I have quite a few issues with the way our world is changing and "evolving" to incorporate everyday use of the internet. Stop and think about it for just one second. In essence, the internet is becoming a universal consciousness, almost like a shared brain, where everyone can instantly and immediately access any random information they might need. Having a conversation with someone and they can't remember the name of an actor in the movie you're discussing? I guarantee within seconds, a Google window will be opened on someone's smart phone and the answer will be procured within moments. Some see this as a good thing. I see it as a terrible thing.
First of all, you didn't have to exercise any areas of the memory that you normally would have had to stretch and wake up and use to find information you already know but can't immediately remember. Those sections of your brain pertaining to retrieving, storing, and accessing long and short-term memories are being left behind for the use of your thumbs. You just have to type on your little smart phone keyboard, hit enter, and your questions are immediately answered. Your brain is no longer used to store knowledge.
I know I feel it in my generation, because I grew up with computers already available in the home. I've seen the invention of the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android smart phones. I've seen the internet become easier and easier to access and have daily interactions with, and it's starting to become obvious how the internet is dumbing down the population, as opposed to boosting it up and making it "smarter". I haven't had the greatest memory anyway, but I find it harder and harder to ever remember anything anymore. I don't have to, I can just open a web browser on my phone and search for any answer I need.
Sadly, smart phones are also creating boundaries and walls between people. Instead of connecting us, they separate us. Think of the last time you called someone just to talk. You just wanted to spend a little while just talking about nothing and everything. Did you instead write on their wall on Facebook? How much of an interaction did that warrant? Was it as satisfying as hearing their laugh? Did you miss learning how they feel, think, or reacted to something through the tone of their voice? Did you actually feel connected to that person?
If you did, I'm not sure how you could, and maybe you aren't a very social person at all. For me, I gain more satisfaction from eye contact, vocal inflection, touch, seeing their eyes crinkle around the corners when they genuinely smile... I like being around someone. But for the longest time, I gave all that up for interaction on Facebook. I decided that telling everyone the minute "highlights" of my day and whatever was on my mind was enough! It's not. I'm finding out who my true friends are, because they are the ones reaching out to me beyond Facebook. They are the ones I get to spend more time with now, and have more to talk about when we do get to spend that time together, in person.
They don't know everything that's happened in my life, they haven't been able to read my status updates. I have to tell them, they have to ask, they get to learn, and I get to teach. I love hearing about what someone has been through, but for those still connected to Facebook, it's hard for them to express that information. They have already expunged and expelled it on Facebook, and aren't keeping those ideas and events fresh in their minds. So they have to retrieve that information, and it's weary watching the struggle in their eyes as they try to remember just what have they been up to since we last talked. I've even seen someone pull up their Facebook profile to glance over their statuses to tell me what's happened in the last week.
That's so sad, I can't begin to express how sad that is. Are we not living our lives anymore? Are your days really centered around writing statuses on Facebook? Is every experience immediately dumbed down to the amount of characters that fit in a status? Are only the experiences worth a status worth remembering and enjoying and feeling?
I'm so glad I gave up Facebook. I wish everyone else would as well. My life is more rich, I can enjoy every moment without pulling out my phone to explain it to my Facebook friends on my wall as soon as something happens. I have to hold on to the emotions, the way something makes me feel, I have to remember it and hold it and treasure it and bring it up to tell a friend about it in person. I feel like I can live now and before, I wasn't.
Best decision ever. I have to thank Jon a great deal, because his constant teasing and belittling of me using Facebook helped me to make that final decision to delete my profile. I also have to thank several friends from Facebook who posted the most mundane and annoying things that got under my skin and also pushed me to be rid of it. Thank you, because I am so much better off without it.
Give it a try! For just one week, disable your account, and see how much better life is. You'll be forced to give someone a phone call, so you can know what they are up to and share their lives with them. You'll be forced to experience your life for yourself and not for the sake of spouting about it on Facebook. You'll be forced to have actual interactions with actual people! And that's not so bad, I promise!!!!!!
So stand with me and forget Facebook. It isn't giving you anything positive in your life.
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