What is the reason this tiny piece of technology, which can be so beneficial in connecting us with our surroundings can also be able to separate us from the people behind us? I believe it’s the result of a trap. The ability to remain connected, or even plugged in, hinders our face-to-face connection all the time. For instance I used to be very bad at responding to or reading an email when my partner was speaking to me. I would listen to her for a few seconds alcohol rehab near me and then forget everything she had said to me. Sometimes, I had to insist that she be able to repeat what she said. As you might imagine, this wasn’t very good! However, I had certain rules, you know. I’d never pick up to answer the telephone when it rings, and when I was speaking to her. However, I would have an error of judgment in regard to texting or replying to emails. I’d need to catch myself and shut off my phone as I was made conscious of the look on her face that indicate I was acting rudely.
In reality that I was. What I realized was that this tiny device of communication was separating me from the personal conversations I had with people due to the need to remain connected to everything else could take over my life at times and eventually prevail. I was struck by the fact that the urgency to immediately respond to a chat on Twitter was more pressing than participating with the person-to-person conversation which was happening just in front my face, but in fact it was exactly the opposite. An interesting article was published that appear in USA Today that touches on this issue, and was titled “The popularity of Twitter has some relationships in a twist” it stated that
“Twitter isn’t the only participant in the race to get a loved one’s attention: Facebook and My Space, email through BlackBerry and iPhone as well as video and blogging games, blogging as well as messages via text (and its more sinister cousin that is Sexting). The scuffle between pop-rock pair Rihanna Chris Brown and Chris Brown started because, according to the police report, she read the text message of another woman’s cellphone and became angry.” (USA Today (link External link))
Technology is fantastic in allowing us to establish long-distance connections, it may also be great at tearing down our drug rehab west virginia most intimate connections those that are the most important. One might argue that “Being addiction to the wire universe might be perfectly healthy, of course, and it’s certainly defensible beneath the triumvirate of technology, curiosity, and progress.” (Doerr, 2009(link is external)) But what, if anything is enough? Is our digital world brimming with text messages, emails user interfaces, texts and much more got too far? I think it boils to finding the right appropriate balance between the amount we rely on technology and how much we allow technology to influence us. It isn’t just important for maintaining our close connections or relationships but also for our more distant ones.