Status Update

Living in a world that is over-informed about the most trivial events like when someone had a pumpkin spice donut or they stubbed a toe in the middle of the night, I wonder why my online presence is lessening when everyone else's is increasing.

Sometimes, it feels like we're contestants on some nebulous popularity contest: how many followers we have on twitter, or in the blogosphere, how many "friends" we have on Faceplant, how many people comment or like or retweet the shit we say. There is literally a whole generation of people who are developing the text slouch, text thumbs and text attention span. If you can't say it fast, then I'm not interested.

As a society, we're moving farther and farther away from human contact. People don't feel comfortable and are quickly losing the ability to interact with others. Communication is devolving and more treacherous. One doesn't have to mince words if they're sending a text or commenting on someone's page. Cyber-bullying has become more rampant for the simple fact that most youth don't realize that they're doing it. It's easy to slam someone if you're not looking them in the eye while doing it.

It reminds me of the Milgram Experiment conducted in the 60's where subjects were told that they had to give increasing electric shocks to other "subjects"(really actors) out of sight in another room. Most of those administering the shock eventually ran up to 450 volts of electricity for wrong answers. They had no idea that the shocks were fake, and though some refused to continue, most did when they were told they would not be held responsible.

Remind you of something?

But I digress. All this has nothing to do with my decreased online presence. I just have nothing of personal importance happening, and I can't bring myself to let everyone know every minutia of my existence. I'm sure someone, somewhere cares that I've lost the craving for coffee and have gone to drinking jasmine tea; but even typing this detail bores me. Maybe I'm just craving some real dialogue, some honest face-to-face conversation over a pint of beer or a coffee. Maybe I just don't want to be a contestant.

Textology

Text from: xxx-xxx-xxxx

Genie says:

Hello. R U there?

Message Sent

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really like and appreciate technology.

I have almost all the Nintendo systems along with games, especially Zelda and Mario. I don't have a Wii... yet. I love playing a quest game that challenges my mind and my reflexes. I feel smarter when I play. Sometimes, I feel a little frustrated, but I know when to walk away. I know when to open a book, or get out my paints, or make a necklace.

I have a cell phone. I like being able to find a friend in a huge department store or at a theater using our cell phones. I like being able to text a friend when one or neither of us is available to talk, to connect; but I know when it's time to hear a voice, when it's time to talk, when it's time to turn the cell phone off, like when I'm driving. I know when it's time to leave the cell phone behind and take a walk or go for a coffee without being reached.

I spent 5 years in the online chatting world. I tried it all, from 2D IRC chat to 3D virtual reality chat. For many years, it absorbed me; it became my real life. I learned a lot about myself and others. It was quite the experience. I love Skype and the ability to talk to someone who is another continent away without the long distance charges. I love online social networking and the ability to connect with people I haven't talked to in years.

I love blogging. I love being able to throw my random thoughts out, and see where they settle. I love reading other people's thoughts, looking at their art, their crafts and pictures of their kids. I love being part of a global community. At the touch of my fingertips.

I love how technology has enhanced my life, but I am also aware of its dangers. It's easy to get caught up in things far away, or convenient at the expense of the immediate and inconvenient.

Today, I watched as student after student navigated the crammed hallways, head down, thumbs working, oblivious to the world around them. I had to tell five different students in my classes today to stop texting and to put their phones away. Three of them were texting during someone's presentation. Two girls got into a fight in school over something that was posted on someone's wall. I had to remind two students that they had 3 more days left before the finals, to stop talking about who they were following on twitter and focus on their essays.

More and more, I feel like I am losing them to technology, losing their focus, their attention span, their desire to learn something as archaic as reading between the lines or building a really good argument, or learning to spell and understand the word "archaic". I feel like I should gather their cell numbers and text them the lesson. Fifty characters at a time. We have class blogs, Facebook pages dedicated to novels, twitter accounts to deliver instructions. That's all very creative on our (read: teachers') part, but we have to be, in order to feed knowledge to our students byte by byte.

This idea scares me a bit. Especially when a colleague states at a meeting, "Why do we need to get books? They can read it online."

I see a future of exclusively plugged-in people, bumping into each other like drones on the street as they are fed "information" or entertainment (read: celebrity gossip), or music with lyrics about women's junk and getting shanked. I see a future with people losing the ability to communicate fully, to sit face to face over a coffee, chatting or just enjoying each other's presence. Students will take courses such as Textology, History of Chat, Social Networking etc...

Am I exaggerating? Is the fear talking? Am I getting outdated and being shortsighted? I don't know, but the idea of it becoming real scares the blinking modem out of me. :)

There is an App for that...

So, I am in class. I am steadily going through students' essay outlines and paragraphs, while they work on a narrative poetry assignment. All is quiet. Everyone is uncharacteristically on task. Some are plugged into their iPhones because Jobs forbid they should go without. A student puts up his hand and asks me what rhymes with "work". Another student pipes up, "There's an app for that. It can tell you all the words that rhyme with any word."

"Great, I say. Is there an app that can help you cross the street? You will need that soon."

I mean come on people. Have we become so dependent on technology that we can't perform any task without it? We can't find a restaurant, or bake a cake, or go a minute without changing our status on Facebook or Twitter. Because, you know life would not be the same if we can't instantly find out that one of our friends is biting her nails, or about to dye his hair.

Thinking is so outdated anyway.

I can't tell you the amount of times I have had to sit and watch as someone blathered on their cell phone during dinner, or having a coffee. Cooper forbid we should go through a whole dinner or a coffee without being reached. Who cares about the person we are with? Why aren't they on their mobile phones?

Like really.

I have observed couples on a date sitting across from each other, porcelain plates, silver cutlery, linen, candles, the works between them while they each jabber on their phone.

Yeah. Romantic.

People walk down the street or onto buses or stand in lines yammering to their phones. Treating everyone to the mundane details of their lives, and then give others dirty looks if they happen to overhear. Maybe we should go spontaneously deaf in public so they can have their privacy.

Maybe there's an app that will simulate a mate or a friend and we can do without the face-to-face interactions altogether. :)