on technology

One of my goals for October is to remove myself a little from technology in order to connect more thoroughly with what is really going on around me. I'm going to go ahead and throw the collective "we" out there. We've become so disengaged from our surroundings. We listen to iPods when walking down the street instead of listening to the ebbs and flows of the traffic, conversations, and sounds. We are looking at our phones and texting other people when our friends we worked so hard to coordinate schedules with are sitting right in front of us. There are so many ways we've invented to dull our senses so that we forget to look up and see how beautiful the Chicago skyline looked tonight at 6:53 PM with the pink skyscrapers against the black night or how drenched our hair and sweatshirts are with that divine coffee scent.

Facebook is one of my primary concerns. I wrote an essay about this a year ago for an English class and I don't think anybody except my professor has read it due to the fact that I finished writing it, printed it, and had to run to turn it in on time. But I remember what I was feeling at the time and what has been nagging me the past year to bring me to the goals I've set for myself this October. I don't think it'd be an original thought to say that Facebook creates superficial friendships and that we are getting glimpses into people whom we may never think of again. Of course, people screen what they write on Facebook, put up things that allow them to create a certain image, yada yada. Nothing new. But what gets to me is the devaluing of friendship. We no longer decide which of our friends we want to tell about this or that. Instead, with one swift "status update," we have simultaneously informed everyone. Furthermore, it's the illusion that stronger bonds are being formed. I'm not against being delusional; in fact, we often need it to get through the day. But with technology, and Facebook specifically, our illusions of its power to make our friendships stronger negate any chance we have to fight the problem. To have a fighting chance, if you will. And you must ;)

This is not to say that there aren't benefits. There are two important ones that come to my mind. First: it is easier to stay in contact with friends. We can very easily and directly write on a friend's wall. In this sense, however, Facebook doesn't necessarily serve any function that an e-mail could not satisfy, besides the convenience of not having to remember an e-mail address. For the most part, however, remembering e-mail addresses has become obsolete thanks to drop down boxes that allow you to choose an e-mail by just typing in a person's name. Secondly, my assertion that people are inspiring holds true in that friends post inspiring thoughts, quotes, and pictures on Facebook all the time. And that's a good thing.

I want to be more careful about what I expose myself to online. It's analogous to raising a child. Although there are different parenting methods, one idea is that what that child is exposed to throughout life shapes his thoughts and behaviors. Same concept: when I allow myself to lazily browse Facebook, I am allowing myself to care about the petty, superficial, and in general, least attractive aspects of people rather than the the deep, insanely warm and incredibly stunning nuances that you can really only experience in person. There's a rich quality about those I love that I could only hope to catch a glimpse of based on their profiles. Because a profile is exactly that- a mere superficial overview of a person, whom, by optimistic standards, could not be captured and profiled.

So, I'm limiting my Facebook usage to keeping up with friends. I go on only when I am actively responding to a friend. Furthermore, I am having one day a week (Sundays) in which I do not turn on my computer at all. Thus far, I have to say that the day passes by slower, and presents more opportunity to be relished. I've also been turning my phone on silent for an hour each night. This is inconvenient because then I need to deal with the texts and calls afterward and it's usaully too late or too overwhelming. But I think the silence is worth it. More on that later.