Social Interaction, Internet, Technology

This can be kind of a touchy subject so here we go . . . .

I have been thinking a lot about this the past few months. think of these years and why they are significant . . . .
1994
1998
2004
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Give up?
AIM (1994), Myspace(1998), and Facebook (2004) were invented those years. Now I could be wrong, I just looked up the dates real quick on Google, but for the sake of argument let's just assume those are the years. Now try to think about life without these social networks, instant messaging systems, etc. . . . .  It;s kind of hard to even think about life without these (trust me it was for me too) Also, I want to add in the cell/smart phones. Because they kind of tie in to what this whole blog is about.

We live in this world that is ruled by technology. Think about it, Nowadays you buy whether it be a TV, MP3 player, a computer/laptop, a cell phone, a program. The model of the product you are buying pretty much become outdated/obsolete within months maybe even a month. Same goes with cars. We now have cars that park themselves. In this commercial the car claims to have a future proof engine to optimize ANY fuel source. It's absolutely incredible to think about things like that. But, I am kind of getting side-tracked here. I wanna go back to Facebook, Myspace, etc. and Smartphones. Namely, Facebook and Smartphones. It used to be you pick up the home phone call your friend and than meet up somewhere and do whatever, but now everything has been changed. I read an article a few months ago (hell if I could find it now, and I'm sure as hell not searching all over for it) but pretty much summing the article up is this: direct contact is suffering. Keep in mind I am an avid user of Facebook and my Smartphone. And yes I agree I'd be lost without both of those things. They definitely are something useful to have. You get a cell phone and I'm pretty sure anyone and everyone out there now have the capabilities to get on the net on your phone and if you have a smartphone you can do pretty much anything. And, I can also guarantee you that every person with a cell/smartphone has unlimited txt's and probably data packages. Now follow me here.

You're sitting maybe at a restaurant or bar, you're with a friend maybe a group of friends. I can almost bet that at least 1 to half of the party is sitting there either txting or "facebooking" on their phone. This is my point. You have someone sitting right in front of you yet you are losing the direct contact with them because somewhere someone else is getting your attention. And I'm not trying to say that the technological advances this society has been through aren't good or don't attribute to society, they most definitely do. I think it is both good and bad. You can log on to Facebook and either keep in touch with friends you don't usually get to talk to that often, meet entirely new people, and even talk to people from around the world. Which is definitely something that we didn't have 20 years ago. It's so easy to track someone down nowadays that maybe you lost contact with 5-20 years ago. But my point is don't forget who is right in front of you. It takes years to build trust, relationships, and friendships. But it can take minutes to destroy them as well. Keep in mind as much as technology is incredible and lets us keep in touch with friends/loved ones either abroad, not near us, or just acquaintances. We must also show respect for the people who care enough about us to take time out of their day to be right in front of us. That is something I have been thinking about for awhile. And again, I don't think it's a bad thing we have all these advantages as a society, I just think that we should remember if we didn't have all these gadgets and technologies who would still be there. That's all for now! Thanks for checking out my blog!

-JG