People really aren’t exaggerating when they say, “technology has changed everything.” It quite literally has. And I don’t mean the invention of the wheel or light bulb. Recent technologies have transformed communication so vastly, and I’m not sure if it’s all entirely good. We’ve become so dependent on email, instant messaging, cell phones & text messaging–we don’t even need to see people in-person anymore. Now, I’m no exception: I panic when I haven’t checked email for a few hours & can’t imagine life without it. I text and feel lost without my cell phone. The fact that I have a blog is a testament to my Internet dependency. We are all products of the technological era.
But, I still think there’s something to be said for seeing a person face-to-face. Sitting across the table with a cup of coffee, lounging around the house, walking outside, etc. You get the idea. Hugs and handshakes are nice, and we may be oh so “advanced,” but an instant message that says, “*hug!*” hardly has the same effect as a real one.
Of course, I, by no means, am saying that we should all defenstrate our laptops (I could barely handle temporary separation from my MacBook when I gave it to the Apple Store Genuises). But being in the presence of another person, interacting with the real, human, person–and not a screen–can be nice sometimes.
In fact, Dentyne has been trying to promote this for a while, too, with their “make face time.” ad campaign. Here’s an example:
(In case you can’t read the tiny font on the first one, it says: “power down. log off. unplug. have mercy on your thumbs. browse the world wide something else. send some not-so-instant-messages. undo. hit cancel. be together. make face time.”)
Also, if you go to www.dentyne.com, you’ll see a message that telling you that you have 3 minutes before the site shuts down–which they say is enough time to browse all the links. The point being, after 3 minutes, go do something else & make face time.
Their site says, “We’ve got nothing against the Internet, but when people are surfing the Web, they’re missing the best part of life–being together.” And I think that’s completely true. Sometimes we need to step away from the laptops, BlackBerrys and iPods and just go knock on a friend’s door.
