It is important to recognize that through historical changes, technology has altered how humans interact with the world. That statement could not be truer in today's internet-based society. The media is controlled by individual platforms, uploaded videos, and spur-of-the-moment snapshots of lives from afar, which create ratings for the companies. There are fewer face-to-face interactions- from the littles up to geriatric adults. Communication is primarily done through screens and filters, essentially diluting the transmitted culture with pop culture.
I understand that I do not know everything about every culture. Having the benefit of knowing several of my ancestral cultures, a broken family by design, and a culturally diverse immediate family, opened my mind to different possibilities. Until recently, the internet seemed like a great tool for opening conversations. Unfortunately, it has become a place where individuals observe a moment in time without questioning anything! Then, the symbols, ideas, jokes, or whatever else seems like a good thing to pull-- are integrated into someone else's everyday life. Individuals end up promoting disrespectful behaviors because they do not understand the culture they were viewing at the time.
When I think about social platforms, I think about how different that culture is from the one I understand. I was just watching a GEN-X video. I cannot formulate in my mind how it is expected to give a 3-year-old a tablet or iPad. Not because I don't want them to have tools, but because they lose the interaction with verbal language patterns, interpersonal communication, and soft skills; as well as insinuating it is okay to spend hundreds of dollars on a toy, that will be broken because toddlers throw things. My perspective is based on numerous experiences with children, as I raised four and have many nieces and nephews. While every experience should involve interpersonal communication, technology seems to be shifting or replacing that. Or is it just changed?
Hi Jeanann,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the idea that young children should not have an iPad. My mom is an occupational therapist and unfortunately is seeing detrimental effects that “iPad kids” can have on their fine motor skills. This also affects the communication skills you were talking about because as those kids get older, they don’t know how to talk to people. I see it all the time in my classroom. Kids talk over each other, they talk over me, and do not realize that that is not okay to do so. To answer your question though, I do think technology is not necessarily replacing communication, but it’s just changing. I think we all saw that during the pandemic with Zoom calls being everyone’s primary form of conversation. I know in my family we did a Christmas over zoom. We were still able to have those interpersonal communications, but they were through a screen. I feel like as a society we swing from full on technology back to limited technology. I feel like as a society we need to find a happy medium where technology can be used in a positive way, but people also know how to communicate with each other outside of that.
Hi, Morgan! I had a similar conversation with a professor about a dozen years ago, which broke apart some of American's social etiquette. We discussed rules about phone conversations, interaction with others, and media representations. At that time technology was taking a big swing forward. Most families had several tv's, at least one computer, and most adults had cell phones. The affordability of those technological advances meant there was no time to generate rules of engagement. I feel like we are still spinning-- trying to find that balance you were talking about. We need agreed upon social parameters, in order to generate the structure our young ones need for balance.
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