i think it's time to go deep...
I read an article online not too long ago. It stated that the current teenage generation has socialization problems due to technology. We text to talk to people who aren't with us when we're surrounded by other people. We have Ipod earbuds in when we could be having a conversation with someone. We use instant messanger and email to talk to people when we could be spending quality time with the people in our household. I'll be the first to admit, I'm guilty of all of these accusations.
But after giving it a couple of days of consideration, I wonder how accurate the article was by depicting our generation as "socially challenged". While we may not constantly interact with the people immediately surrounding us, the methods used to criticize us (excluding the Ipod theory) keep us in communication with others. And in the downtime - between texts, between emails - most of us do actually participate in some form of interaction with our neighbors. It's normal. So has electronics taught us to multi-task more, becoming most efficient at various forms of communication?
After observing some of my own "downtime" between electronic correspondance, I realized I do my best/deepest thinking in those sporadic moments when I'm not chatting it up with the people around me. This is especially true whenever I listen to my ipod. So, i pose the hypothesis that our generation thinks more in our "silence," than some of the other generations. Does anyone care to prove or disprove this theory from personal experience?
But after giving it a couple of days of consideration, I wonder how accurate the article was by depicting our generation as "socially challenged". While we may not constantly interact with the people immediately surrounding us, the methods used to criticize us (excluding the Ipod theory) keep us in communication with others. And in the downtime - between texts, between emails - most of us do actually participate in some form of interaction with our neighbors. It's normal. So has electronics taught us to multi-task more, becoming most efficient at various forms of communication?
After observing some of my own "downtime" between electronic correspondance, I realized I do my best/deepest thinking in those sporadic moments when I'm not chatting it up with the people around me. This is especially true whenever I listen to my ipod. So, i pose the hypothesis that our generation thinks more in our "silence," than some of the other generations. Does anyone care to prove or disprove this theory from personal experience?