Killing Genuine Human Interaction

As the world seems to be making huge strides in technology, the human element is slowly being phased out of day-to-day life. You can now do almost anything from a cell phone and to be completely honest, the activity done the least on a cell phone is... talking on the phone. I make no bones about my feelings of talking on the phone; I hate it... with a passion. But why is that? Am I a byproduct of the environment I've been brought up in? Would I be the same person without the internet and instant messaging  and texting and Myspace and Facebook? I can't help but think the world would actually be a better place if we, as a society, didn't rely so heavily on such things as a mode of communication. But, at the same time, I can't think of a relationship I've had that wasn't spawned from the internet. I'm such an introvert, and the internet (later, texting) turned into the perfect arena to use to meet people and completely ignore my diminishing social skills.

It's been nearly 10 years since AOL kind of ran the internet, and everywhere you look, you see what instant messaging has morphed in to. People with their noses glued to their phones, unable to look away even for a minute, carrying on 4 conversations at once, while simultaneously browsing Facebook, Twitter and the internet. While I marvel at the distance mobile technology has traveled over the past 10 years, I also fear at what the future holds and what effect all of this will have on us. How many relationships have been destroyed because of how easy it is to just text someone else? Texting makes it easier than ever to stray and to feel like you're not really doing anything wrong. Or how does it feel to be in the same room with someone who IS that person I described? On the flip-side, texting can help keep a relationship fun and exciting on a whole new level. It used to be that a wife could surprise her husband at the office for a nooner, which is still a great weapon to fight staleness in a marriage, but now couples can use texting/sexting to tease each other through the day and become irresistible to one another and that could lead to a potent and volatile sex life and is something that just was not available before. That may be the healthiest thing to come out of it.

I also look back at where technology was when I was born and can't even to begin to imagine where it's gonna be when Blaiden is my age. It's actually scary to think about where we will be as a society and how we will treat each other. We now have a society that can say what it wants behind the glow of a cell phone with little to no consequences and it's now commonplace to see kids and adults alike walking, driving, working, watching TV, or spending time with friends and family while simultaneously looking at their phone. I can't imagine a world where things may be worse than they are now.

I'm not saying I'm not guilty of any or all of the above. Like I said, I'm a byproduct of the world around me. I would like to say I intend to try to do better, not only for me, but for the others around me; but when you're surrounded by it, it can get a little lonely sometimes. One of the reasons for me starting a blog in the 1st place was to recover the part of me that was good at writing and putting my thoughts on paper (virtual paper in this case)... to keep my mind working and sharp, because, in this era of texting, I kind of lost that.