One of the topics in Chapter 11 this week that I enjoyed
reading about was how the internet can lead to social isolation. I see this some nights in my family, where I
have one kid on Xbox Live, one kid on our Kindle, while I scroll through
Facebook on my phone. We tend to retreat
to our rooms, or conversational becomes minimal as we become absorbed in our
own worlds. It is interesting how in the
text it talked about in the 1950’s and 1960’s the television was introduced as
a way of bringing people together. Now,
with the availability of multiple televisions in one home as well as the DVR,
more families are watching TV in their own room so that they can watch their
own selection of shows. I definitely
feel that with email and texting being so prominent in our worlds now, it takes
away from the face to face conversations we all used to have. I often find that I would rather just send
someone an email or text to avoid having to see them in person or picking up
the phone and calling them. What happened
to 20 years ago when I could talk for hours on the phone with my friends??
I think the internet only leads to social isolation if we let it. I’m not always proud of the fact that I was one of the early pioneers of internet communication who communicated on bulletin boards using the famed 1200 baud modem (which could transmit at a blistering 1200 bytes per second). I was a bit of a social outcast in school and actually found friends in the very limited pre-AOL online world. Those were friends that because it was dial-up, generally lived nearby, but who I probably wouldn’t have met in school. My parents were old fashioned enough to expect me to enjoy meals and the occasional family function, but they also allowed me to use technology to develop my interests and hobbies.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about the same thing! I agree with you that this can only happen if we let it, however i think the majority is out of control. Nowadays, it is so hard to go anywhere especially resteraunts without seeing people on their phones, texting or facebooking. On the positive side, it is a great easy way to keep in touch but on the negative we have started to make it the only way we keep in touch and isolated ourselves from face to face communication.
ReplyDelete