The Erosion of My Generation's Personality

The Erosion of My Generation’s Personality

As members of a technologically advanced society we are forced into a liminal space through the pressure of remaining on the cutting edge. Our culture tells us we need to stay current with the advances made in technology. My generation is immersed in technology as it takes a bigger role in how we shape our lives. Technological advances should serve to aid our lives by making us more productive in easing the duties involved with everyday life. Instead, many applications of new technology are replacing the core fundamentals of what defines us as human beings. We need to keep a divide between technology and humanity, as Thomas A. Carlson writes in his new book, The Indiscrete Image, “to keep human life human, and in order, correlatively, to defend life’s dignity, we need to resist techno-scientific violation of the human—to protect (or restore) the distinctively human capacity for wonder and awe at the rich and incredible facts of life, soul, and human awareness,” (7). Technology is a tool for humanity to make things possible which weren’t before, as Sven Birkerts writes in The Gutenberg Elegies, “I believe that what distinguishes us as a species is not our technological prowess, but rather our extraordinary ability to confer meaning on our experience and to search for clues about our purpose from the world around us,” (31). Those of us attempting to keep up with the changes in technology find ourselves in a liminal place as its constantly advancing. What’s considered cutting edge today could be obsolete in no time as devices get smaller and faster through scientific advances.

Websites like MySpace and Facebook work to help people connect and make friends. A huge percent of my generation has a page on either of these sites and spends a lot of time checking and updating their profiles. I’m concerned the digital age of friends online is working to replace the reality of communication with people face to face. There are great skills involved with meeting new people and making friends. They include proper etiquette such as asking how someone is and looking them in the eye when talking with someone. These personal skills are lost in the online worlds of MySpace and Facebook. Instead of firmly shaking someone’s hand people my age want to take digital pictures to document a meeting to later be displayed online for the world to see.

The idea of friends online through web sites like MySpace and Facebook remind me of another thing from reality which technology has attempted to replace. I have seen robotic dog’s for sale that are the shape and size of real dog’s but electronic. They bark, wag their tales, and walk around similarly to that of a real dog but they can’t offer the companionship that accompanies owning a canine. The best parts of having a friend like trust and comradeship are lost online. It is hard for me to imagine relying on someone who you’ve never seen before but happens to be your friend on MySpace or Facebook.

Opposed to replacing social networks, technology should work to aid in building stronger relations at greater ease. An article in the Sacramento Bee entitled, “Click (online). Meet. Click (with new friends),” by Gina Kim, describes a group of new web sites which aid in bringing people together in the real world. The sites are MEETin.org, TheBlueDistrict.com, and Meetup.com and they work by posting group events which people can attend and meet new people through sharing similar experiences. Opposed to sites like MySpace and Facebook, which connect people online by showing pictures and giving information, these new sites actual work to ease people’s ability to meet one another through setting up social situations like card games or sporting events which they can partake in collectively. This encompasses my idea of technology making an everyday task like meeting new people easier instead of just replacing social networking all together.

I enjoy playing poker because it entails a lot of strategy and is a great time for socializing. Many people my age play poker online with the hopes of making lots of money. Personally, I have a card game that meets at my house once a week and has been a tradition going on three years now. I have never played a hand of poker online because you don’t get the interaction with the other players at the table which I enjoy most. I have learned how to read people’s body language and demeanor through interacting around a card table. These are keys to the game which are completely lost online. Technology can aid a game like poker by teaching percentages, but as far as replacing the reality of a group of guys sitting around a table trying to take as much money from one another as possible, I feel that’s