The Tragic Price of Technology

[tattoobunnie]

Yondr is being implemented at our middle schools. Great!! We have those parents who complain how they need to keep in touch with their kids in case of a school shooting, but having 1000 kids screaming into a phone during a school shooting this completely dangerous. They need to be paying attention and listening for instructions.  And last I check, not one phone has stopped a bullet.

https://time.com/6959626/yondr-schools-cell-phones/

The Zennials are so addicted to their phones, about 1 of 6 of them are being fired because they lack normal social and communication skills.

https://www.newsweek.com/companies-are-quickly-firing-gen-z-employees-1958104

The kids have teachers, admin, staff to reach out to if they need to talk to their parent.  The obsession of constant contact while during class is ridiculous.

Smartphone addiction is damaging: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-wealth/201402/gray-matters-too-much-screen-time-damages-the-brain

Sometimes you have to rely on friends, family and coworkers to set you up. 

[Cherylyn]

I was actually closer to friends and family before the Internet,  social media,  cell phones,  PCs,  etc.  Back in the day,  we wrote postal letters,  had telephone conversations,  didn't leave voicemails,  saw each other more often especially if they were local and even if they lived far and wide,  we went out of our way to visit one another.  Camaraderie felt closer and it was more heartwarming. 

We were close to neighborhood kids and parents were close to each other instead of everyone holed up indoors with their noses in their cell phones or playing video games.  There was no excessive screen time back then.

We roamed freely in our idyllic suburban neighborhood. 

Something gets lost when typing all the time.   ☹️

Sometimes I miss certain aspects of the 'good old days.'  🤔

[Batya33]

I wrote postal letters to my pen pal halfway across the country -met her through a public television station that advertised pen pals - we were 12.  We communicated for years  through the mail (maybe one phone call I mean -landline/expensive long distance, etc) then lost touch completely in our late teen years.  Because of technology -FB -we reconnected in our 40s. I thought I'd seen her profile on classmates.com but didn't have a paid membership.  Anyway we reconnected a year before she passed away from an illness.  I'm glad we did and never would have happened otherwise. The letters were -precious.  I get it - we both wrote on flowery stationery in cursive and even sent a few photos!!

Here's another multilayered upside. My friend texted me a photo over the summer -a long table at a trendy city restaurant.  He and his wife and a bunch of college kids -including his 21 year old son - to celebrate his bday.  I wrote jokingly wow he invited you and his mom?? He replied -yes we offered to sit at another table far away (I suppose some kids were underage/maybe they provided transport) and his son insisted no he wanted his parents  to celebrate with him -the old folks in their 50s lol.

My friend met his wife in 1999 through an online dating site.  She was newish to town having moved there for work after grad school.  He had broken up with a fiancee the prior year.  They got married 2 years later.  So it's full circle -he met her because of technology, his son who one would think at his age might prefer not to socialize "in person" and/or obviously be buried in his phone with his friends and want nothing to do with the cringey parents - well - nope and nope.

[yogacat]

On 9/29/2024 at 8:48 PM, AuthenticSelf said:

In my city, the trend slowly turned toward speed dating and some weird type of dating events as people are sick of the dating app. 

To be honest, it is fairly similar to dating app with the real life situation. 

I can tell 90% true if a person is going to have a partner or not purely based on their look. 

So, technology has changed everything in my opinion. 

I think so too, my friend. Technology has definitely had a significant impact on dating and relationships. It has made it easier to connect with people, but at the same time, it has also made it harder to form genuine connections. The constant scrolling and swiping culture has dehumanized the dating process and reduced it to a superficial numbers game.

[Seraphim]

I will say, though, as a military spouse it has made keeping in touch with my husband much easier. Years ago, we had to depend on snail mail and then we used Skype. Now we use FaceTime. Right now he is away for possibly two years so it is nice to FaceTime him daily . 

[Batya33]

29 minutes ago, yogacat said:

I think so too, my friend. Technology has definitely had a significant impact on dating and relationships. It has made it easier to connect with people, but at the same time, it has also made it harder to form genuine connections. The constant scrolling and swiping culture has dehumanized the dating process and reduced it to a superficial numbers game.

I felt like this about certain aspects of the bar scene in the 80s and 90s and that was in person.  I've written before that technology is a tool.  It dehumanizes only for those who want to anyway- who are on sites for a quick hook up with no real regard for who the human is.  Serious minded people also swipe right and left etc and see it as a numbers game sometimes -but only temporarily -maybe at first as it did for me way back -feel like a candy store but if you're serious minded you will use it as a tool to meet likeminded people. Just like Seraphim uses Facetime as a tool for geuninely connecting with her husband while others might use it to see a person's face from Tinder live before meeting up to have sex. Which doesn't mean it's dehumanizing but Tinder makes it easier to meet up for sex for people who already are more focused on a sex partner as an object to use  to get an orgasm as opposed to the human element.

[Cherylyn]

It's ironic that with technology and too much convenience,  it's a double edge sword.   On one hand,  it can bring people closer especially if they reside faraway.  On the other hand,  it's isolating because it's convenient and saves time.  There is no reason for in person interaction, getting together socially in person and verbal conversations when there's text,  emails and voicemails. 

Then there's social media.  Comments can be perceived as abrupt,  blunt,  curt and terse if not worded carefully.  Messages can be misconstrued,  taken out of context and cause emotionally charged comments.  Then if you happen to be in person together,  it feels awkward and uncomfortable because you realize you had never seen another side to their unsavory character.  You lose your former admiration and respect for said person.  Dynamics can shift and change and not always for the better.

People hide behind their screens and fire away especially if it's controversial or political topics which is cowardly because in person,  they dare not and tend to refrain from impulsivity.  There's more restraint,  self control and civility in person or so I've noticed. 

There's good and bad to everything in the name of "progress." 🙄