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.
