Technologies celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat

Technologies have become foremost impact in our everyday lives. People nowadays literally choose to text online rather than meeting offline for face-to-face chatting because it is easier for some people to do so and it save a lot of time. It is somewhat true in some specific way especially, when other family members or close friends are living thousands miles away from us, like myself. Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are the only things which I have to go through every day for uncountable times, just to check what is up with my parents and old friends. And I’m really grateful for how conveniently accessible to the world with all these applications on our tiny mobile devices. However, I think it’s time we all need to take a break sometimes from our smart phones or other electronic devices and explore what is actually happening in the real world. In Jonathan Foers’s article “How not to be Alone”, he said that when he found a girl crying in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, “The phone didn’t make me avoid the human connection, but it did make ignoring her easier in that moment”.

This fast-paced world is pretty much creating withdrawal from discovering what’s happening near us. We can’t deny the fact that we are always on our phone especially while we are on subway, just because we want to avoid making eye contacts with random strangers and else. Johnathan also said that “My daily use of technological communication has been shaping me into someone more likely to forget others”. I’ve heard a lot of people saying that texting online is definitely better for them than meeting outside. When we communicate through texts, we normally demonstrate our feelings or moods basically by using EMOJIs, since this is the only way. But the thing is, EMOJIs are not our true feelings and even though we are using “sad” or “crying” faces, it does not necessarily mean that we are actually being sad or crying outside. Chances are, these kinds of people probably wouldn’t know who to react if their friends open up about their daily life issues, because they have been influence by EMOJIs: means “Technology”.  “People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little”.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity” said by Simone Weil in Johnathan’s article. We all want our parents’, beloved friends’ and siblings’ complete attention no matter what the situation is, especially when we are with them. But there are quiet sometimes that I feel hatred towards “Technologies”, because I’ve been ignored by my mom or my friends over their smartphones. Not only Telephones make us closer when we are not together, but also they even make us apart when we are together.

                                                          “We often use technology to save time, but increasingly, it either takes the saved time along with it”, and “We live in a world made up more story than stuff. We are creatures of memory more than reminders, of love more than likes”, said Johnathan. So, I would surely love the idea of how we should balance between the using of technologies and our social life, it might be a little hard for some people to put down their phones since it has become as habit.  But at least we should try not to look at our phone and being attentive, especially when we are with our beloved ones and explore the neighborhood, when we are out in subway or public. Don’t let technology control you!