Living in a world where my Iphone is always vibrating (I turn off the ringer), my pager is always beeping, and my four hundred facebook friends can find out what I had for breakfast and how my morning run went, I struggle between constant awe and overwhelming disgust at the role this technology plays in keeping me both connected and disconnected with others.
Living in a world where I go on a date and my date gets text messages or answers his phone in the middle of our conversation, I struggle with how to connect one on one with someone.
Living in a world that allowed me to coordinate a hundred dates in a couple of years while scanning through thousands of online profiles and rejecting hundreds of emails keeps me in awe of technology.
In the end, what we are all searching for is that connection with others--whether they be our friends, families, or lovers. And that connection--I find--is so much more beautiful when it can be treasured in the absence of interruption by technology. I write this even as I know that the only reason I can communicate it with the world is the existence of the very technology that I flee.
I am not sure what the answer is, but I do feel like this constant connection, this constant need to be connected somehow, to the world--through facebook, twitter, and the next-new-thing, takes away the precious moments I have with people. The precious moments that used to be shared and savored are now frequently interrupted by rings and buzzes and text messages.
My solution is to put away my phone. But what is yours? And can we continue this way?
RIP - Davy Jones
3 days ago
1 comments:
I'm seeing a cultural divide emerging between people who love constant connection and feel uncomfortable if deprived of it even briefly, vs. people who find the constant interruptions maddening.
I hate it if someone comes into my home and their phone rings and they ignore me to deal with it. Used to be, if a phone rang in my house, it was my landline and I could ignore it or say "Not now, I'm busy with guests." It's a lot harder to convince other people shut off their phones. The constant interruptions have a huge negative impact on personal interactions.
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