By Josh Williams
Once upon a time, the people of the United States centered their entertainment around personal interaction: hanging out with their friends, playing sports with their buddies, and talking face to face with their lady or man friends. Today, however, we have replaced this personal touch with the iPod Touch. Our culture has transformed faster than Optimus Prime would have thought possible, changing the form with which people interact and entertain each other. Where we once had entertainment that required a person to interact, we now have entertainment that requires a person to plug in. Pages of books are now being turned with the press of a button on Kindles, friends are talking to each other face to face from their laptops, and video games have replaced the hide-and-go-seeking that used to be wildly popular. Even board games are now online. I am not claiming that any of these are bad things. On the contrary, I am an avid gamer. However, technology should not invade every aspect of our lives, because a personal note is often lost in translation from interaction to the Internet.
For example, talking to friends should not be online unless necessity requires it. This means that people should go out and meet their friends to talk and hang out, rather than getting on Facebook to talk to someone in the next room. It is understandable that one must resort to these electronic forms of communication when there is a large distance between the two and communication is limited. However, this substitute lacks what physical interactions have: a personal touch.
Skype, Facebook and other forms of online communication are not necessarily bad. In fact, there are many benefits to this, such as the amazing ability to stay in contact with distant friends. Without technology, this might otherwise be impossible. An issue arises when people abuse this privilege, never meeting their friends or family in person and choosing to chat online instead.
Another example of technology abuse is music. Today’s music leans heavily upon the crutch of technology in order to keep up with demand. Some music relies heavily upon technology because of the nature of its genre, such as electronic or rap. This technology has replaced the organic notes that were found in music in the recent past. Musicians played their instruments at such a proficient level that, together with the other members of a group, made a lovely sound that could be respected by the crowd who understood that the guitarist on stage was up there because he was a professional at playing the guitar. Now the effect is lost, as musicians merely hit buttons on a computer to make different sounds that are then looped together.
Once again, this technology and type of music is not necessarily bad. In fact, the ability to go online and order a new album and have it almost instantly is awesome. It is much easier than traveling to the nearest music store and picking up a CD that can get scratched or destroyed. However, the personal feeling that music once had is becoming more and more rare.
So the next time you are on Facebook, let these be your instant messages:
“Let’s hang out.”
“Do you want to meet so that we can conduct our conversation in person and experience how much better human interaction really is?”
Instead of spending your weekend locked up, hanging out with your friends over Xbox Live, actually meet up somewhere to do something real. Let’s bring it back to humanity.
