Has our 24/7 addiction to connectivity across LCD/retina display screens, be them iPhones, tablets or PCs made the intimacy of face to face human connections obsolete?
In today’s world we pay heavy attention to being connected with all those people we know and love, as well as those that we loathe and despise. Has our 24/7 addiction to connectivity across LCD/retina display screens, be them iPhones, tablets or PCs made the intimacy of face to face human connections obsolete? Or has it served to enhance a seemingly decrepit method of primitive communication? Talking to one another…
The importance of maintaining an active social media presence is nonsensical to refute, but without a doubt it is easy to get carried away in the digital matrix and lose pace with the real beating heart that is humanity. This age of social media enables us to enterprise and innovate like never before. We can break international boundaries with the simple push of a ‘send’ or ‘like’ button. Product pushers can find their markets with clever observation of Facebook fashions and Twitter trends, but without face to face or at least human to human contact and discussion, can we really substantiate where we fit in this ever-expanding digital universe?
My answer is yes. Social media enables us to pursue conversations that the time constraints of day to day life would not typically permit. No matter what, people have always been busy, but at least today we can slip an urgent message or ego crushing insults to our peers in a matter of seconds with a simple twiddle of our thumbs. Gone are the days when we have to borrow someone’s expertise to decipher mother’s telegram, asking us not to forget to pick up some milk on the way home.
We simply talk more today than ever before. World leaders are voted in only if they are deemed to have utilised these communication platforms often and eloquently enough. Social media has not served to remove the intimacy found in a simple human face to face; it has removed the awkwardness. The anonymity of the internet creates a superman complex in everyone, enabling hilarious satire at times as well as more serious and not so funny cyber-bullying. We can talk to anyone, as long as they are internet-users, and seek answers for our ridiculous questions. Since when could people talk directly to their esteemed idols or to their nation’s decision makers? Human behaviour has never before been so readily visible, accessible or influential as it is now. People communicate; it’s what they have always done, so instead of mourning the digital takeover we should embrace it even if only because it means that days spent waiting for the postman are minimalised even further.
The internet, in my humble opinion has improved human connectivity beyond measure. We have always sought for a means to send messages. So what is there to complain about regarding innovative media technologies that equip us with abilities to do just that? To wrap up, digital connectivity is by no means a herald of the end times; it is the next step of human evolution that makes sure ideas are never forgotten, easily transferred and widely deliberated. Digital connectivity is as real a bonding tool for humans as the tin can telephone which for me says all that needs to be said.
