Ramble on How Technology Makes Us Antisocial

Yes, that's right. Facebook makes you antisocial. I mean, not within facebook, obviously. It's a social networking site. What I mean is, it makes you antisocial in real life. Not completely, obviously. Most of us have friends in real life too. And I know I'm a really big hypocrite, but I feel like rambling about it anyway.

My dad just got a crackberry. That thing can get internet all the time. You know all those things you do to procrastinate doing your homework because the internet has endless possibilities? Well now you can take that anywhere. So we were in a shoe store, and he was watching ESPN.com refreshing the baseball game play-by-play. We were standing in a restaurant entrance waiting for my mom, and instead of talking to me, he was checking his email. Antisocial. And I really want one, too, which just makes it even worse. I don't claim immunity from all this. The temptation to retreat into our world of screens and computers and updates is everywhere.

But you know what's not included in screens and computers and updates? Real live people, who you can actually get to know. As much as I love to facebook stalk, you can never really know what someone's like just by looking at their facebook profile. The only thing you can say for sure about them is what they chose to put on their facebook profile. Even now, there are people who I stalked on facebook before getting to know them, and now it almost seems like their facebook persona and their real life persona are two different people. But it's natural to think you can really know someone that way, since there's so much information on there. Plus there's the whole communication thing; people don't say the same things online that they'd say in person. Sure, who doesn't like it when people like their statuses and comment on them? I like dialogues online, and feedback on my pictures. It's awesome to get 500,000 wall posts on your birthday, but you know what? That's cheating. You wouldn't have known it was my birthday if facebook hadn't told you, unless you're one of the handful of people who actually know my birthday. (It's May 20th, by the way.) Sure, sometimes facebook is an extension of my IRL social life. Maybe I was talking to someone about something in the DC and then left a link about it on their wall. And sometimes it's just a really convenient way to get in touch with that random kid from Spanish class to ask about homework, or to stay in touch with friends who don't live near me who I don't get to see that often. But it can never replace actual friendships, actual late-night secret sharing and hugs and adventures.

My dad and I were also talking once about having TVs in restaurants. It's just another example of technology being everywhere, grabbing your attention away from the people right in front of you. When I'm sitting across from my parents at a table, and some random hockey game is going on above their heads, I'm going to watch the hockey game just because it's moving. I don't have the slightest interest in watching hockey. But it makes me antisocial, and I know I'm not the only one who does it.

I mean, come on...right now I'm in the car with my parents, driving home from New Hampshire. And you know what I'm doing? I'm typing on my laptop, headphones in ears, multitasking between this, editing photos, and texting a friend. It's borderline irritating when my parents want to talk to me because I have to make the music go away and break my focus from the illuminated screen in front of me.

Technology. Progressing the entire world to new levels of awesomeness, and also making us that much more antisocial.