I DON'T FEEL LIKE TALKING.....

  A couple of days ago, I was at the gym and I just happened to run into someone I went to high school with. After the usual exchange of pleasantry’s we proceeded to chat about the weather, The Red Sox, work, family, but after about 10 minutes, it quickly became harder to hold a conversation, we both seemed at a loss for words. So I did the only thing I could think of, I said “It was really nice seeing you again” and walked right out the door. At the time, I thought the conversation derailed because we had both worked a full day, we were both tired form our work outs, but later that day, I realized that there was more to that get-together than just the exhaustion from the end of the day.

Let’s take a look back at my day:

            I have spent the majority of my train ride in my phone surfing the net and reading a book, which are both solitary activates. Now being a college student, you spend most of your time on your laptop, whether it is taking notes, going on Facebook, or listening to music. I often find myself using an instant messenger program to talk to my friends who are in another class, which turns into us making lunch plans through instant messaging, without having to speak face to face.

            Face to face contact has taken on a new definition because of these ever growing sites. Facebook for, example has become an alternative reality to the lost art of face to face conversations. Twitter, where you can post your day to day thoughts and send messages instantly from your phone or computer, has become very popular with celebrities, athletes and authors because you are instantly connected to your fans. For the fans, you simply press the “follow” button and you are automatically updated on everything your favorite celebrity is doing, every minute of every day!  You don’t even have to open your mouth or leave your chair, office or dungeon; you simply “compose a tweet” and your followers know all about your daily life.

            Most “smart phones” have the added feature of having the internet right on them. This equips you to have your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, right at your fingertips, Hey let’s face it; you don’t want to miss anything important like when Johnny Depp takes a poo? The addition of the internet on cell phones has become a gateway to instant gratification (pardon the puns) and can help foster a friendship if you are too shy to talk to them in person. But if you really take a look at what the internet has done to the fundamental social skills that we all are tough and have learned to cultivate? If you cannot talk to someone person to person and you fall back on email or Facebook-ing them is that really the beginning of a “healthy relationship”

            Don’t get me wrong, I love technology just as much as the next girl. I have a smart phone, an Ipad, a laptop, an e-reader and all are linked to all my accounts; Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. I do not deny that there are big advantages to technology that have made communication easier for all. Through telephone wires and satellite links, internet users can share all types of information all round the world. They can also be connected to people all over the world because of the billions of users worldwide. There are still some drawbacks in the way people relate to each other with this ever changing technology.

            I am not going to go back too far, but thinking back 10 years ago, cell phones were less advanced and there was no mention of social networking sites. E-mail was still coming into the world and it was, no doubt, frequently used, but you couldn’t access it as easily as you could today, especially not on your phone. There was still that need for face to face conversation. Nowadays, it might be great to be able to look up street directions or a song that you heard on the radio, but the urge to check one’s phone for any new messages or missed messages ends up replacing human contact. I have to admit that I sometimes look at my phone and pretend to text because I don’t want to talk to people or I see someone I know and I just to feel like talking. It amazes me that not long along people depended on  mailing letters and stopping by people’s houses to talk to them and even calling them on a land line phone, is something that is obsolete I this internet age. This all seems foreign to use in this day and age, since we live in a fast paces world, which demands people to be accessible at an instant. Ways of communicating are constantly changing, yet this new evolution has left the younger generation less and less likely to engage in true face-to-face conversation.

            According to the New York Times, college students have even starts using text messages as a way or resolving roommate conflicts, despite the fact that they could be discussing it right in their room. It takes less time!, what happens if your phone died, or the other person’s phone was no on? We have come to the point where in our society where a text message is your voice, not your actual voice, making us strangers to our personal association to ourselves. Another growing trend is something called “text speak” where young adults write as they text. In my daily life, I would say that I do not use text speak very often , but here is an example: are you going out tonight? Text speak: R U goin’ out 2night?. Young adults actually are using this in essay and papers for school. Not only has technology made us more awkward, buts is enabling our children to not have to learn how to spell. Everyone know about Autocorrect, Right?

            What I am saying is that from time to time we have to take our self’s away from our technology, putting away your phone and simply sitting down for coffee with your friends and family. Since the internet age, we have lost the basic communication skills such as eye contact and listening. These are vital in forming bonds with others in the world that we are so disconnected from. This is something that we have to cultivate and continue to cultivate, despite the changing times. It’s time we “unplug” yourself from the web, Twitter, Facebook, our phones, even of its only for a few minutes a day. There is so much to be learned about yourself and the world around you. There are museums, parks and culture all round you. There is much to be learned from basically talking to others, face –to- face and keeping human interaction alive. This is the basis of creating a relationship with another person. It is very hard to find a connection (no pun intended) between you and another human being through a text message. The words you say, how you say them, the facial expressions you use provide beauty for the human interaction. No emoticon will ever accomplish the feeling you get when you say “I love you” for the first time or the facial expression that one has when they are happy. By breaking the internet and media barriers that we have built around ourselves, we can go back to face-to-face conversations,