Sunday 3 May 2009

A drop by

I met someone yesterday who pretty much summed up my thoughts on technology and computers. By now you're all aware that I admire the leaps made in the world of online communication and wireless connections.

However, even though I admittedly am part of this, there's something going absolutely wrong in our society, as we begin to place more and more emphasis on social networking.

Take for instance this conversation I had last night. I was talking to someone who is embedded in the world of technology and communications and I admitted to him that admired the work 'his people' did. 

Having recently been forced to learn about html and coding myself, I was talking to him about how fascinating it is that when you take all these social networking sites apart, all that's left are triangle brackets ( < ) and a bunch of letters and numbers that, when put together, create some of the most graphically appealing websites out there.

Then he said something to me that I never expected to come out of of someone who has chosen to be a key part of this industry.

He said he wasn't too big on the leaps being made in the fast-paced IT world. I was surprised, so I asked if he could elaborate.

"Well, I sort of just showed up at my friend's place the other night," he said. "I just kind of wanted to see him, so I decided to stop by."

I wondered where this was going, so I waited for him to continue.

"He was surprised," he stated, plainly. "I didn't e-mail him or Facebook message him or anything to warn him that I was going to show up, so he thought it was strange."

Interesting, huh?

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal," he continued. "I mean, isn't that what people did, before all these forms of announcements came up?"

The man knew what he was talking about. What's happening to our society if when people decide to make fact-to-face connections, it's a cause for alarm?

The interesting thing is that the person was a good friend of this man.

It's worrisome, really. As the years go by, we're starting to spend so much more time in front of the computer, and, as a result, our social and personal communication skills are starting to suffer.

Has it really come to this? That people cannot approach each other at social gatherings, unless they've had some form of a textual connection before?

I can only imagine what 5 years from now will look like. And I hope it just stays in my imagination.

xo
SC

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