Technology and Social Interaction

Technology has rapidly developed within the past decade and it is continuing to grow at a quick pace.  Recently, it has been hard to walk around school or any other public area without seeing someone watching their favorite sports team online, reading the New York Times on their kindle, updating their status on facebook, tweeting to followers about what a good day they are having, listening to their “top-rated” music on their ipod, or checking their smart-phone – looking up their appointments, checking emails, responding to text messages, playing games, etc.  Our society has become dependent and, to some extent, obsessed with technology.  Although it is something that has a lot to offer, I feel that it is affecting our face-to-face interactions for the worse.  Personally, I don't think that technology has impacted my own face-to-face interactions with others very much because it is something that I am wary of.  I’d much rather spend time with my family and friends doing things with them in person.  I am very conscious of maintaining personal and interactive relationships with others, which is why I make it a point to not let technology get in the way of my “real life” interactions.  However, generally speaking, I feel as though technology has progressed into something appealing for its efficiency, convenience, and constant new developments and this has hindered the face-to-face interactions among the people in our society as a whole.  People are becoming too attached to online communicating rather than conversations in person.  I think that we are embracing technology too rapidly and too eagerly and because of this we are having difficulty realizing the impact it is having on our social lives.  Interacting with others face-to-face is important because it is more personal and helps to develop social and communication skills in order to learn how to relate to all kinds of people.  Not only is it more enjoyable to interact with other people, it is also very useful in terms of getting along with others in the working world (i.e. the business environment). 

I am not very involved with the whole idea of using the Internet to meet other people from dating sites, chat rooms, gaming, etc.  I am aware that people partake in those kinds of things, but I am not entirely familiar with the specifics.  I personally don't think very highly of this kind of thing because it is not a very effective way of getting to know another person.  As it has been said over and over again, you never know who you are talking to on the Internet, making it a risky way of communicating.  I don't believe that you can develop meaningful relationships through the Internet.  What really matters is how you interact with others in person and really getting to know someone involves physically seeing how they behave and taking in the little things they do.  A lot can be determined by observing someone’s behavior as apposed to only “talking” to them through different online sites because you never know if what they are saying actually means something to them.  I do think that it is possible to have productive and significant discussions or debates online (re: political or social issues) because it can be a lot easier to articulate your thoughts when you are writing them down rather than having to think of things to say on the spot when you are verbally communicating.  However, in terms of forming meaningful and substantial relationships via the Internet, I feel that it is just not something that works.  There may be the rare and occasional successful relationship formed online, but realistically speaking, stable and significant relationships of any form are shaped through personal interactions with one another.