In our wonderful technological world
of internet, Android phones, iPads and instant gratification, we've lost a great
deal of our humanity. People text and e-mail rather than talk to one another
directly. E-mails and texts don’t contain tone of voice or feeling. We lose the
power to communicate. We become remote, once removed from the personal. We use
tweets and abbreviated letters instead of real words. We've all seen people
text at concerts, movies, theatre. We no longer concentrate on interpersonal
relationships. People don't matter. We don't even talk to one another or look each
other in the eye. Conversation will become a lost art. Does anyone really care
that you were eating a hamburger at midnight in Times
Square ? How do we really feel about each other in REAL TIME?
We're living in a world of virtual
reality. It separates parents from children and us from each other. Talk TO me,
not AT me. We definitely do things faster but not better. The internet, with
its Facebook and blogs, is supposed to unite us but it really isolates us. We
are seeing a new generation who cannot spell, don't know grammar and have
limited vocabularies. Listening skills are going by the wayside and today's
technology fails to encourage their listening skills. What happened to the days
when parents sat and read to their children? Even on “play dates,” kids go into
separate rooms and talk to each other on the computer.
Facebook, which began as a dating
service for college kids, now connects us with people who we haven't seen in
years and really don’t care about us (or us about them). Otherwise we would
have remained in touch! Letter writing is a thing of the past and many jobs are
now obsolete. Most magazines, newspapers and books you can actually hold in
your hands are disappearing. All this is supposed to be "green" and
wonderful but I very much doubt it. We can't go backward but we also can't let
technology destroy our souls. The internet promises, "Oh the places we’ll
go and the people we’ll see” (to quote Dr. Seuss). Of course they won’t be
real. No pictures can replace visiting a new country; no picture of a new
grandchild can replace a hug.
One of the funniest things that ever
happened to us took place a few days ago. A friend of ours just bought a brand
new smartphone. He showed us all its tricks and then said, “Look at this!” He
typed in the name of our restaurant (on 72nd St and Third Ave ) and sure enough, there it was
on the screen of his phone. “Isn't this the greatest thing you've ever seen?”
he gloated, “This is right where we are.” The only problem was we already knew where
we were. “Parlez moi d’amor,” i.e. speak to me of love but please don't tweet
it, text it or e-mail it, just say it.
:) Sue