Tune In and Tap Out
There have been numerous articles in such esteemed magazines as Time and Life discussing a newly-emerged problem: people in their teens and 20s losing their ability to hear early-on because of ear-buds and loud music. Of course, damaging one’s ear drums and causing irreparable problems is no laughing matter, and is definitely a serious one. Still, there is a bigger issue tied in with technology, and it mainly affects one’s view of the world. Let me explain.
MP3 players such as the iPod, light-weight laptops, and cell phones can be seen everywhere nowadays. As a college student, everywhere I look, at least three people are on a cell phone in a 10 feet radius; others are working on their computers (including myself). While walking to class, a large number of people put their earbuds in and listen to music along the way. Now, my campus is very hilly, and it does help to have a fast beat to speed-walk to, so listening to music or being engrossed in a cell phone conversation can be good. What I’ve noticed, though, is that a lot of young people do not pay any attention to the world around them.
My campus, along with its rolling hills and beautiful architecture, has an abundance of nature; huge trees with long branches and manicured green grass are on almost every road and sometimes take up large areas. The feel is one of a combination of antiquity, the days in which glittering skyscrapers were just things of imagination, and current lifestyles, with students learning and gaining new knowledge while in class. Yet, I don’t see anyone admiring what we have; everyone is too busy talking on their cells or listening to their favorite songs. Yes, with nature, there comes the nasty things, like roaches (I saw two in the same night, and I ran and screamed like a squeaky little girl), but what about the delicate vines creeping up walls, or the flowers blooming elegantly along the sidewalk, or a cardinal’s song ringing out? Everyone is so tuned into technology that the intricacies of earth are just passed without a second glance.
With new advances in science come the downsides. With handheld, or “personal,” technology, more and more people are forgetting what the outside looks like. When it comes to interacting with other people, one cannot hear what another’s saying if some music’s blasting. So, people begin making judgements based primarily on someone’s appearance. For example, I have my iTunes playing, and there is a girl sitting nearby me with her computer. I look up at her, and make an automatic assumption about her personality based on her looks: she’s blonde, and thin, with a tan. She’s wearing sports shorts and flip-flops and some kind of school spirit shirt from her high school. From information gathered from my own experiences, I automatically place her in the “jock/sorority girl” category. I can’t hear what she’s saying, and because she’s busy with her technology (as am I), I cannot go up to her and socialize. She probably sees me, with my huge earphones, Power Rangers shirt, and sneakers, as some geek madly typing away at something that wouldn’t pique her interest. For all I know, she could be into Norwegian death metal and enjoys practicing Wicca. For all she knows, I could be rushing right now and that I like to party until dawn.
Humans are judgmental creatures, and there’s no way around that. Opinions are judgements; people decide what they agree with by judging the criteria in front of them. Facts come forth from judgements made by other people who are qualified in a specific field (i.e. Newton and the law of gravity. Gravity is a fact, and Newton was qualified in science to figure out such a notion). Being “judgmental” does not have to possess such a stigma, for without opinions and facts, and without the ability to assess situations, humans would be ignorant and not considered “higher-level” creatures. We would not be human, essentially. Yet, we need most, if not all, of our senses to make clear judgements about people. We need to not only see them, but hear them and smell them, and sometimes touch them. We need to know their little ticks and mannerisms and know what they talk about, how they react to a poke or a tap on the shoulder. Information like that leads us to make deeper inferences about the other person. With technology inhibiting our ability to do so, we only get half of the picture. Then, when get around to congregating minus our mechanical devices, we express our assumptions. Because everyone else has been doing the same thing, we, for the most part, agree. Assumptions turn into opinions, which then become solid judgements solidified in our minds. Judgements can then be warped into stereotypes, as in my example above.
Personal technology is also a form of escapism. By tuning in and allowing the world around us to seep together and become one big blur, we are more liable to ignore important issues. As shown in my entry “The Big Green Elephant in the Room,” I am not one for environmental fanaticism. Still, if we cannot pay attention to our environment because we are immersed in technology, then it will fall apart. We will also continue to pollute it, for we can ignore what experts have to say about our actions. Human interaction is becoming more and more limited as young people spend more and more time on the computer and phone. Although I enjoy the Internet a lot, I like talking to my friends face to face, hearing them laugh, seeing them make hand gestures, giggling when I poke them in good fun. On the phone, we can get voice tones, but that’s about it. Body language is not there, so we cannot decide whether a person is telling the truth or not. On the Internet, it’s even more limited; emoticons and abbreviations can only reveal so much. Even the most blunt statement can actually be sarcastic. Yes, we must decide what the person means by who said person is and what he/she is saying, but sometimes sarcasm and other subtler forms of communication are lost in translation.
The movie Wall-E addresses this. The humans are portrayed as constantly tuned into their television sets and built-in communication devices; they never move from their advanced versions of Lazy-Boy chairs. They are unhealthy and don’t notice the stars and sky outside the ship. If technology continues to progress in the manner that face-to-face communication and the senses are continually inhibited or altered, then we may just end up like those people in Wall-E. The solution lies in showing people how the world can be stimulating and interesting minus MP3 players, cell phones, and laptops. How this can be brought about is hard to figure out, and probably differs from area to area. In closing, the message that the planet and its inhabitants are perfectly intriguing as is needs to be spread.
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