I constantly see my friends,on their touch-screen phones, giving status updates and posting pics and info in real-time. It really amazes me. But, when I see this as a growing phenomenon, it kinda concerns me.
A lot of people are so engrossed in their phones, that it seems like it consumes them. Isn't it addictive? We get stuck in this 'virtual world' that, in my opinion, isn't anything like the real world. We lose touch of how to really communicate. Mobile social networking seems far less impersonal than a regular conversation. I can't hear my friend's tone of voice or see facial expressions. In my opinion, we're losing the human element to being interactive social beings.
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Its hard not to relate to your concerns of a future world where no one exists in reality, their head stuck in a virtual world (which if you are interested in, you should read Neil Stephenson's novel, Snow Crash). Yet at the same, what makes virtual communication less authentic or real just because its not tangible? If the virtual is where everyone is, then certainly it too is part of the 'real' world.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the example of incorporating technology into security where the student has to turn off a timer within a certain amount of time or campus police are dispatched. I think there is so much that technology can do to help us in ways not before possible. It's a fine line, though between our using and controlling technology and it controlling us. It's great to use my mobile phone to keep in touch with friends and family in various ways, but life would not be as interesting if we didn't get our face to face time.
ReplyDeleteIt can be a concern. As a sarcastic, caustic individual, I find that I get into a lot of trouble because of my inability to express these inflections in techno-speak. That's why emoticons are ESSENTIAL ;-)
ReplyDelete@Geoff: I'm thinking about your comment, "If the virtual is where everyone is, then certainly it too is part of the 'real' world." In line with this post and everyone's comments, I'm wondering just how big a "part" it should be. Since so much of our communication is nonverbal, it seems like the virtual world is greatly limited. It's so ridiculous that people like poor JRDudley are forced to use punctuation codes to try to express themselves!
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