Disconnection
September 12, 2003
I’m taking a course in ethics in computing science this term. It’s a mandatory course for all com sci majors, and I’ve saved it for my last (or next-to-last, depending on how well I do) semester. I think I should have taken this course earlier, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
One article in particular got me thinking about how we live our lives. The article claimed that we as humans were so inclined to accept technology that we do so without debating its social implications. We just accept it because it’s new and we expect it to be needed. This is the wrong way for society to go, the article claimed.
What has the Internet done for us? I’ve had the creeping suspicion for years, but it never crystallized in my mind until I read the article. It has made us lazy to communicate on a basic human level. Yes, when the Internet first rolled around into mainstream acceptance, it was heralded as the information superhighway, and it would supposedly make communication easier. We’d be connected to everyone else more often and more intimately than with previous archaic methods of communication.
It backfired. What it has made us is complacent. When was the last time I called up a friend just to talk? Instead, I load up my favourite instant messaging service and wait for them to come online. When was the last time I wrote a letter to someone? I can’t even remember when. We live in the “now”, we don’t wait anymore. We need communication and response instantly. But you know what? For the past two years, I’ve actually loathed checking my email for the very reason that it’s too fast. It seemed that as soon as I had sent an email, its reply was already sitting in my mailbox. Did I really want to reply that fast? In the days of snail mail, we’d have at least two weeks before getting a reply; Time to collect and reflect on our thoughts.
Sure, electronic means of communications are great for our “global village”. I can talk to my best friends more often, even though they live halfway across the globe. But it has hurt my relationships with friends who live in my own country, and even in my own city. I didn’t bother calling anyone, and I loathed physical contact.
No more. I’ve been deprived of it for too long. This Internet, this instant communication, has ended up hurting my friendships and ultimately myself. It’s not the medium itself, but rather the reliance on the medium that is the problem. It should have never been more than a convenient tool, but it became a necessity. It’s time that changed. Turn off the computer and call a friend: It shouldn’t be that hard to do, but for some reason, it has become foreign to me. Perhaps it’s time to change that.
