Okay, so I know what you’re thinking…
“reading boring blogs for ccc…fml”
Not because I’m a mind-reader, but because you just tweeted about it.
I grew up in a family that does not really care about technology. My mother is a letter writer, with beautiful penmanship and personalized stationary. My father gets home from work and reads books by the fireplace. We never had cable, or pagers or beepers. It is only recently that my family caved in to going mobile.
Growing up with this influence made a profound impact on how I view technology in the world today. I do not participate in many forms of communication because they go against my upbringing. I do not text message. I do not tweet. I do not use any sort of personal music device. It’s not that I hate the technology; I hate what it has done to society and how we relate to each other. Everything is so fast-paced and information filled, that in general people just don’t ‘converse’ anymore without an agenda. The Frontline video only reiterated that in my mind.
I recognize that I am putting a higher value on the ‘olden’ ways of communication and that there is some valuable progression that has come with our generation’s technology. But still, there aren’t situations where you make space in life for people, instead of filling in the time (presumably while waiting for the bus) with empty texts and one line responses. Is it a direct and efficient way of communication? Perhaps. But it takes out the element of storytelling and openness and creates a purely ‘mission accomplished’ mindset.
And so, it’s really all about mindset. I think that texting is used in a lot of situations to avoid people or difficult conversations. It is a mechanism of laziness (which we touched on in class). We are addicted to feeling up-to-date and plugged in, but ironically enough we’ve never been so out of touch with the honest truth.
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comment by Tallia Deljou:
ReplyDeleteI love the points you bring up in your post! I agree with you, too, that the "olden ways" of communication still do hold a lot of value. In effect, they send a different message altogether. I would much rather receive a handwritten letter from my mom than a quick typed-up email; taking the time to write me a letter and send it gives the message that she cares enough to take time out of her day to sit and write me a letter. It is more personal, and it hits closer to home than a five sentence e-mail that probably took her too long to type.
Your point about texting is valid too; I think in many situations people do, in fact, text in order to avoid a difficult conversation. This, in turn, affects relationships and communication abilities as a whole. As much as we think we know, we are "out of touch" in many ways as well. We have to make sure to create a balance in order to maintain relationships on solid grounds of communication and truth.