The Essential Gift of Technology
Man, powered by his imagination and inquisitive character, has wondered the mechanisms of nature since the beginning of time. This quest for the truth: the ways in which his surrounding works, has led to many a scientific discoveries and innovations. Since the art of making fire and creating handcrafted tools, our civilization has come a long way. Technology is making advances at an amazing rate. From telephones to the internet, Facebook to Youtube, snapfish to BlogSpot, we are submerged in a sea of discoveries, inventions and ideas made possible by modern technology.
In the past 50 years of the technology boom, there has been a great contradiction to where exactly it is leading us. Most say this amazing technology we have gained has tremendously reduced human interaction and causes solitude. They have repeatedly suggested that modern technology is killing “family time”, destroying the world we live in and my favorite causing “ordinary daily life together [to be] diminished” (Winn 4). They complain social networking online is “the end of using the mouth to communicate”. I can sum all their comments in one word “POPPYCOCK”; modern technology, specifically internet is the greatest contribution and gift we have received. To communicate and interact socially with our peers has never been so easy.
Man, powered by his imagination and inquisitive character, has wondered the mechanisms of nature since the beginning of time. This quest for the truth: the ways in which his surrounding works, has led to many a scientific discoveries and innovations. Since the art of making fire and creating handcrafted tools, our civilization has come a long way. Technology is making advances at an amazing rate. From telephones to the internet, Facebook to Youtube, snapfish to BlogSpot, we are submerged in a sea of discoveries, inventions and ideas made possible by modern technology.
In the past 50 years of the technology boom, there has been a great contradiction to where exactly it is leading us. Most say this amazing technology we have gained has tremendously reduced human interaction and causes solitude. They have repeatedly suggested that modern technology is killing “family time”, destroying the world we live in and my favorite causing “ordinary daily life together [to be] diminished” (Winn 4). They complain social networking online is “the end of using the mouth to communicate”. I can sum all their comments in one word “POPPYCOCK”; modern technology, specifically internet is the greatest contribution and gift we have received. To communicate and interact socially with our peers has never been so easy.
One of the most acknowledged and prominent philosophers of all time once said “man is by nature a social animal” (Aristotle). Let us get one thought out of the way, there is nothing that could ever or will ever diminish human interaction in this world. Aristotle could not have said it any better, we are social animals. We strive for human interaction and to socialize with one another. One of each of our dreams is to throw a huge party to be able to socialize with all our friends at once. We love it and we can not get enough of it; for that reason Facebook and other social networks have been created, to make interaction easier and better.
The truth is how could someone possibly even suggest that these devices (i.e. Facebook, myspace, blogspot) are isolating or restraining social interaction? Besides being a social animal, everyone socializes whether they want to or not. We all have daily activities that force us to indulge in face to face human interaction. If it is employees to clients, co-workers to each other, or even teachers to students, we all mingle with one another for a large portion of the day. Face to face human communication is inevitable; it is our daily purpose and is vital in business, which we all are in. We socialize every day from 9 to 5. A person wakes up in the morning and goes to work has lots of co workers he makes conversation with every day, then they go to lunch together. That style of life will never change since it is encrypted in our genes as humans.
Besides for daily activities, an extremely strong disbeliever of my opinion, especially Marie Winn, might affirm that all this technology and social websites limits being social with friends and family outside our daily routine of social interaction. They believe it clearly limits household socialization. In their argument, all these modern devices prevent family interaction and hanging out with friends on a nightly basis. Nevertheless they come up short once again; it is clearly easier to contact and socialize with friends and family through social networks like Facebook.
The truth is how could someone possibly even suggest that these devices (i.e. Facebook, myspace, blogspot) are isolating or restraining social interaction? Besides being a social animal, everyone socializes whether they want to or not. We all have daily activities that force us to indulge in face to face human interaction. If it is employees to clients, co-workers to each other, or even teachers to students, we all mingle with one another for a large portion of the day. Face to face human communication is inevitable; it is our daily purpose and is vital in business, which we all are in. We socialize every day from 9 to 5. A person wakes up in the morning and goes to work has lots of co workers he makes conversation with every day, then they go to lunch together. That style of life will never change since it is encrypted in our genes as humans.
Besides for daily activities, an extremely strong disbeliever of my opinion, especially Marie Winn, might affirm that all this technology and social websites limits being social with friends and family outside our daily routine of social interaction. They believe it clearly limits household socialization. In their argument, all these modern devices prevent family interaction and hanging out with friends on a nightly basis. Nevertheless they come up short once again; it is clearly easier to contact and socialize with friends and family through social networks like Facebook.
