As young adults, many of us would feel lost without our iPhone, Facebook and Myspace. We have all grown so accustomed to the advances in technology that it often makes me wonder, what is it doing to our relationships?
I’m not just talking about our relationships with our significant others; I am also talking about our interactions with our friends and family. It is much more convenient to text someone or write on their Facebook than it is to pick up the phone and call them or much less, talk to them in person.
Technology has given us some really great opportunities to do things that we haven’t even dreamed of decades ago, but what has it taken away?
Recent advances in technology have changed many aspects of our day-to-day life. Text messaging, for example, has changed the whole game of dating. Back in the good ole’ days if you wanted to ask someone to go on a date, you would approach them in person and ask them on a date. Now, it is very common to receive a text message inquiring about a date, which in my opinion lacks sincerity.
Text messaging can also add some unnecessary drama to a relationship. Many times I have encountered a situation where the person that is receiving the text message may interpret the text wrong and in turn result in a game of “he said she said,” or “she said she said” and so on.
If we all communicated only face-to-face there would be no gray area as to what someone really means when they communicate it.
Text messaging is not the root of all evil when it comes to communication. Facebook and Myspace add a whole different level to the communication playing field. On a daily basis, most of us communicate with one another through social networking sites. It often makes me wonder, as technology grows, how are we going to communicate with each other just 10 or 20 years from now? Will we even leave the house unless it is absolutely necessary?
I challenge you to sign out of your Facebooks and turn your iPhones off just for a while, because we might all get antsy and go to a public place and have a real conversation face-to-face. After doing so, let me know what is more rewarding; having a real conversation or writing on someone’s Facebook wall.
I think that we all need to take a step back and see how different things have become. I believe that in the near future we will all have a personal void to fill due to the lack of actual human interaction.
We need to embrace our social skills and put them into play before we all forget how to do so.
