Are we becoming an inpersonal society?
By blapd811
@blapd811 (20)
United States
August 6, 2009 12:02pm CST
The lead story on the news this morning was the problem caused by hackers who have basically shutdown Twitter and Facebook. The newsperson was extremely upset because she couldn't "tweet" and she has become addicted to it! This got me to thinking about how many people I see who are using their cell phones to text a message to someone instead of using it to actually talk with them. I actually saw two teenagers sitting across the table from each other texting instead of talking face to face. I'm sure some people think they are staying close to someone by constantly keeping in touch but how close are you actually when you can't actually speak with the other person. It's much more impersonal to be typing words on a screen than it is to look into someone's eyes while actually talking with them. I'm concerned about how disconnected people are becoming from each other. What do you think?
2 responses
@fruitcakeliz (2641)
• United States
6 Aug 09
Yes, technology can allow us to become a more impersonal society, but only if we let it.
I still prefer face to face conversations. There is so much more you can get out of talking to a person as opposed to seding text messages or emails, such as body language, tone of voice etc. Too many times i have seen someone get upset over something someone texted them, or a message that was left on their facebook/myspace page, when it was all a mis-understanding, as the person read it wrong, or didn't get the sarcasm or irony the sender was trying to convey.
I think it is wonderful that we can so easily keep in touch with friends and family who live long distances from us, but think it is silly that if we want to ask our neighbor to orrow a cup of sugar, we have to text them and ask, instead of walking next door, being friendly and sociable, and just asking in person.
@kriagarwala (31)
• India
6 Aug 09
Once upon a time, we spokee to people face to face:-) If we wanted to say something to somebody, we had to travel to where he/she was. Now we dont need to see them to communicate. When the cell phone came around, we could speak to people without the hassle of having to be near a wired- phone line. Cell phone technology changed so rapidly that we no longer wanted to use to talk to one another, but text one another. The rise of the computer and internet brought the world into our homes. Communities such as facebook, orkut, myspace allowed us to share our lives for all to see. We are the most connected generation in the history of the world yet increasingly we are becoming the most isolated people in the history, the angriest in history, the most stressed out, the most anxious in history b'coz Social Scientist tell us that isolation from others produces anger, stress and anxiety.
