Blog 3: Technology and Social Interaction

    Technologies influence on social interactions is undeniable as we locate the mass amount of communication devices used on the web today. While there is much debate on whether the impact has had a positive or negative effect on everyday face-to-face interactions, I believe there are both many pros and cons. Personally, I don’t think technology has negatively impacted my everyday face to face interactions and I feel like I still hold close personal relationships and can engage fully in one-on-one interactions. I think that technology and the ease in communication with friends and family has simply made me lazier. Instead of calling someone, I will just send a text, Facebook message or email. While I am well aware of how much I use technology to communicate with other people, I also don’t think it has taken away from my one-on-one interactions. I find it really helpful to have emails, texts and other messages to resort back to in order to remember something better than if someone simply told me in a phone call. While I usually am overwhelmed with the feeling that technology is taking over our lives in a negative way, I can’t dismiss the amount of ways it has aided in my life. Being one of the only people I know without a blackberry or a cellphone with internet available, I never assumed I minded until I was abroad in Italy last semester. While all of my friends could quickly BBM (blackberry message) their parents, I had to use email or Skype to ever get in touch with my parents. Not that I am complaining as the programs are simple to use, but it became difficult with time difference and schedule conflicts to be able to find a time to talk to my parents on the phone and be able to fill them in on my experiences abroad. Skype became my main tool for contacting them to have a verbal conversations once every week or two, and email became my main source of interaction as I would send them my journal I kept while I was abroad. My parents would constantly forward my long emails describing what I was doing with my days and where I was traveling to the rest of my family to keep them updated on my life. When I returned, many members of my family expressed how thankful they were for the emails and felt like they were with me abroad. I feel like there was no better way to share my abroad experience if it weren’t for my ability to email my parents every week explaining what was new and alerting them to not worry as I was still alive.
    While I think there are many beneficial aspects to technology and social interactions, I can’t dismiss the latter. In reflecting on my own use of technology for interaction on a daily basis, there have been occasions of miscommunication through the use of technology, which face to face interactions would not have caused. Using written text rather than verbal communication allows for the reader to invent the emotion of the sender. When you get a text or email, the individuals voice is not present. I have experienced situations of, for lack of a better word, emotional miscommunication where either I, or the person I am communicating with, has misunderstood the emotion or opinion trying to be displayed through written text.
    In general, I feel both positively and negatively to technologies impact on social interactions on a whole. I think it is impossible to deem its impact as either positive or negative as a whole as I feel it is individualized and individuals use of technology is vastly different worldwide. However, I do think it is important to note certain trends and issues present while using technology for social interactions. The internet allows anyone to convey anything about themselves whether factual or fictional. While I think it is possible for websites such as online dating sites, Craigslist, message boards, fan sites, online gaming, or virtual worlds to allow for legitimate personal relationships to form, it is also possible for one to essentially create a completely new identity. While individuals involved with such websites have different motives for its use, it is possible for those “scumbags” of the world to invent a pretty profile to seem “legitimate”. In a world full of billions of people means that, while we would like to assume all that is posted on the web as coming from decent, intelligent individuals, there are clearly going to be situations where this is not the case. While I think it is possible for people to create meaningful relationships via online communities, one must always be cautious of how simple it is for one to invent a new identity with the internet.
    Another important aspect of technology and social interaction that I think is worth commenting on is the age in which an individual engages in such interactions. I think it is very important for children to engage in face to face interactions throughout their childhood to be able to use technology for social interaction in a beneficial way. I think one must grow up interacting face to face rather than online to establish relationships as a key to growing up. I am so thankful that I did not use technology for social interaction during at least the first 10 years of my life and while technology is made communication easier for me at this point in my life, I really did not need to use it during my childhood and don’t believe it is good for a child to engage in such interactions as their minds are constantly developing. In conclusion, I believe that in general the use of technology for social interactions can be both positive and negative depending on the individual and how he or she uses the internet.