Technology has not had a negative impact on my face to face interaction. I do not use social networks very often to connect with people because they are not interesting to me. I mostly use my phone for texting and phone calls to connect with people. I feel like it has been a positive impact on my everyday face to face interaction. Texting makes it very easy to set up a time to meet with my friends, so I see them more than I otherwise would. I use texting also to keep in contact with those that I cannot meet up with physically (such as friends back home in Austin). Technology has helped me keep strong relationships with more people more easily.
In my opinion, technology has had a varying impact on face to face interaction. I do not like to generalize and say that technology has had a negative or positive impact for society in general. I think that it depends on the situation. Using the internet to meet people can be a great thing. For example, in the open source software community, technology such as internet forums has made it possible to do things that would not be possible otherwise. These people can become great friends over a topic that is mutually interesting and work together to produce something amazing. I see no problem with this and think it is only a good thing. Meeting people online can sometimes be negative as well. Craigslist, for example, has a section for “personal encounters” (I forgot the exact name) where prostitutes will basically sell themselves online. I don’t have a problem with people using Craigslist for this, it is there business. However, it can be dangerous because it is impossible to judge a person’s personality or intentions online. I think that a prostitute could get into a really bad situation that they may have been able to avoid if they were able to meet their clients in person. Online dating sites, however, can be great. These sites allow for people to make friends or meet their future husband or wife. These sites encourage more face to face interactions than what would have been possible before these websites existed. I think online dating sites are a perfect example of how online communities are a viable way to create meaningful relationships. There is not a relationship more meaningful than the marriage of two people. I talked about open source development before, but this is another example of how people can pull together and do great things online, even without ever meeting face to face.
I don’t think that society needs to focus on “real” spaces for people to connect and interact. I feel like online communities do exactly this. Online communities will help people connect face to face when it is possible. When it is impossible for the two people to meet, because of factors like distance, then online communities have created more friendships than what would have been possible otherwise. I think that that is a good thing.
This was a very well done post. I like the fact that you brought up the point that not everyone is addicted to media and that many people only benefit from it. I think this is completely true. People who use too much media, then start to experience it differently.
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