Sometimes I wonder if I really should write on a blog. It seems like so much of society is glued to technology devices in order to keep up with social networking statuses and the like.
I was thinking about how when I was younger, I made it a point to memorize my first cousins' birthdays. It kind of made me the person to ask when my other relatives didn't remember the date of someone's birthday. I thought it was cool to have birthdays memorized.
Nowadays, with Facebook, we do not have to take the time to remember birthdays anymore. We also do not have to spend time with any of our friends or family anymore because we can stay up to date on most people's lives by going on Facebook and reading statuses. In other words, social networking is allowing the human race to care less about their fellow human friends and we end up having so many acquaintances that we have to rely on Facebook to tell us when so many people celebrate their birthdays. This concept is sad to me.
Facebook has taken the place of instant messaging too. As such, I imagine AIM Instant Messaging, Yahoo Instant Messaging, and any other well-known instant messaging software has lost demand. Free google mail accounts and social networking sites with emailing capabilities also removed the need to pay for email services in order to keep in touch with each other.
It also reduced the amount of mail being sent through the US Postal Service. Writing letters by hand has become a dying art, so letters and cards matter more when they are received in a physical mailbox, which nowadays is dominated by assorted bills, coupons, sale ads, and marketing materials.
As I think about how the Internet is cheaper to use in some ways, I also have noticed that phone and cable companies still manage to charge Internet use bills. Bundle systems can be quite pricey. Hence, perhaps having individual access to the Internet in our homes still means technology use is expensive. One of the things we can rely on as humans is: we can always rely on humankind to come up with a way to extort money out of people for services (even if some of those services become free, life is still WAY WAY expensive).
I suppose the expensive aspects of life are strongly associated with the standard of living desired. If we want convenience of home wireless networks, individual cars to drive anywhere we want at any time we want, and assorted television channels to watch at any given moment at home, life can be expensively convenient.
The obsession with social networking keeps us away from spending time with people the old-fashioned way: by calling them up and setting up a quality time date. Even with all the technology in the world, the quality time I have spent with my family away from obsessive technology are the memories I cherish most.
Even though technology can have its drawbacks, there are still aspects of it that contribute to magical memories. I always liked listening to my Walkman while I went on road trips or sat fishing at various bodies of water on family vacations. As I grew older, devices for listening to music have changed from Walkman to portable CD player to Ipod/Zune. As a result, musical enrichment has always been an aspect of technology development to respect and appreciate.
Another aspect of technology development that has a great power to affect us is audio-visual devices. Family movies can remind us of times we may have forgotten or touched us. Photographs can commemorate memories, friends, and family that matter to us (either dead or alive). Having pictures of life over time can help us reminisce and reflect on what kind of lives we have led. Photographs can be treasures because they are not only images, but captured moments in this fleeting life.
Overall, technology is both hindering the quality of the human social experience through the advent of social networking obsessions and enhancing it via better means to listen to music, to video-record and to photograph events with video and digital cameras.
The question we must ponder is: Does technology benefit us more than it harms us? Where do we draw the line between constructive and destructive technology?
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