Control Freak
If you’re a woman – or a man – over 40, you’ve hopefully embraced the latest technologies so that you aren’t completely cut off from the rest of the world. Hell, my 91 year old mother goes online to email and play Scrabble. But whether or not you’re comfortable with technology, we all have to deal with everyone else . . . who is. And that means being ignored for a smart phone.
And they call this being more connected?
For a while, having all these opportunities to connect seemed to expand our relationships. But after you’ve OD’ed on Facebook and tired of getting nonsensical texts from every Tom Dick and Harry, you begin to realize that these tools don’t connect you more; they create a facade of communication that actually connects you less.
You have to admit, it’s a hell of a lot easier to say something uncomfortable in writing than face to face. Like the “text break up”, it saves you from the confrontation and gives you control: over what you say (ooops – let me delete that and start again) to how much you – or they – can say. The end result is a whole generation or two who literally don’t know how to hold a conversation.
Yes, they have 485 Facebook friends and countless others who text them nonstop. But talk to each other? Ha! If you can get a teen or 20 something to carry on a conversation with you, you’ve found the missing link, because not only don’t they want to talk, most of them simply can’t. They don’t know how.
Of course, we are all guilty of checking our email or playing Angry Birds any time we have a spare minute. But isn’t that sad? I’m just as guilty; I find myself turning to my iPhone instead of using the time to just think. I used to enjoy my “imagine” time, when I’d think about things I wanted to accomplish or create. Now I check my email or the weather or the stock market (which is fun, because we have Apple stock. . . ).
It is truly sad that a whole generation or two doesn’t know the joy of hearing the voice of someone special or sharing the day to day details of what they’ve done or – especially – how they feel. Even though my best friend in high school – Lynn – and I passed notes between every class (kind of like low tech texting), we still talked after school, on the phone and whenever we could connect. And, yes, we connected – and communicated.
OMG IDK WTF
Tags: communication, control, lack of communication, men over 40, phone conversations, talking on the phone, teens and texting, Texting, women over 40
