I think the most interesting idea
that our class came across during discussion was the question of, is technology
taking over humanity? Clearly at the rate technology has been expanding and
advancing it becomes easier to communicate with individuals without actually
being next to them and having a face to face conversation. The concept of using social media as a means
of communication shows possible signs that we, as communities and as a
population, are partially destroying humanity.
Face to face conversation has become much less important considering a
person could just pick up their smart phone and message an individual within
seconds. Obviously, social media has
helped us in this way by being much more efficient, but at the same time humans
shouldn’t lose site in having meaningful, non-technology based
conversations. When I searched for an
outside source to relate with, I found an article that did just that. Melissa Nilles, author of this article
(attached below), “Technology is Destroying Human Interaction,” provides good
points of how the meaningfulness of a face to face interaction is and has been
declining. In the article, Nilles
explains that in order to preserve humanity we should use FaceTime more because
the actual vision of someone’s face while talking to them is so important in
understanding their character. She also
mentions that it’s hard to keep up with friends so instead of adding tons of
people on Facebook in order to get a high number of friends, the goal should be
to have a lower number of friends, but keep in touch more often, therefore
furthering the relationships between one another. This comment brings up my favorite quote
throughout her article, “We need to start prizing the meaning of quality in our
connections, not sheer quantity,” meaning
that instead of having a ton of friends that are contacted every once in
awhile, humans need to make strong connections or people they can call their
best friends forever. Beyond this idea,
Mr. Wensman began to discuss during our class on 1/22, that there may be a
point in time when technology, whether it be computers or robots, passes the
intelligence of humans. Obviously being
inferior to technology seems a little frightening to most people as of right
now. Almost all throughout humanity up
to present day, humans have ruled the world.
Our sophisticated minds have allowed us to build this world into
something it never could have been if we weren’t here, but now our dominance
could quite possibly be falling into the hands of technology. We all know how strong and amazing technology
is now… Imagine 50 years from now, who knows what the world will be like?
ARTICLE (OUTSIDE SOURCE):
http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/01/technology-is-destroying-the-quality-of-human-interaction