Is how we communicate headed in the wrong direction? When I was growing up, phone calls always seemed to be answered with actual human contact and people interacted with each other more than not. But, over the past four and a half decades I’ve lived on this Earth, it seems as if that is growing less and less.
At first, all any of us had in this world were in-person interactions with each other, where we were forced to communicate with each other face-to-face.
Then the home phone was created, which is the generation I was born into. And people back then seemed to answer their home phones more than not, thus keeping at least verbal communicate at a higher level.
But then came those bulky answering machines. Remember those big boxes that had actual recording tapes in them? Once those things came around, people began to screen their calls at home instead of answering their ringing phones and communication between each other started to lower.
Then came caller id and digital voicemail, where it became even easier for people to just let their incoming calls go unanswered more and more.
Soon pagers were created and communication went digital with those little machines handling numeric and then text-based messages, where people could send brief communications rather than have to resort to lengthier conversations.
Then came computers with e-mail and instant messaging, and the world began to sit behind their feelings through bits and bytes on a screen in front of them, instead of having to opening up in actual live conversations.
When the cellular market took off next, for a moment, because it was cool, it really seemed as if there was a resurgence in direct communication between all of us. But unfortunately, when texting emerged not too long after and became an inexpensive thing to do on those cellular devices, it started taking a higher method of communication than anything else.
In recent years, the use of emoji’s has limited our human interaction even more to a level that reminds me of something straight out of Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” movie, which was a film about a futuristic world that has been totally dumbed down by technology.
Why I’m saying all this is only for the simple fact that I struggle with the number of times these days people don’t ever answer their phones or even listen to their voicemails and instead opt to send a quick text message saying all is well. I just dealt with that today in fact, when I tried to reach out to someone over the phone who I was hoping to develop a friendship with, yet what I received back was a text message where I was thanked for the call and told they hoped all was well, but they had no time to connect over the phone.
And now with this new trend of sending only emoji’s as a way of expressing one’s feelings, instead of making a quick call or seeing someone in person, it’s as if society doesn’t want to connect to each other directly anymore these days. Rather, it’s feels as if people are withdrawing more and more into an emotionless and impersonal state where direct contact with human beings is becoming faux-pas.
I mentioned something similar in a previous article where I have heard of parents now having to resort to messaging their kids even when they are in the same house at the same time. And have you ever noticed in restaurants now where two people are dining together and using the entire time to text instead of talk to each other?
It’s no wonder why depression and anxiety and the use of medications are all on the rise. Everyone seems to be on an SSRI these days as well. Is this because people have withdrawn too much from each other and find communication through things like a video game chat room as being enough human interaction.
Maybe this is why the suicide rate continues to rise?
Maybe this is why people are resorting to gun violence?
And maybe this is why people aren’t interested in growing their spirituality anymore?
If we are all inherently connected by Spirit but continue to choose to decrease our forms of direct communication, then we are only going to lose all sense of even having a spiritual connection to each other in the long run. And if the trend continues, I fear that one day, there won’t be any more direct human interaction at all between us on a verbal or in-person level.
Let’s hope that I’m wrong on this. But in the meantime, I’m going to stay old-fashioned and keep on calling people, even if they don’t feel like picking up. Because eventually, I think that every human being will feel alone enough to want to talk to pick up the phone and talk to someone, or even meet in-person to know they aren’t alone…because without that type of communication, this world can often feel like a very lonely place to be in…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
