In times where a fast Internet connection is more important than a meaningful personal connection, and where 140 characters is all it takes to express emotions, it is understandable that personal relationships are suffering.
Succinct messages with smiley faces and acronyms are more important than slowly devised hand written letters or a dozen red roses.
The faster technology grabs a hold onto the population, the easier it is to let the ebb and flow drag you into the sea of profiles and petty hash tags. We even have speed dating, as if to say lengthy dates are passé.
Maybe I’m too old-fashioned, but where do you draw the line between rapidity and romance?
With the click of the mouse you can flirtatiously “like” a person’s status or picture, update your relationship status or send off a break-up tweet.
The days of face-to-face communication are few and far between, unless you count Skype.
An upcoming webinar hosted by The Glendon Association called, “Love in the Time of Twitter: Keeping Relationships Strong in the Age of Social Media,” will be live for subscribers to view on Sept. 20. Despite the irony that the event is hosted online, it is a sure way to grab their target audience: the romantically challenged, 21st century, social media fanatic.
According to The Glendon Association we spend “about nine and a half hours a day listening to music, emailing, texting, instant messaging, Facebooking, Twittering, surfing” and almost anything you can think of besides really communicating.
The group cites the constant stimulation as a reason why we push out, “deep intimacy,” for an alternate reality.
The thought that relationships are being compromised by this new technology is depressing, to say the least. It’s sad to think that many of our future friendships, business connections and romances may begin and end online.
While I’d rather talk to a stranger than stare at my phone screen waiting for a text message or scrolling through my email, it is much easier to stare blankly at a screen than to get up the courage to break out of the tangled Web.
“Facebook friends” are not the same as friends, especially those of us who have 3,594 of them. Sorry, but have you ever met these people in the real world?
It’s wonderful that people can meet online and share a life together but how authentic is that first meeting really when it’s through a computer screen?
Although we brag about how globally interconnected we are through technology, we truly are alone.
Reach out to the people around you, they might be longing for that deep, personal connection rather than a web-based one.
Reach the columnist at tafergu1@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
