Will Technology Bring the Demise of Social Interaction?
Recent technological advances have provided us with unlimited access to information and the opportunity to communicate with anyone at any time. The Internet, instant messaging programs, and smartphones have revolutionized our culture and the way our society interacts. However, the question remains as to whether our social skills have been enhanced, or harmed by the innovations of the information age.
Much of what makes us human- our gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, enunciation, etc.- are often lost or misunderstood through electronic communication. With the sense of anonymity we feel typing onto a screen, our words become depersonalized, misrepresented, and they can easily be misconstrued. We create virtual personalities that are often more recognizable to our peers than our true personality.
We can essentially live out our lives sitting in front of a computer screen; we can order our groceries online, communicate with friends, stay updated on world issues, sustain a job, learn a language, and virtually satisfy a dream by creating a Second Life. While the prevalence of these advances certainly has benefits, is it ever truly as genuine as the real thing? Where has face-to-face human interaction gone?
Even our emotions have become compilations of punctuation signs – 
, <3 , >:-(
How long before our soul, the core of what makes us distinctively human, becomes misplaced in a binary world of 0’s and 1’s?
Tags: Communication, Second Life, Social Interaction, technology, texting