Oof. Hits close to home. Similarly, I'm on the fence as to whether or not the younger generations will increasingly lack social skills when they're AFK....e-mail is easier, still, because one can hide behind the absence of vocal inflection, and of course there’s no chance of accidentally catching someone. And texting is even easier, as the expectation for articulateness is further reduced, and another shell is offered to hide in. Each step “forward” has made it easier, just a little, to avoid the emotional work of being present, to convey information rather than humanity.
I was going to go off on a rant about this, but I couldn't think of a way to put my thoughts into words that I wanted to post here. It's so much easier to do it when you are with someone in person. I'm glad that I have friends that I can talk to or I would go crazy (I reckon this is true of everyone) but sometimes it's finals week or there is some coursework and everyone seems busy or you're too busy to hang out. It's fine if you just knuckle down and get working or go for walks or a bike ride because eventually everything gets going again and exercise really helps but it's a shame that it has to start in the first place.
"Technology celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat." Such a tough sentence to digest. Its completely true that the more we devote our lives to technology and social media, the more we divert away from face to face, the less effort we contribute to a physical society in which we all are. Some simple things which happened years ago, say leaving a mobile phone in another room while eating dinner is a changed discourse. Now, in a university hall of residence's dining room, smart phones battle for space with plates and tweets compete with the constant volume of the general chirp. I believe social skills have already begun to lack.
Thanks. Great article. I often find myself preferring the safe distance digital communication gives me, even though I know face-to-face interaction is more valuable.I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts.
insomniasexx kindly made a JPG of the site Also, in the future it might help to press ctrl+shift+c, click the popup/element you don't want( ), let it bring you to the code, right click and then select "Delete node" :)
On Chrome you can right click, click inspect element, right click in the bottom thing on the highlighted element and click delete node.
That also works on the photograph obscuring pane of OkCupid.com I hear.