Technology and Social Interactions

I do not believe that the spread of technology has had any substantial impact on my everyday face to face interactions. I limit my use of social networks, not because I believe that they have a negative impact on social interaction, but simply because they do not interest me. The widespread use of texting has had the greatest impact on my personal life. It has had a positive impact on my face to face interactions simply by facilitating more of them. I use texting to get in touch with friends and make plans so that we can have face to face interactions. I find this technology to be extremely beneficial as it ultimately results in more time spent socializing in person with others. 

In a broader sense, technology has had a negative impact on the face to face interactions of society as a whole, in my opinion. As people become more adept to using online social sites they begin to lose the social skills that are associated with face to face interaction. This issue will be amplified among todays youth as they begin to use online social networks at a very young age. The time children spend online is time taken away from playing and socializing with friends. This is when children have traditionally developed their face to face socialization skills.  

Meeting people online is also something that I am not comfortable with. Online dating sites, Craigslist, message boards, fan sites, online gaming, and virtual worlds do not create meaningful relationships and allow people to neglect their everyday relationships. Aside from the few people who have found real connections via online dating services, these online relationships are merely superficial. As a result society becomes increasingly fragmented due to the lack of strong bonds between “real” friends. These online sites also provide potential predators with anonymity which can be extremely dangerous.  

Although it may seem as if I am completely against all forms of online interaction, I am not. I do think that these new technologies can have a positive impact on peoples lives when they are used to compliment “real”, face to face interactions. Some people have become so enthralled with online networks that they begin to substitute real relationships. This is the problem in my opinion. As a society we do need to work on creating more public spheres for people to interact. It seems as if all meaningful discussions are now taking place online in the form of blogs. People read the news from the internet and not the newspaper. These changes in society are not all bad, in fact many of them are beneficial in an economic as well as a social context. But although there are positive impacts on society we tend to overlook the issues. We should begin consider ways to bring people together and encourage more face to face interactions.