Is Technology replacing Intimacy?

I feel like I should start this off with once upon a time, but that would probably be a bit extreme. So I'll just start like this, there were times when you would be waiting in a waiting room along with several other people and you were able to enjoy real human interaction. Although some people were not as eager as others to talk to strangers but more interested in reading a magazine or a book, but you could still engage them by asking a question about their reading material.

Now and days you enter a room and everyone is on their phones, it’s like they have a do not disturb sign on their forehead. So waiting rooms can be a pretty depressing place for people like me who thrive off of human interaction. I have even seen couples at dinner in very nice restaurants and instead of talking to each other both are on their phone.

Has technology taken over intimacy? Are people forgetting how to interact with real people, and instead using social media as their only form of socialization? Or is social media or our blind dependence on it a smoke screen for our true loneliness?

After studying our relationships with phones Larry Rosen, Professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills and author of  iDisorder: Understanding our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us, shows that our false sense of obligation to our phones are a result of anxiety that we are missing out on something.

Do we not realize that while our eyes are glued to a screen that we are really missing out on the glorious life that surrounds us.

Technology has dumbed us down and one by one we are becoming slaves to the Internet and victims of social media. Self-worth is attributed to how many likes you get for a scantly clad photo. Instead of breaking up a fight you videotape it hoping to be the first to post it on social media. New laws have been made to stop people from texting and driving. If you meet someone and exchange numbers instead of calling first, you text.

Why have we allowed technology to take over our lives?

On average people check their phones at least 150 times per day. I’m not against smart phones they are awesome in more ways that one. It’s our constant reliability on them for the very things we could and should be getting from good old fashioned person to person socialization is not only unhealthy but detrimental to ourselves and our families.

Do you agree or not? What is your relationship to your smart phone? I would like to hear from you.