Who can be unique? Who can decide what unique is? How can a person be unique today, with everyone doing the same things, day in and day out?
When I roll out of bed in the morning, I fumble with my sleepy appendages, trying desperately to silence my screaming phone. Then I turn on my iHome, hoping music will rouse me. I check Facebook on my phone while I wait for my Chi to heat up. My laptop charges mutely at my bedside and I scoop it up on my way out the door. No one reading this has thought any of my morning routine to be strange, but what if someone had read this thirty, forty, or fifty years ago? They would be baffled, having no idea what a cell phone, Facebook, or even a Chi is. Isn't it strange that all of these things have become so integrated into our very identities that everyday existence begins and ends with them?
It's here, in 2011, that Facebook thrives. The generation of techies shares videos, photos, and experiences constantly over the internet. In any given hour, there are hundreds of updates to be sifted through by phone or by computer. It's ridiculous that someone thinks buying coffee is an important enough occurrence to share their purchase with the world. As I look around Dale Hall, everyone I see is on a laptop or a phone or listening to an mp3 player (save the one soul actually reading a newspaper). We are constantly plugged in, always needing the new and the now.
But how can we 'plug in to' one another when we are always attached to our electronics? I'm capable of being 'friends' with people I meet on football game trips that I'll never see again; I'm able to communicate with family from far away. And yet, I wonder at how this can de-personalize our relationships. We write on each others walls and 'friend' people we have met one time, but do we know one another well enough to come face to face? I know on more than one occasion, I have avoided or pretended not to know someone that I am Facebook friends with because I feel uncomfortable talking to them in person. If I am social over the internet but reserved outside of the technological world, it's because I'm not afraid to be myself in text but personal relationships are much scarier. Is this the epidemic of our generation?
Maybe all is not lost. I still have friends whom I hold dear, a close relationship with my family, and a healthy social life. So is Facebook more of a social aid, helping those who can't carry the whole weight of being a social butterfly on their own? I like to think so. If I seem overly critical of technology, it isn't because I don't appreciate it. I only take the time to notice the differences between the world today and the world sixty years ago, a time when chivalry meant something and children played outside all day long. But today, we have taken education to new heights and technology is improving life for millions around the world. All I ask is, is this a fair trade?
