I remember shortly before smart phones and social media ruined human interaction, I would call or email friends and family at least once per month. Going six months without speaking to the people closest to me was unheard of.  MySpace came along, and I did better with communicating with people for a brief while. I signed up for Facebook because a friend of mine told me about it. I spent a day finding people I knew. Then countless hours scrolling through the pictures on their profiles once the friend requests were approved. Suddenly, I noticed I hadn’t communicated with some of my closest friends and family members in what felt like a while. Typically, I would receive a call saying I was acting funny if a month went by without communicating, and I was equally as diligent with stating the same about them if they didn’t reach out.

The Question

In 2009 my cousin was engaged and posting many of the updates about her wedding plans on Facebook. At this point, I was mostly off of Facebook, and MySpace was probably done at that point too. I called her one day and she was telling me bout everything going on and I asked why she never told me, her reply was, I posted it on Facebook, you should have seen it. I deleted my Facebook profile the same day and declared that my friends and family need to communicate with me the old-fashioned way, or at very least directly with a text. There are people that I haven’t heard from since then. Recalling this scenario made me think of this week’s question, which is really two questions. Is technology slowly ruining our lives, and if so, what technology would I be willing to give up to restore a previous state of normalcy?

I believe that some “advancements” are killing human connection, or at least the desire for it. If I could magically do away with anything, I’d give up most social media platforms, or completely revamp how they’re used. What could you stand to give up?