Cell phones, iPods, PDAs … the world has become inundated with technological gadgets to fulfill our every need. On the bus ride home, we don’t need to read the paper or talk to the people around us, we can just pop in our ear buds and be transported to another world. We can be walking down the street, talking to someone who’s miles away. We are more connected than ever before, however, at the same time, we are also more disconnected than we could ever imagine.
On the surface, these products seem like miracles of modern technology, and to a certain extent, they are. We are able to stay connected and up to date no matter where we may happen to be. However, while these modern miracles may serve to make our lives more convenient, they also serve a far greater purpose – these products are changing the very fabric of our society.
Before the advent of the cell phone, people could engage in meaningful, face-to-face conversations. Today, many would be hard pressed to finish such a conversation without being interrupted by the all-too-common incessant beeping of a cell phone. As a society, we are tossing aside what used to be proper conversational etiquette in favor of an Interrupting Culture. It has progressed to the point that a small piece of plastic in our pocket holds more sway over our actions than the person three feet in front of us.
Technology is indeed making us more connected, but not necessarily to reality. Technology has come to represent, not a way to connect, but a way to escape. Yes we are connecting to other people when we make a phone call. Yes we are connecting to content when we listen to our favorite music or podcasts. However, with each of these instances, we are connecting to an experience through an intermediary, that of technology.
This intermediary serves just as much to connect as it does to separate. While talking to another person face-to-face, we are directly communicating with them. There is no intermediary between us. However, as soon as a cell phone enters the picture, that direct communication is terminated and in its place, an artificial barrier is constructed, not only between us and the person in front of us, but between us and the person on the other line of the phone as well.
Too many times have I seen someone talking on the phone while attempting to interact with a cashier at the store. Too many times have I seen someone listening to a phone in one ear and music in the other. Have we truly discarded our sense of respectful manners in our quest for ultimate connectivity? Is that phone call so important that we can’t take 30 seconds to talk to a cashier?
Whether we like it or not, we have, as a society, rejected reality for something more. We are constantly engaging in virtual environments, whether we are conscious of it or not. An act as simple as using a phone is an engagement in a virtual world. We are creating something that is not really there (i.e. the voice of the person on the other end). Likewise, when we listen to music as we saunter along the sidewalk, we are again introducing something virtual into our reality. Merriam-Webster defines virtual as “being on or simulated on a computer or computer network”. In both the instances above, we are simulating what we would be experiencing (i.e. a person talking or an instrument making noise).
Due to this virtual mentality which our society has constructed, we have come to the conclusion that it is all right to ignore a face-to-face conversation to attend to our virtual worlds. Of course, what’s happening on the other end of a phone is very real. We are talking to a real person. What’s not real is the environment in which this communication is taking place. This is where the real problems arise. Because of the ease with which we can shift between these two environments, the real and the virtual, we often forget which we are dealing with. Whether it be a cell phone or an iPod, we must remember that we are experiencing a reality which, for those around us, does not exist. This is one of the major problems of talking on the phone while driving. When you’re driving with someone else in the car, both of you are experiencing the same reality, the person next to you is witnessing the same things and can therefore adjust his or her communication accordingly. However, when you’re driving while talking on the phone, you’re splitting yourself between two realities, a virtual one and a physical one. The person on the other end of the phone doesn’t know what’s happening in your physical reality and is therefore not able to react like a passenger would. Furthermore, since your attention is split between two realities, you are less likely to perceive danger that exists in your physical reality.
While for us, a phone call may be the most important thing in the world, for the person sitting next to us, that call has no meaning, unless we have told him or her the context within which that call occurred. That call could range from being an emergency to simply a friend saying hello, but without informing those around us of our virtual realities, they are left simply to guess. Cell phones are able to instantly construct a link between two people and create an environment in which they can communicate, unfortunately, at the same time, often breaking a link between two people as well.
By no means am I discounting the usefulness of modern gadgets such as cell phones and iPods. These are the type of products that are helping to define and fuel society as we know it. However, what I am suggesting is that we take these products for what they are, tools for constructing virtual realities, albeit, tools which serve a very useful and practical purpose. While we may be tempted to form judgments about someone who quickly darts off to answer a phone call, or another who saunters along with ear buds in his or her ears, we cannot do so in good conscience until we know the context within which those interactions are taking place.
So, have we discarded our notions of conversation etiquette? To a certain extent, yes. Just because we can never know what is going on inside a person’s constructed reality does not mean that their behavior is warranted. The student texting in class is no different than the student who years ago was passing notes around. For many students, the phone has become, not a tool for meaningful interaction, but rather a distraction. Our approach towards technology is a reciprocal one. While we must respect those who are engaging with virtual experiences, at the same time, those people must recognize the proper time and place to do so. With any new product or technology, there’s always a set of rules to go along with it. The problem with new technologies such as cell phones and MP3 players is that the rulebooks for them are still being written.
Filed under: Cell Phones, Technology Tagged: | Cell Phones, communication, iPod, PDA, texting, virtual reality
