Thoughts on Technology

I have a friend who quit Facebook. She says it’s a distraction for her and I respect that, but when she did quit, my first thought was: “How am I going to communicate to her or post pictures for her?” Luckily there are other forms of technology like Dropbox and texting to solve those issues, but at the time I just didn’t understand. 

For some inexplicable reason I do now. Technology has killed some of my friendships. Let me say that again, technology has killed some of my friendships. Now, once again, for those who know me, I like talking to people. Not just offline, but online as well. I am a big proponent for Video Chats. Now it may be weird for some, but I just feel that you can say more things and be sincere about it when you are talking to someone “face-to-face”. Sarcasm, or other inflections in tone just doesn’t go very well through chat. As a result, I sometimes feel like I’m losing connections with people as time goes on, and it’s just heart-breaking. For me, it feels like I’m standing in front of a crowd and just watching people slowly fade away. On the other hand, it shows me which people I can talk to and not worry about drifting away, whether it be offline or online. The fact that they care to talk to me through both mediums means everything to me.

This all came to me when I had an epiphany about the lost art of phone calls. When was the last time you called someone to have a conversation out of the blue. Not a conversation about a question of where is everyone or where is everyone going to eat, but actually calling someone to talk. TO have a dialogue where something important is shared. When I made a phone call to a friend the other day, it just felt so foreign. Yet, I had a great conversation where we talked for quite a while and it felt real and true. I wasn't waiting for some awkward emoticon to understand what she was going through.

It’s sad. That people don’t talk to each other meaningfully through technology. Rather just using it as a medium to get what we want. Now I’m not saying that we should all end our Facebook and Snapchat accounts right now, because I’m not. I will continue to try and start conversations on chat hoping for a meaningful exchange, and maybe, just maybe. Move a conversation from the keyboard, to the phone.