The demise of face to face interaction

P and I have had this discussion quite a bit over the last year. I'm a Facebook person as are all our kids--P HATES Facebook.

I used to play all sorts of games on my FB, still do engage in back and forth banter with our kids on occasion but have since stopped all the games and what was turning into an obsessed form of communication. It can easily become the abyss of a silent world I think.

Social networks, emails, text messaging--it's all a very real but scary reality and so easy to get lost in. I'm more of an introvert and like to express myself in writing. I've never been much of a talker except with my hubby and select friends. Otherwise, I'm a social misfit. I have my thoughts but never really express them...until I leave and then talk with P about it or I will on my blog.

I find that all these forms of communication make it way too easy for devious behavior--hate mail, secret text messages, secret emails, bullying, and frankly the way for people to show their true colors. There's a lot of bad behavior out there over the internet and much of it has affected our family in one way or another.

P and I have been blogging for awhile and had our share of 'rubes' as we call them, our kids have been bullied by classmates or insulted publicly by name, we've seen people air their dirty laundry for the world to read, and other things that in the world I grew up in as a little girl would be deemed inappropriate.

P and I email each other a lot during the week...we chat, share news, and just stay in touch. Sometimes we'll text each other just to change it up--he works, I don't so we have that opportunity. And it's a privilege to have this capability. But we've also been sure to remind each other that it can easily become the only way in which we communicate which in reality could very well destroy the great relationship we do have.

Imagine, an LOL becoming the only indication of laughter in your everyday life, or 'love you' only being shared in the form of a text message or emailed...after awhile it may very well become pretty impersonal and meaningless. And the saddest part is it's happening....our own children get sucked into it and we have to get them out of their rooms to come out and join the living sometimes.

I often think about our own lives 15 years ago...no cell phones, just email. And it was so foreign and 'modern'! P and I wouldn't talk all day long unless he had access to a phone, I wouldn't receive phone calls while he drove home from work, I wouldn't get his great text messages or even emails from him because he didn't have the means to do so...we didn't have the check-in phone calls or texts from our kids letting us know they arrived somewhere safely or play by play of some exciting thing they were doing.....

There are a lot of great advantages to this new technological world not to mention job security for any of us going to school for IT--like me. But there are also a lot of potentially dangerous repercussions as well. I love technology but hate it at the same time.

While we can't necessarily control the advancements in technology we as human beings can take control of how we act, the ways in which we utilize the very privileges these devices have provided us. Some days its even hard for myself but a gentle reminder that we are in fact a people that thrive on social interaction is usually all it takes...just have to remember that is all.