I enjoy watching people and how they interact with each other. Yesterday, while eating breakfast at one of the upscale neighborhood eateries, I kept tabs on a family a few tables away from me. A thirty-something mother, a slightly older thirty-something father and a teenager about 13 pushing 21.
They each had a smart phone and were very intent on interacting each with his/her device. They seemed to be conversing albeit not directly but rather via their devices. This continued for the entire meal. People eating at the same table and communicating via their devices while enjoying a meal.
It made me stop and think of how our communication habits have changed with time and technology. There are no longer direct person-to-person conversations but rather conversations via technology devices. We no longer look directly at each other and if by chance you make eye contact with a stranger, it is as if you are encroaching on their personal space and this is simply because you are making them uncomfortable since they are no longer capable of this kind of direct contact. Try it and you will most likely be accused of staring at someone. If you sit in a bar and make eye contact with people they become uncomfortable. Direct interaction is no longer something we look forward to but rather encroachment into our private space.
Fifty years ago, before the technology devices descended upon us, we had no option but to communicate directly and this is the way we sated our innate desire to be gregarious. Today, even children communicate with parents via devices in this new language of ‘texting’. The satisfaction is coming from interacting with the device and not with another human being.
Makes me wonder how soon the day will come when humans will make love via our devices. It is just a matter of time before a male will deposit sperm in his device and the female will collect sperm via her device. Don’t laugh…this will no longer be called artificial insemination but how we in future make sexual contact with each other. Makes me so glad I’m on the down side of that slippery slope.