Are we using technology as a barrier? As you can tell from my last post on how I feel that technology is making us socially inept that I am firm believer that it does affect our interpersonal skills. We use it as a way to mask who we really are. In an article on alternet.org titled "Is Technology Bad for Relationships" by Samantha Edwards of Sirens Magazine, she really gets in to detail about how it has affected our day to day relationships. "What happened to handwriting? What happened to privacy on a date? What happened to friends-of-friends? What happened to it not being so easy to pretend to be something we're not?" Edwards states in her article. It's true, we may think that we are keep in contact with the people in our lives, which we are, but is it real human interaction? Are we really being ourselves or are we taking advantage of the fact that we are saying that things that we would never say because we are doing it through a computer screen?

http://www.alternet.org/story/55262/

Social Networking

Social networking is the dawning innovation of our era. I find it crazy how our generation will be able to reconnect or keep in touch with our friends and family through out the years. It's not like our grandparents had the opportunity to see what there old college buddies are up to and where an old flame is. I find it so fascinating. Every decade had there milestone, and we have social networking. Although it is such a great innovation, it has it's downside just like anything. We need to realize the our peers aren't the only ones looking at our facebook pages. Employers are now using our profiles just like our resumes and cover letters. We need to be aware that social networking sites are a growing innovation and it still has so much capability as to what it can do.

Technology making us socially inept?

Is technology making us socially inept? In our day and age, it is normal to be asked out on a date via text, interviewed over the phone, or be broken up with over facebook. Whatever happened to face-to-face communication? Is our generation being crippled because of our new innovations? I really think so.

There are just somethings that can not be done online or through text messaging. The movie "Up In The Air" really shows how this notion is true. The movie is about an agency that is payed to go into corporations and fire people. A younger, freshly graduated woman is just hired to the agency and has the idea to relieve people of their jobs through web cam because she feels it will save the company money and time. Although her idea sounds like the sensible thing to do on paper, it back fires on her when it is actually put into play. When people found that they were losing there jobs from a computer screen it had and even more negative effect then when it was done in person.

The technology that we use on a day-to-day basis can be seen as a good thing and a bad thing. Lets not let innovations effect our interpersonal relationships.

Technology widening the generational gap?

Although it is becoming easier to keep in contact with family and friends through modern technology, it is also widening the generational gap between today's youth and the elderly. According to a recent article on nielsonwire.com, the typical "facebooker" averages 7 hours per month on the social networking site. It seems like sites like facebook and twitter are consuming our time, or rather our lives and it's no doubt that it is pushing us further away from our elders. That doesn't go to say that every grandma or grandpa out there are like cavemen when it comes to technology but I'm going to go out on the limb here, and say that most are.

I catch myself talking to my grandparents (who are Portuguese immigrants) about whats going on with my social life via facebook. "Oh Jen and Joe are doing fine. They are still facebook official." And then I will catch myself, first of all did I really just say that/who cares and secondly they have no idea what facebook is or how it works.

Sadly these are the thoughts that are consuming today's youths minds (not excluding myself). We should be using these social networking sites to our advantage, not as an open arena to gossip.

In conclusion, I think we should make more of an effort to close that gap. I think it is important for everybody to learn more about technology because it is our future. With that said, I leave you with a personal favorite clip of mine for your enjoyment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnyaKiDQdo&feature=related

How technology has changed communication forever!

Technology has changed our day to day activities when it comes to our communication. Being a college student living 8 hours away from home, technology has become such a necessity in order to keep in contact with family and friends. Now I can communicate through social networking sites such as facebook and twitter, instant messaging, texting if I can't use the phone in a certain situation, or even through the use of a web cam. I have found it a lot easier to keep in touch with people through these elements rather than the use of a phone.

Although these technological advances have brought on newer, faster, and more efficient ways of communicating they also have some issues that come along with them. There is generational gap has been widened due to these advances, people are losing their ability to communicate interpersonally, things can be interpreted or viewed in a different manner then intended, etc.

I will be discussing these issues and the change technology has brought upon us when it comes to communication. So stay tuned!