Communication technology: friend or foe?

Technology – December 14th, 2007 by Sarah

I made a somewhat startling realisation today.

Waking up at 7.30am, I stumbled out of bed and traipsed off to the bathroom, directing irksome thoughts at my housemates who continued to enjoy the bliss that only sleeping in can bring. Half an hour of primping and preening later I left the house, with my ears snuggly fitted with those now iconic little white headphones belonging to my trusty iPod. Music blaring, I bypassed the staffer at the train station and bought my return ticket from the automated machine, making sure I avoided eye contact with all my glazed-looking fellow commuters.

Alighting the train ten minutes later, I exited the station and headed to the bus stop. The ridiculously high volume of my iPod meant I missed a call from my mother, but I’d text her back once I got on the bus. After swiping my pre-paid ticket I headed to the empty row of seats at the back of the bus, sat down and hid my eyes behind big, black glasses for people-watching purposes. So many sets of little white headphones. So many thumbs madly button pushing.

After several hours of window shopping I headed home, following the same process. Dark glasses, blaring music, pre-paid tickets, automated machines. As my housekey turned in the door, I realised no one was home. This pleased me no end as it meant I would have a few precious hours of controlling the television. Settling into the couch, I began to feel a little odd. In spite of the comfort of watching re-runs of The Simpsons in an empty house, I was suddenly very much aware of how alone I was. And of the fact that I hadn’t actually directly interacted with anyone all day. In fact, I had made it more difficult to interact with others by immersing myself in my music and mobile phone.

The sad thing is, this is becoming more and more regular in our society. We don’t need to be able to communicate well to get what we want, therefore we can minimise real, old-fashioned contact with others to a startling degree. Sure, we’ve got email and text messages and instant messenger and email and interactive television and devices so tiny and powerful that the world is at our command at the click of a button no matter what our location or the time of day. But is this truly beneficial? I can’t even count the number of times I have chosen the ‘easy’ option of canceling plans via text, and the times I have used email to confront friends and even end relationships. This doesn’t make me stronger, nor does it teach me anything about creating and maintaining real, genuine relationships, or how to communicate effectively.

I think I might conduct an experiment. Tomorrow, I’m going to buy all my transport tickets from actual people, call instead of text and make plans with a friend rather than chill out alone in front of the teeves. I refuse to be a victim of technology, I choose my voice over my fingers! For tomorrow at least.

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antisocial behaviour, communication, computers, Internet, iPod, mobile phones, public transport, Technology, television, text messaging

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