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  • Jody Michelle
    Jody Michelle would love to see these interesting concepts expanded into a sci-fi film :walkman:

    p.s. have emoticons caught up to earbuds?
    July 9, 2011 - Report

Blogs » The Life We Now Lead

The Life We Now Lead

  • Maybe it is advancement or the trend of this generation of this time, Technology has definitely altered the way we interact, worse, it has shaped our lifestyle and character.

    Before this very advance state of technology, the Walkman and Disc-man reigned. And they contributed to human physical and social interaction, or the lack there of- imagine a group of tourists on a bus tour, with the majority on head-phones. Now that is social and physical disengagement.

    It is likely that when someone is asked what social networking is, they’d refer to the internet in their definition. Petra O’Rourke, a fellow class mate perceives it as “a new way in which websites have been introduced for the purpose of interacting with friends on-line”.

    Meanwhile a ‘social network’ is a structure made of specified ties between individuals; such as friendship. That makes social networking an act of building ties, like friendship, among people. And I don’t think that it is necessarily achieved through the internet alone.

    A sports club could be used as a means of social networking, and so would peer clubs in colleges, such as fashion club, press club or science club, if they exist.

    If social networking can’t be exercised in both real-life and through technology, then where would we socialize and interact with people apart from Facebook, for example?

    Niall Cahill, another college mate sees the internet as the only place to really socialize apart from the pubs’ smoking area, and so do I. I mean, I can’t afford to waste the pennies I have, as an unemployed student, on booze and smoke all because I want to socialize.

    Since I was young, I had to move around the world often, so I never stayed in a place long enough to know people or be known. I went through change over and over again, until I joined Facebook. I was able to remain in contact with the friends I had briefly made in my lifetime and we got to know ourselves better.

    But what price did I pay for it? I became totally anti-social in real life- I’d rather sit in front of a movie and scream at the actors-, I couldn’t relate with a group of people and God, did I prefer to text than talk.

    A study, released by a research company SF Gate, which surveyed 900 social networking experts showed that by 2020, there will be less friction between human beings which may rob people of face-to-face interaction and encourage shallow relationships.

    If only advance technology can help enhance more real-life human interaction in social networking instead of turning us into robots.