Member-only story
Do Electronics Detract Social Conversation?
In present day, it is hard to not notice the vast number of people who focus more on their technology than each other. This is common in teenagers, but adults can suffer from it as well. I have noticed this growing for years, yet I stood idly by watching it fester and become a recognizable issue.
Today, I decided to grab a coffee at the local Starbucks; when I walked in, I saw numerous people of all ages ranging from young adults to the elderly all ignoring each other whilst staring at their devices. None of them thought this to be rude or inconsiderate, rather, they saw this as a normal social paradigm. I’d wager that some of them may even be contacting each other through their devices rather than look up and speak to one another.
While the positives of electronic devices are innumerable in nature, the negatives definitely exist. Though few and far between, these negatives can cause, and possibly have caused, harm to our society. Humans are naturally social creatures. We crave social interaction and when we don’t get it, we look to social media. The issue here is that since we have looked to social media for our interaction for so long, we now ignore opportunities for social interaction in order to fuel our desire to use social media.
Anecdotally, I have seen this occur many times. I used to work for a company called…
