Due to some unfortunate circumstances with one of our children, my best friend and I had a conversation the other night about the evils of technology. You may consider this to be hypocritical considering the avenue to which this information is coming to you but I would prefer to look at it as ironic. I am going to make myself sound old with the following statement, but I can't believe how much the world has changed in the last 15 years. Practically every person over the age of 12 has a cell phone. Even my 76 year old mother uses one! Hardly anyone writes checks anymore or even mails their bills. Hell, we don't even get actual paper bills. We use debit cards and pay for things over the phone or online. We view our bank statements, and all of our bills with the click of a mouse. If you have a computer, a debit card, and reliable internet service it is feasible to take care of everything in your life without ever leaving your home. Food, clothing, medicine, you name it and it can be delivered to you for the right price. In the beginning this was exciting. How much easier life would be! We could now talk on the phone no matter where we were or what we were doing. We could conduct business or catch up on personal news 24/7. We could email someone and instant message and not have to wait days for a letter to get to someone and days again for the reply. We could fax documents! Instant receipt of contracts and signatures. How awesome this is. Then the social networks arrived. Myspace and Facebook allowed us to connect to long lost friends and even strangers. Again, this is amazing, right? Not so much. Flash forward a few years. We are now connected to people 24 hours a day no matter where we are. You can even connect to the internet using your phone! In the life of an adult this is sometimes overwhelming. I miss the days of getting in the car and going shopping without getting twenty phone calls or text messages. There is no peace and quiet. In the life of a teenager, this means staying connected to the already dramatic world that teens live in. There is no escape for them. Everyone knows everything about everyone else and they know it in the instant it takes to hit "send". They also leave themselves open to the risk of exposure to strangers. Gone are the days of the 'don't talk to strangers' talks. Now we have to say don't talk to, instant message, accept email or friend requests from, or any in form, in person or via the phone or internet, have any contact with or give information to someone you do not know or have not had in-person contact with and who is not known by your parent or legal guardian. Does that cover it? Possibly, but only for today. Something will change soon that will have to be added to the warning. The internet has given us all a supposedly secure anonymity. It's ok to talk to strangers online. It's ok to say things online or via text that you would never have the nerve to say to their face. Things seem harmless under the veil of this security blanket. Well let me tell you, they are not harmless. I know of several young and truly innocent kids who have said things and done things online that they would never do in person and they really have a hard time processing that those actions are one in the same. I know of more than one couple who is currently having some serious marital trouble because some online flirting got out of hand. When does virtual cheating become real? Do we even know the difference anymore?
A less ugly side of this situation, though just as serious, is the erosion of our language. We communicate in abbreviations without punctuation or capitalization. Btw, omg, oic, and on and on. Our kids are growing up in a world without actual written word. Spell check covers their butts with no mind to the fact that spelling and context are two different things. The handwriting of most kids is not even legible because they have no need to practice it. Words are not the form of art that they once were. This makes me sad. As a lover of language, I won't let it go without a fight. I don't want our children to think that communication comes only in the form of a computer or a phone. I want them to know how to write a letter and to introduce themselves face to face while making eye contact. I want them to be articulate, well mannered, well spoken individuals. I do not believe that is too much to ask or an outdated concept.
So, do I think that communication technology should be abandoned or that it is, in itself, responsible for the evil of the world? I do not. I myself will continue to enjoy using Facebook to communicate with friends and co-workers. I will also blog and shop online. I will text and make calls from the car or the elevator or wherever I happen to be. However, I will also make a better effort to make written contact with people. I will send a greeting card or letter to someone. I am going to start keeping a written journal as well. I will also encourage my children (both my birth kids and my school kids) to do these things as well. Life is changing and that is not always a bad thing but life is also HAPPENING and it is happening away from the computer screen. Go out and experience it and maybe even pick up a pen and some paper and write about it!