A friend once reported:
There was this girl that I met through a friend of mine, she was so down to earth, so beautiful I just couldn’t stop thinking about her. The next day I was surprised and excited to see that she decided to “friend” me on facebook. Normally I would have probably never seen this girl again because the friend who introduced me for one thing wasn’t too close to me, I actually met him on the facebook group “football lovers” and he happened to live near me so we hung out once in a while. For another reason, the friend that introduced me barely knew the girl himself, so he couldn’t have helped much. As soon as I accepted the friendship on facebook I wrote on her wall a “break the ice joke” that occurred at our “never again” night out. From then on things just kept getting better. 3 weeks later we went on our first date. We’ve now been dating for 2 and a half months!
It is amazing how many doors and opportunities a networking site offers its users. How can a person even suggest it eliminates interacting with friends? Not only does it not diminish human interaction but promotes being social and gives people the opportunity to become close friends with peers that it would have been impossible to do without it. Facebook even has an application called “events” that allows the users to mark down on their personal calendar a party or social get together and it reminds them by e-mail a day before. This is just another reason why the world of modern technology only enhances a person’s social life. Back in the day, when a classmate decides to send a postcard to one of his peers, it has to be sent to a friend that he had an extremely close relationship with in school; you can’t just send a postcard to a classmate you on the odd occasion spoke to. Although with Facebook you can message an old classmate, who in school you ran in different circles but always seemed interested in.
It is amazing how many doors and opportunities a networking site offers its users. How can a person even suggest it eliminates interacting with friends? Not only does it not diminish human interaction but promotes being social and gives people the opportunity to become close friends with peers that it would have been impossible to do without it. Facebook even has an application called “events” that allows the users to mark down on their personal calendar a party or social get together and it reminds them by e-mail a day before. This is just another reason why the world of modern technology only enhances a person’s social life. Back in the day, when a classmate decides to send a postcard to one of his peers, it has to be sent to a friend that he had an extremely close relationship with in school; you can’t just send a postcard to a classmate you on the odd occasion spoke to. Although with Facebook you can message an old classmate, who in school you ran in different circles but always seemed interested in.
It even brings shy personalities out of their shell. Lots of timid boys and girls express themselves freely online which makes them more comfortable to interact in a face to face conversation that may happen anytime during school. It is simply a perfect world to communicate and interact. You never know how much that relationship can grow, hundreds of strong and meaningful friendships have formed online; all the credit goes to modern technology that made it easier for us to do so.
There are so many ways this technology encourages contact and socialization. Take internet blogs and YouTube for example; their purpose is to express individual opinion to the world and organize events for people with common goals to take part in. Blogs, which are relatively new, is transforming the way we can communicate and interact. Just the website Digg.com alone has about 17.8 million users. Personally after researching about blogs online, I have opened a BlogSpot account and post all my papers that I have written throughout my college career. I rather share my papers interactively online with other users rather than just saved on my computer. I’m sure all college students do the same, express their opinion online about current events and more. By expressing opinions of the same interests, forms a contact that a person would not have dreamed in a million years.
No matter in which way you look at it, all these modern conveniences are just a tool to be able to network with one another in a smooth and simple way. It is just a different way of presenting it, the bottom line is the internet is just another method in being able interact and socialize with all our friends. Despite all this evidence presented, the majority of people, mostly the elders, still assume that all this technology is bad for mankind, and disrupts family time. I don’t remember anyone ever criticizing the telephone in the home when it was introduced as preventing human interaction? It is the same concept, just different ways of reaching how we interact. In the end man is not able to stop socializing anyhow, it’s the way we live, it is what humans represent, we can’t stop ourselves, to put it simply; we are social animals!
There are so many ways this technology encourages contact and socialization. Take internet blogs and YouTube for example; their purpose is to express individual opinion to the world and organize events for people with common goals to take part in. Blogs, which are relatively new, is transforming the way we can communicate and interact. Just the website Digg.com alone has about 17.8 million users. Personally after researching about blogs online, I have opened a BlogSpot account and post all my papers that I have written throughout my college career. I rather share my papers interactively online with other users rather than just saved on my computer. I’m sure all college students do the same, express their opinion online about current events and more. By expressing opinions of the same interests, forms a contact that a person would not have dreamed in a million years.
No matter in which way you look at it, all these modern conveniences are just a tool to be able to network with one another in a smooth and simple way. It is just a different way of presenting it, the bottom line is the internet is just another method in being able interact and socialize with all our friends. Despite all this evidence presented, the majority of people, mostly the elders, still assume that all this technology is bad for mankind, and disrupts family time. I don’t remember anyone ever criticizing the telephone in the home when it was introduced as preventing human interaction? It is the same concept, just different ways of reaching how we interact. In the end man is not able to stop socializing anyhow, it’s the way we live, it is what humans represent, we can’t stop ourselves, to put it simply; we are social animals!
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