Warning! This blogpost steps away from the teaching world!
I want to address something that we are all guilty of doing. I feel strongly that social media is the epitome of vanity. We post pictures of ourselves for others to see. We want others to know about our daily lives, and we want to display ourselves a certain way. With this being said, our immediate outlets to do so are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and for the dinosaurs, MySpace. We are so wrapped up in our own lives that we often forget to appreciate the company of others, especially those close to us.
I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with two awesome families, one being my own and the other being Rachel's family, who I was meeting for the first time. All weekend I was surrounded by people who were excellent company. Conversations were great, laughter was rampant, and smiles were abundant. I had to step back and think about the last time that I had felt something that genuine.
At that moment, I took myself back to memories of childhood, before we had the world of information at our fingertips. Think about when you could not get in touch with someone and you were met with a busy signal. Think about when kids rode bikes to knock on a neighbor's door to see if they could come outside and play. Think about when you played the game of Life or Connect Four instead of Temple Run or Angry Birds.
Sure, technology makes our life a little, ahem, a lot easier. You would not be able to read this post if it were not for technology. What I want to challenge everyone to do, along with myself, is to notice how many times you catch yourself with your phone in hand. Think about how often we look at our phones when we know damn well that no one has texted us. We are addicted. Technology has become a babysitter for our attention. Many don't believe in evolution, but I strongly believe that we are taking ourselves out of the picture. Remember: Adaptations are nature's innovations. We have taken nature out of contention.
It is so weird to think about why humans gather around to share a meal or why we confide in others. We are social beings and technology presents to us a facade in which we think we are being social, but instead we are evolving from our once community driven nature. Friend groups have been replaced with Facebook friends. Gossip has been replaced with retweets. We are a slave to our own creation. I thought about how we change and how we adapt.
There will be a time in the future when technology as we know it ceases to exist. It is at this time that we will suffer, as we will no longer possess the social skills necessary to survive as human beings. Fight what we are turning into. Thumb through a dictionary instead of "googling" for a word whose meaning has ceased to find you. More importantly, challenge yourself. I'll be right there with you.
