Technology: Friend or Foe?

The debate over the positive and negative aspects of technology has been a topic of interest for a long time. People argue that Facebook brought people together while other people like Sherry Turkle believe that online communication has become the demise of our generation.

I recently got the chance to go see Oprah Winfrey live at the Saddledome and she actually touched upon this issue. She said that everyone needs to take an hour a day to disconnect from technology such as phones, TV, Internet etc. She joked that for her she can only handle 20 minutes but her message is a meaningful one. We need to have moments where we disconnect, just sit and think because if we continue to be plugged in to whatever we’re doing twenty-four seven our lives will literally blur around us and we’ll all be looking up from the screens in 20 years saying “hey, what happened?” In fact, disconnecting from arguably the most addicting technology, our phones can be extremely liberating. I had a friend just a few weeks ago that had come over and had forgotten her phone. We then went out to the bar and I asked her “Don’t you feel liberated?!” and she profusely agreed. It really is freeing to not have your ball and chain in your pocket and I honestly can’t believe that this is legit how our parents lived everyday for decades.

I consider myself pretty lucky when I look at my parents. My mom is open about her lack of tech skills (visions of her squinting threw her bifocals attempting to take a picture on my IPhone come to mind) and I honestly think that’s okay. My dad likes to think he is super tech savvy but the fact that he still gets excited when he sends me a selfie of himself gives him away. I think that the way our parents embraced evolving technologies had a huge affect on how we use technology now. My mom still calls her mom almost everyday and talks to her sisters weekly and it was instilled in me that when you care about people you pick up the goddamn landline and CALL them. 

It still baffles me that people are literally scared to pick up their home phone, god forbid look up a friends phone number and call them to get together. But I will mention that I am coming from the perspective of not having a cellphone until grade 10 thus the landline was the only way I could really get a hold of anyone.

Blake Snow’s article "Why some dissatisfied users are shunning Facebook" brought about some good points that really are valid. People are getting bored of Facebook’s predictability and from a personal perspective I can say that it certainly isn’t the first app I click on when I grab my phone. I do like the new features where you can unsubscribe to people’s posts without having to de-friend the, and you can now see when a person has read an inbox message it still seems that Facebook is slipping in terms of trendiness and usage. And people really did get addicted to it, while I never spent hours upon hours on the site I certainly can remember some pretty extensive “creepin” of people’s photos…oops. I have made the observation though that the new trendy social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest are a lot less intimate than Facebook with photos, likes and repins acting as the main source of communication. Twitter is a bit more intimate in terms of users being able to have a platform to concisely express their thoughts and feelings but it still isn’t that great.

Now I totally understand why people become a part of online communities. It gives them a sense of belonging, of feeling valued and heard. It is also seemingly free of the chance to be humiliated especially when you can be anonymous or use a false identity. But the usage of these false screen names is exactly what kills the real intimacy and friendship that can be developed. In the community that I currently participate in there definitely is a sense of camaraderie but I would be curious to see how many of the users actually have relationships in real-life. Who Skypes one another and who has coffee regularly? What do they really know about the other users other than that they also have a passion for makeup and beauty products?

The debate over whether or not technology does more harm than good will continue to be an important issue throughout our generation but I really do believe that it all comes down to this one piece of advice and that is “everything in moderation.”