my daily interactions. I see how things have changed in such a short period of time. Yet when you think of the old-fashioned way of communication, it feels as though it happened decades ago. “Time passed in fairly large units, or at least not in milliseconds and constant updates. A few hours wasn’t such a long time to go between moments of contact with your work, your people or your trivia.”
As a result of this change, it seems unfathomable, not talking to a person every few minutes. The constant contact is necessary or it seems like the relationship no longer holds any value. I recall, there used to be a time when I was in middle school, we had the skill to tell a story about everything that happened in your life. It was dramatic and entertaining and you could capture someone’s interest with it. Unfortunately, now we send out a couple of bullet points via text messages, every few minutes if not seconds, and our stories reach the farthest parts of the world almost immediately. This has led to a lack of privacy and solitude in our lives. Although, good things did come out of the evolution of technology as Solnit points out, “Good things came about with the new technologies. Many people now have voices without censorship”.
It started off as a platform for free expression, though conditions did apply as it always does. Everyone had a voice and people had the means to put their thoughts out for millions to read. The internet became a powerful tool for communication. But then something interesting started happening, no one communicated verbally anymore. We figured out a less taxing (emotionally) way of communication. We started off by quick phone calls and now it is just a few words in a message. We found a way to escape reality. I started noticing this in my own actions when I finally thought about it. In this new age of technology, humans forget the importance of having a deep meaningful conversation. A mobile phone was a brilliant idea at the time. It made talking to people a lot more convenient. Now it has lost its main function and has taken over the minds of the people, mainly the youth. It’s like the story Solnit recalls, a sort of dystopian world.
In light of this change, things that were so simple, for example talking to a person about perhaps the weather, has become one of the hardest things. Furthermore, I realized we stopped trying to communicate with others. It looks like we don’t need it anymore. We have something that will constantly keep us entertained without any kind of emotional toll or effort from our part. The concept of being social means having a lot to express on different social media platforms and in a way living vicariously through the internet. In a sense, our lives started having ratings, something like a movie or a book. For instance, if you look at my university life, we no longer talk to each other. You come to class early, you see almost everyone staring at their phones. Though I still have no idea what could possibly be so important. If you have some time to talk to each other during class we do it through our phones. For example, by sending out a bunch of memes to each other. After a while, I realized I do this too, most of the time unconsciously. It really does seem like we are all being controlled by an “alien overlord” as Solnit puts it.
Unfortunately, we haven’t realized how fast things have changed. We continue to go through life as it is because we haven’t looked up long enough to see this new world we have created. And in the midst of it all the world just got a whole lot smaller yet having a deep meaningful relationship has become harder.
