melis.sunay@halklailiskiler.com
On a recent visit back home I noticed that more and more people had become hooked up on some sort of electronic gadget,wasting valuable time on occasions where they could be spending a few of hours together with loved ones. An entire family of 6 sitting at a table for lunch; each member occupied on a cell phone, a laptop or even a music gadget rather than chatting, gossiping, or laughing with one another;
This is an example of how social media has transformed people to become more ‘unsociable’by replacing personal interaction for the sake of a peek into the wonderland of technological innovations. We arebasically more connected and disconnected at the same time due to the powerful social expertise athand.
Social networks of our times have become a drug, addicting all who happen to test it just for fun at the onset. Suchsitesworking as tools to connect people to one another also serve as tools to distance users from the real world, leaving them unable to function any longer in public.The use of these devices has become so natural that people have forgotten how to actually have a real conversation. Agreedthat although thedaily technical improvements provided by the latest instruments in the marketmake de our lives less complicated, unfortunately they also turn us into their disciples by eliminating human interaction.
Since social networking sites have become a new form of communication, we can stay in touch with relatives who live afar and friends from as far back as our childhood, as well as our business associates through such network links as Skype and Face time,yetthe distance is still there. Do we hidebehind these tools and are they more pleasurable than visiting those we care for?
It is interesting, however, to ponder on the reliability of these sites at this point. Do we believe all we read just because it’s on the internet? We’re the ones who contribute most of the information on many of such sites to begin with. Could we make up some of the information and have others who visit our blogs believe it?What happened to those wonderful libraries where we could at least run into our classmates and neighbors while doing research or glancing through encyclopedias or the daily papers? Were they more reliable or did we also enjoy the company? They no longer provide a contact point for the new generation, which is why most libraries now also have computers or internet access at worst for those who cart their computers around, which defeats the entire purpose of this argument for now.
Anyhow, the use of electronic communication has overtaken in person and direct communication by far in our day. The leading reason we all point to is the speed of these tools and unfortunately the geographic dispersion of businessesas well as relatives and friends. It is easier to just drop a line to a friend while in some public transportation or to finalize a business deal over lunch on i-phones andlap-tops. Technology, in spite of serving as the life-line for the majority of us now, has taken the ‘nostalgic’ excitement out of life and replaced it with the electronic one.
And yes, the potential for misunderstandings and misinterpretations on-line has been increasingon social media through e-mails,et al.Blunders, slip-ups, and oversights abound, due to our haste in this fashion of communication, which in turn, again places more distance among comrades.
