In an age when even the telephone seems almost obsolete, is it getting harder to be just people, face to face, in conversation? Is it becoming inconvenient to be close enough to look into each other’s eyes? Are we so willing to sacrifice intimacy for the extended reach of electronic media?

There is a commercial now airing on television (another of the technologies that is approaching obsolescence). At home, a mother shares with her daughter, via remote video link, her purchases after a shopping trip. The final items are clothing for the daughter, who almost begrudgingly surrenders from the video link and condescends to actual interpersonal communication with her mom–who is in the adjoining room.

The short abbreviations of texting have crept into other communications and influenced the way we write. The increasingly ever-present “social media” have extended our reach out into the world, our range of contact, but at the price of restricting our actual, physical interpersonal contacts.

If today’s technologies have made it inconvenient to speak face to face even to family members in our own homes, what will the technologies of the next century bring to our interpersonal relationships and our understanding of communication with each other?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.