This article talks about how there are projects that are looking into the creation of technology that is specified for pet’s to use or interact. Reading this article brings up a question, will technology change the way we interact with animals positively or negatively? I ask this because at the moment such projects seem cool, fun and funny but what such technology lessens actual interaction with animals/pets or weakens the ties/bonds? Take the PetPal for example. it allows a pet owner to watch, communicate and feed their pet from far away. This seems novel idea because you won’t have to worry about forgetting to put food our for your pet or if you are faraway and miss your pet, you can see them easily but could there come a time when such interactions become the norm instead of actually going up to your pet and interacting with them through physical means? I think about this because in class, we talked about how social media (Facebook, Twitter) is one of the main ways of interaction that people have with each other now and before social media, physical interactions was the main way. So, I think my main question is, does technology strengthen or weaken bonds that we have with other people and will technology strengthen or weaken bonds with our pets?
I think that you make a great point about how technology enables this type of interaction to be the norm thus decreasing the actual physical interaction a person may have with their pet. I think that technology overall now and in the future will weaken the bonds we have with other people especially with how people get into doing the same thing over and over again that it eventually becomes permanent. This meaning that if people get used to interacting with others from afar for so long they may forget what actual physical interaction may be and the differences between that and technological interaction. This can be the same for the interactions a pet owner may have with their pets.
I have to agree with Elaine. Interactions via technology and social media will weaken ties/bonds not only between people, but also with pets. We use face-to-face interactions today to read people’s emotions, and being physically there with whomever one is communicating with is important otherwise you would lose the sense of connection. I feel like technology is convenient for getting in contact with others on a short-lived/temporary basis, but if it were to be used in that sense it would just push the connection further away.
But back to pets and technology, I honestly do not like the idea of PetPal. It defeats the purpose of owning a pet.
I think technology does have its pros and cons of strengthening and weakening bonds with people. Pros would include being able to communicate with people who live far from us through video apps such as ooVoo or Skype. I think those video apps come in handy when I haven’t had the chance to speak or see someone for a while so I can catch up with them. On the downside, although I can see and speak to them face-to-face, it’s still over the internet so it does lack that personal and authentic interpersonal communication aspect of it. I prefer being physically there with someone and being able to see them entirely instead of just a headshot of their face. I think technology is useful for allowing us to communicate to each other, but it definitely puts us at a setback if we would rather hang out with people on Google Hangout than actually hang out in person. Technology shouldn’t make us prefer interaction over the internet instead of interaction in person. As for pets, I don’t think technology would strengthen our bonds with our pets. Pets should be taken care of by you, its owner, not technology. You also lose out on the intimate connection you have with your pet by letting technology take care of your pet.