Saturday, April 24

Communication Breakdown

Down with technology!

Online talking is well and good until, oh wait--it's not anymore. Fake* communication, if not balanced by real communication, results in a relationship chasm. Chasms are bad. People fall into them and die. Or more likely, they're deemed un-passable and mission is cancelled. The metaphor works.

Experience has taught me that human contact is integral to forming a meaningful relationship. Go ahead: call me insightful. So how does all this technology hinder our relationships? Knowing someone isn't about getting her answers to personal questions or being able to comment on her current facebook status. Knowing someone is what happens after you've been around her for a while. Do you know her facial expressions? Do you know her weaknesses? Her strengths? Do you know when she's lying? When she's avoiding you? When she's happy? To see YOU!? Knowing happens over time, and knowing happens in person.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are people capable of forming strong ties with typed words. I have had no such success. With so many methods of communication, humans have become lazy and complacent. Men have become lazy and complacent. Women have let them. I have let them.

Why should I expect him to ask me out when he can contact me without putting himself on the line? Because I'm worth more. Because you are worth more. Because good women are worth the effort, worth the risk, worth the embarrassment, worth the possibility of rejection. A good man knows that. A good man tries.

Bottom Line: Typing does not boyfriends make. Conversations without physical presence lead to relationships without physical presence...Wow. How obvious is that?

*Fake communication refers to communication without personal contact: texting, aiming, facebooking, and whatever else kids do these days.


2 comments:

yumyumdelish said...

I agree with this completely. I do feel, however, that the generation after us is trying to make "fake communication" the norm and we are probably sounding dated. I would take sounding old over building a relationship on a device that is often lost, stolen or left in the backseat of a cab on a drunken evening.

Allison said...

IIIII AAAAAAGREEEEEE yay!