Hey! Wha' Happened?

The phone rings. You wait to pick it up hoping someone else will, because the chances are it's not even for you. You wait...silence. Yes! But wait. You want to talk to your friend. You heard a really funny story and want to share it with them. Only problem is the person calling is your sister's boyfriend and she'll have the phone tied up for hours. What to do? Damn it, you'll have to walk down the street to your friend's house, hope he's home, and do a pop-in, which will inevitably lead to the two of you hanging out for awhile.

This is a scene you would never experience in the age of cell phones and the internet. A phone actually ringing (and an actual phone, too, with an actual ring), the recipient of the call answering even though they don't know who's calling or who the intended recipient is, and a young person being forced to actually...wait for it...LEAVE the house to see a friend. And yet, while this was the norm in my house as well as countless others in the late 80s/early 90s, the age of cell phones and the internet has made social contact all but a thing of the past.

Now, I'm not saying that we have completely abandoned interactions with each other in favor of the isolation of a computer and a handheld device. Obviously people are still reproducing, which as far as I know, still requires actual contact with a human being. But technology has made several of the reasons for interacting with one another obsolete. For example, in addition to reducing the necessity to visit our friends to talk, cell phones through text messaging, have even made talking on the phone a relative relic. If you have something quick to say to someone that doesn't require an actual conversation, you just send them a text and hope for a reply.

The internet has also played a large part in this change. In the past, in order to stay current on all the latest news, happenings of friends, shopping trends, etc, you would need to either talk to a friend or watch the news. In addition to this, if you were in school or working and had a project that required research, you would either have to go to the library to do research or collaborate with others who have access to the files that you need. Now all one has to do is go on the internet, type something into a search engine, and they have access to more information than was imaginable, even as recently as 20 years ago.

It is important to understand that technology, while making people generally more isolated as a whole, has also expanded our socializing in many ways. Through social networking sites and email it is getting easier and easier to keep in touch with people, regardless of their location in the world. Photo and video sharing are effortless, which helps people connect in other ways. Through dating sites people are able to meet interesting people and even filter those who they meet based on selected criteria. All of these things act as a double-edged sword, both expanding and contracting our world in its scope and its effectiveness.

While I do see these tools as being positive, I still lament the days of walking to a buddy's house, running around outside all day and hearing, "Danny, come home for dinner!" when it was that time. I miss hearing the phone ring and hoping it was the girl I liked, hearing news through word of mouth rather than through CNN Breaking News alerts. And call me old fashioned if you must, but I prefer meeting someone by chance out in the world than meeting online based on pre-screened criteria. Maybe with a little effort we can have all of these things while still enjoying the conveniences of modern technology.

To close, please enjoy this video depicting how we used to receive news.