Anyone who knows me knows my love-hate relationship with
technology, particularly technology that allows one to multitask in an effort
to get more done for whatever reason (competition, compulsion, boredom, etc.).
I’m an old school fan of doing one thing at a time with undivided attention,
but that’s another story.
My thoughts today are about technology in general and how we
misuse that technology, especially social media technology. I’ll use Facebook
as an example since I just logged off of it (don’t judge me!).
My understanding is that the original intent of Facebook
(and subsequent social media and communication types like texting) was to keep
friends better connected when life scatters them to wherever. The aim was to be
a tool with which to augment our organic social interactions – that is social
interactions arising from physical connections. Unfortunately, these tools are
being misused and have ended up substituting or, worse, replacing our organic
social interactions. Further, technology such as smart phones and texting are
deposing our genuinely organic social exchanges.
