Spring Break
Opposing Views: MySpace, texting, instant messaging ... is cellular and online socializing making our generation too impersonal?
YES
Sarah Kyo
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Opinion
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I'll admit that I am attached at the hip to my laptop, figuratively speaking, and my cell phone, which is often quite literally in my pants pocket. In fact, when I began writing this opinion piece, I was instant messaging a friend who lives in the same building, just one floor above me.
Sure, we could have met each other in person. Instead, we hid behind "brb," "lol" and "ttyl" and the emoticons that are supposed to convey happiness, annoyance and irony - "the Alanis Morissette sense of the word" (as the opinion editor would say) or otherwise.
While further developing this article, I bounced ideas off at least a couple people and asked for their thoughts and suggestions. Neither the Internet nor batteries were used during the course of these brainstorming sessions. I did it the old-fashioned way through good, old, face-to-face conversations.
An emoticon cannot truly capture the complexity of human emotions. Instead, it is better to experience these emotions while you're in the moment. Nothing beats being in the presence of other people: being able to actually reach out and touch them, seeing their faces and hearing the tone in their voices. That way you can tell whether they are being serious about what they're saying to you or if they really are "jk."
Technology is a big part of society and people's lives. Heck, we're attending school in Silicon Valley. Thanks to the latest technology, it's easy to instantaneously reach anyone, no matter his or her location, at anytime.
But are we really connecting?
Ever meet up with someone and tried to have a conversation, only to be interrupted by cell phone calls and text messages? Real life shouldn't be put on hold.
We're living in a time when all you need are opposable thumbs and a cell phone to convey a message. If you want to contact someone, there's no need to contact him or her directly. There's no need to talk to them at all. Conversations can be condensed down to an alphabet soup of letters with numbers mixed in for additional spice.
Sure, we could have met each other in person. Instead, we hid behind "brb," "lol" and "ttyl" and the emoticons that are supposed to convey happiness, annoyance and irony - "the Alanis Morissette sense of the word" (as the opinion editor would say) or otherwise.
While further developing this article, I bounced ideas off at least a couple people and asked for their thoughts and suggestions. Neither the Internet nor batteries were used during the course of these brainstorming sessions. I did it the old-fashioned way through good, old, face-to-face conversations.
An emoticon cannot truly capture the complexity of human emotions. Instead, it is better to experience these emotions while you're in the moment. Nothing beats being in the presence of other people: being able to actually reach out and touch them, seeing their faces and hearing the tone in their voices. That way you can tell whether they are being serious about what they're saying to you or if they really are "jk."
Technology is a big part of society and people's lives. Heck, we're attending school in Silicon Valley. Thanks to the latest technology, it's easy to instantaneously reach anyone, no matter his or her location, at anytime.
But are we really connecting?
Ever meet up with someone and tried to have a conversation, only to be interrupted by cell phone calls and text messages? Real life shouldn't be put on hold.
We're living in a time when all you need are opposable thumbs and a cell phone to convey a message. If you want to contact someone, there's no need to contact him or her directly. There's no need to talk to them at all. Conversations can be condensed down to an alphabet soup of letters with numbers mixed in for additional spice.
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