isolation

Why are we all so "alone"? Technology. The internet, mainly, but we'll just refer to it as technology.

Now, this isn't a very interesting observation. In fact, it's been made many times before, and a lot of people don't agree. And both sides make sense--we probably do interact face-to-face less than we used to, but communications technology also makes things easier. If you don't know someone very well, it's certainly easier to send them a text message than to call. And who's to say that didn't create an interaction where you wouldn't have had one otherwise? (Try going a month or two without a telephone. It's weird, I promise.)

But it also increases our ability to avoid making the gesture that leads to bonds between people. Sending a text message is easier, but maybe you'll never get beyond that. And maybe because we don't have to, we become less and less capable of managing those first awkward interactions, and a few decades down the road it'll be considered impolite to introduce yourself to someone you meet on the bus.

Ok, I don't think that's likely. But I think it is possible that communications technology has made us lazy/out-of-practice/incapable of dealing head-on with people in the way that we're "supposed" to.

Anyway, what brought this on was that I've often heard people complain about how they don't know anyone's phone number anymore since they got cell phones, and it's true. It's also convenient, and horrendously inconvenient when something happens to your phone--which is why I have a document on my computer with all my phone numbers in it. Or at least I did, until my hard drive crashed in March. (See?) But I was sending an email this afternoon, and I realized the terrible thing that gmail has done to me. I don't even have to enter contacts anymore--gmail stores them for me, so at this point, I can simply type in someone's name, and select them.


Now, think about this for a second. I don't even know anyone's email address anymore. Do you? If gmail goes under/stops being free/available, the only people I will be able to email are my parents.

Well, at least that's something. (And I do know my home phone number). I guess there are some "ties that bind."