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My love-hate relationship of the times

I hate a love-hate relationship when it comes to the Internet and the social media. While I love the idea of being connected with the rest of the world, keeping in regular contact with friends both new and old, and being able to share and promote my written work, I also don't like how online interaction is taking the place of face-to-face interaction, how many seem to value sharing the appearance of a great experience over simply enjoying it, and how many seem to be becoming more narcissistic with these growing online trends.

I may start sounding like an old fart in this post and perhaps slightly hypocritical, given the fact I have this blog, a Facebook page, as well as Twitter and Tumblr accounts. However, in my defense, I am a writer, so that's what I use this blog for, as well as my Twitter and Tumblr accounts - to write, share my work, and market it. I just use my Facebook page to keep in touch with friends and family - new and old, near and far.

First off, it seems as if texting has taken the place of actual phone calls. While I'd agree that text messages may be the more fitting option with regard to brief messages, I don't believe that to be the case for lengthy conversations, and while I seem to constantly see people have such discussions while looking and typing away on their phones, rarely do I see people actually engage in those discussions while talking on their phones. I'll give in eventually, but that's one reason I've tried to stray away from texting to this point. If I want to read messages, I'll check my Facebook page or my Gmail account. I don't need nor want to check my phone every few minutes to see if I have a similar type message as one I could read online (and for free). Emails and texts are fine to a certain extent, yet reading such messages will never leave the same impact as actually hearing a person's voice, hearing their tone, or hearing their laugh. With an increase of written messages comes an increase in misunderstandings, because tone can't be heard through them, no matter how hard we try. There's just a less personal and human feel with text messages than there is with phone conversations, and while we may be connected with more people across the globe due to these incredible upgrades in technology, I also feel we're losing an emotional connection with others as a result, even those closest to us.

These new phone and Internet trends have also seemed to have an impact on genuinely enjoying life's great moments, as well as coming across as narcissistic or self-obsessed. I can't recall just how many times I've witnessed a group of people going out on a Friday or Saturday night, take group selfies to share on their Facebook pages, look like the happiest people in the world during this time, only to sit bored in between their poses, appearing to be the least happy people in the world. Often times, it seems that it's of greater importance for people to give off the impression that they're happy to the world than actually being happy, of looking like they're having fun to others than of actually having fun. While it can be nice to have a picture handy to represent a great memory, I often times find it that some of the best memories are those that no one outside of a few people know about - a memory that can't be fully captured by a picture, will never be forgotten, and will always be cherished. When I'm having a great time with friends or family, I don't think to myself, "You know what would make this perfect? If I disrupted this great moment by asking everyone to stop what they're doing, look back at me, and say cheese." I simply just try to be one with the moment and to fully enjoy the moment for as long as it takes me, because it's never for certain such a moment will come around again. Life may be more about image and illusion for some, but I find they're often times the least happy of the lot, for why would one feel the need to force an image of contentment to the world if they themselves were actually content?

Technology has improved leaps and bounds through the years, and through its vast improvements, has helped improve many aspects of people's lives as a result. However, with this increased level of technology, not to mention our addiction to and dependency on it, there are other aspects of our lives that have appeared to go in the opposite direction, and I sincerely hope we don't continue in this direction on these fronts; for impersonal-sounding text messages can never replace the warmth of a person's voice or the joy in a person's laughter, and giving the mere appearance of a great moment can never replace genuinely enjoying that very moment.

Comments

  1. You have such an interesting blog. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading your posts. All the best for your future blogging journey.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate it! I hope you continue reading and enjoying my blogs and that you have yourself a great rest of the week and start to your weekend! Take care.

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