My uncle once asked me how I would describe my current mobile Internet generation. He chose the word “confused”. I would have to disagree with him and say its “bigoted and lonely”. I know that you will get up in arms and tell me that I am completely wrong. You will also go on to say that we are much more “connected” now than ever and this connection makes us more tolerant and open-minded. But, take a step back and try to let my statements sink in.
I say “bigoted” because we are losing the ability to process conflicting viewpoints. While the world wide web is giving us the ability to communicate with other like-minded individuals around the globe, it is also entangling us within our own prejudices and biases. I am noticing that this Internet behavior of people is now creeping into their daily lives rather than the other way around. And, more and more people are only socializing, if at all, with other individuals who agree with their opinions. This seems like a dark twist to Mark Weiser’s vision of the future that the computers will adapt themselves to human interaction in such a way that they will become invisible. Yes, they are becoming invisible rather indistinguishable due to the human interaction de-evolving to mimic its online nature.
I say “lonely” because we are losing the ability to connect with the physical world. Just perform the following exercise the next time you board a public transit or take a walk around the public parks – observe the number of people that are interacting with one another. I find it really sad to notice that even when a group of people are walking together, half of them are busy chatting on their mobile phones. We are not meeting new people and expanding our social circles – we seem to be stuck in the time frame when we first got our total freedom with mobile phones and Internet. If it was the end of high school then our closest acquaintances are from high school and if it was the end of undergraduate then they are the ones from undergraduate days.
Further, we seem to have become a generation that prefers acquaintances over friends and this I believe is due to the domination of the western concept of personal space. Frankly speaking, I think in our generation this whole notion of personal space is basically a euphemism for pure selfishness. In good old days, people were taught that sharing is caring but now they are nothing more than mere words. Our generation seems to idolize highly selfish individuals, more of the lone ranger types. Whenever I hear the term “personal space”, I feel like shouting that we are human beings not cats. We don’t need to urinate in a region around ourselves and declare it my personal space. By urinate I mean completely piss people off who attempt to get close to us and be our friends. Friendship at a hand’s length is not friendship, it is merely acquaintance. I feel that people seem to prefer connections over the Internet and mobile phones over physical ones because it gives them the ability to control their interactions. These technologies are essentially training us in the art of avoidance – when conversations get difficult, we can easily make up an excuse that our current physical space is demanding our attention.
I believe that true friendship can only exist between people who share the same physical space and one is forced to have discussions even when it starts to push their personal boundaries. It is sad that compromise has become a derogatory term in our times when it basically teaches us to focus on the big picture and let go some of the little things in day to day life. It is just heartbreaking that people are so quick to completely destroy their relationships today just to assert their individualism …..
I sincerely hope we can start living “right here”, “right now” and appreciate the people around our physical spaces.
. I normally work until 1am or 2am in the night. On weekends, I basically hang out with friends doing all sorts of activities ranging from playing sports to road/hiking trips to movie/game days (last weekend I was skiing in Tahoe and the week before I was in Vegas).