On 8 out of 10 cats the question "Would you rather communicate with your friends online?" was asked. Good grief, is that really where we are at?
In the space of 30 years we have gone from being completely amazed at the magic that is Bungle on Rainbow walking backwards through a door because we could record it on VHS for the first time and there was a magic button on the VHS machine called Rewind.
We've gone from sitting on our bottom stair for hours talking to our mates on the phone, because the landline was in the hall, and the only place to sit was on the stairs.
We've moved on from vinyl LPs, a dodgy stylus and the magic that was the record button on your tape deck to enable you to record the top 40 every Sunday.
And to where have we got?
To a world where we don't even bother speaking to our friends. We limit our discussions to 140 characters on Twitter and think we are popular if we have more Facebook friends than our mates.
To never speaking on the phone, because, well, why bother. your friends would be so shocked at the sound of an actual phone ringing they probably would't answer it anyway.
To a world where we are happy to post status updates throughout the day and share with the world what we had for lunch... Like anyone cares.
To a world where pub quizs are almost dead, as you can never be truly sure that the other teams haven't just googled the answers on their iPhones.
Technology might mean that we can transfer money between our bank accounts or create a photo collage and share it with family in minutes, but it has stopped us actually talking.
How many of you are sat in front of the TV now, with a tablet or phone on your lap. Multitasking means you don't get to enjoy either activity fully. You'll miss the TV programme, and feel guilty for surfing too much.
In one sense it's not dissimilar to sitting reading a book whilst your partner watches TV. But at least with a book you know that your partner is in their own imaginative world enjoying a bit of escapism. With a tablet, you've no idea what they are doing.. reading, shopping, talking on forums, moaning about you? It's antisocial at a whole new level.
So what was the answer to the "8 out of 10 cats" question? I have no idea. I was too busy writing this post.
Great post and it is sadly very true that for some people real life has become online life. Don't get me wrong, I like being online and have made some genuine friends through blogging but real life is still more important and I hope it always will
ReplyDeleteThanks Nicola. Me too. :-)
DeleteHa ha! I know I'm guilty of spending too much time online, but, in my defence, my friends were never the most sociable bunch anyway! I don't have many 'mum friends' and I see my old friends about three or four times a year. We'd declined to that well before we started social networking. And they don't use social networking, so my online friends know more about my life than my real friends! But at least I have someone to talk to!
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