5.13.2008

The Gift of Technology

Are all these improvements in technology really helping us communicate? Or are we just becoming more vague?

We text the wrong person or even if we text the right person they don’t understand what we mean.
Our emails are read wrong.
We send things off in an instant instead of really thinking about them.
We post something on someone's facebook wall and don't think of who else might be reading it.
We read things as they were not really intended because we can’t see facial expressions or hear tone of voice.

We have cheapened our communication. We think we are communicating when in fact we are just reminding people we exist and substituting relationships for superficial points of contact.

5 comments:

Justin said...

I think we should go back to letters--it'd give us a chance to breathe between communication and not leave one party (or both) always expecting an instantaneous reply; as if, if you don't reply straight away, you don't care.

Also, there's an excitement about getting mail (that isn't bills) that doesn't QUITE translate to your gmail inbox. Although I do get pretty excited to receive email from certain people.

Olivia Hein said...

i agree with "Jus". My sister will sometimes surprise me by sending me a letter in the mail or having my nephews color me pictures and mailing those to me.

it really brightens my day to get something in the mail that isn't a bill.

Anonymous said...

Paper Letters are good, but really I never have stamps so even the letters that I do write they never get sent. The folks in my church don't have email addresses, and often I am at a real loss in communicating with them. So the loss of clarity we make up for with more communications. In fact while writing this post i am talking with a classmate, and with clear face to face talking, I had some trouble understanding, so it seems that in every form of communication we have this ambiguity.

First Pres. Youth Group said...

I came to a realization this week...g-chat is not my love language. In fact, most of the time it drives me nuts. I am fine with a few quick lines back and forth, but (a) I don't really like everyone knowing each and every time I'm on g-mail and(b)If I am g-chatting I am probably doing 4 other things at the same time. I sometimes feel like I'm being cyber-stalked by frequent g-chatters!

Michi said...

Text messaging can get on my nerves. And I hate when people communicate with me through chain emails.

Otherwise, call me a techy, but I love email and instant communication! I'm not a fan of the phone; I'm just not a talker. I kind of like sitting in front of the computer and being in my own little world. Guess that's what makes me a fantastic graphic designer! ;D