I would like to communicate on communing.

THE QUESTION

 

While everyone is praising communication in our digitally consumed world, I shall attack this from a different angle. (As I am one to play devils advocate in any conversation) This particular counter point being “Is digital communication having a detrimental effect on the physical?”

So to pass a college course I sit tapping buttons of no real world importance and creating a purely digital blog, people can read entire libraries of books and works completely on a tablet, moreover an estimated 80% of the worlds money being just a figure bouncing around different databases.

The Internet has us better connected in this virtual world, exchanging data and helping us elevate the pressure of having to ask our peers for the information we need. Instead we go straight to the answers without considering the solutions. But have we been left lacking in the real world?

I have now posed a question that may be harder to answer compared to my short time thinking up said question.

Being a man of manners but also a frequent London Underground commuter I shall use my experience of facing the daily trip into the heart of that fair town to somehow justify my grandiose statement.

 I see evidence of this social decline all over.  I challenge you the reader, the next time your waiting at a station count the number of bent heads and jabbing fingers, all sucked into some world of a disgruntled bird or commenting on a picture they aren’t even in (“OMgz Babe u lk gr8!!!xox!one”).

Is this the future of communication? We proudly traipse around, digitally shouting in to what may as well be a jam-jar with some witty status or thought that we have come up which we feel we must share just to prove that we too are socially networking with our peers. But that’s it, you have closed yourself off, you have approved these select 100 people to be your universe, all else who doth so stand in your way shall be shunned by your mobile distraction device as you delve into it’s sphere of safety.

But to hammer home my point I shall take on board our first lesson on this digital media course of using my personal experience instead of the commonly used overview, even if it is shared commonly by the select few who feel that the past 5 years of communication has taken a step backwards in truly connecting us together.

No Place shows the breakdown of communication better!

 THE EXPERIENCE

 As I sat writing the post below, scribbling away on a notepad taking inspiration from this one particular woman who barged her way onto the train knocking papers and people possessions flying. Waiting there still looking at her phone for a man who in her opinion was taking up the space where she could sit. No “excuse me”, no “may I sit here?” just indicating by her sigh and giant slump onto his bag and blazer announcing that she was here.  And there she was for at least a full 20 minutes never once looking up, unless to shoot a look of disapproval of anyone speaking too loudly that wasn’t on her friends list, meanwhile I sat there thinking up more points to make on this musing of mine. But to my horror the secret of her constant tapping was revealed to me. Her boyfriend (or possibly) husband walked onto the train and I took this moment to reflect that maybe I was wrong, maybe she just wanted her husband with her so she could disconnect from that virtual world she was locked into and have some serious real world conversation. They embraced; and I was humbled (for once).

As I sat smiling my eyes witnessed the final nail in the coffin for what I would present to you here today. Their quick kiss ruined by her slumping back into the now empty seats and immediately going back to her social networking or bird throwing or whatever seemed to be more important than this real world relationship she was having with this man. “How dare she” I thought, this poor soul. Following this mindless husk living out her fragile years completely sucked into digitally. WAIT. He’s. You’re KIDDING! He gets out his I-phone 4 sits in silence no eye contact. No, merging files and messaging clients (I can only presume) Is more important. No words were exchanged between them apart from the odd remark of whom they were speaking to.

The future of technology no doubt is here and we are connected in ways people had only dreamed of before but have we somewhere along this timeline stopped advancing and take the proverbial wrong turn at Albuquerque to withdraw us from the wonder of the things going on around us to make sure our online profile picture is perfectly cropped...

TL:DR Technology has it's setbacks.