I want to comment on the state of human interaction, compassion, and social norms. I am aware that technology plays a huge role in how we, as sentient beings, interact with one another. It is now perfectly acceptable to enter an establishment whilst talking on a cell phone, basically ignoring the person in front of you. I will give an example: I work in the restaurant industry, and it has become more common to have someone walk up to the counter, bark an order (without even making eye contact), without a pause in the phone conversation. I realize that this is a very small symptom to a much larger problem. Physical interaction is being lost among technology trends, and it shows on a much bigger level. For example, my roommate came home two days ago to tell me that she noticed a two year old standing on the side of a busy highway. It was so baffling to her that she stopped just to get her bearings. In front of her, a school bus driver noticed the child and pulled to the side to block the infant from crossing the road. It was then that my roommate saw a man, presumably the child's father, stroll to collect the child. There are several issues with this incident, the obvious being the parent's total disregard for the safety of the child, but also the fact that several cars zipped by with no concern.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in the drive-thru at a McDonald's for breakfast when my car died. I got out to tell the lady behind me to go around because my car would not start. Since my car was on an incline, I could put it in neutral and coast out of the line. However, I had to put the car in neutral and physically push my car out of the way. It would not be that big of an issue to me had it not been for the 7 plus cars who saw me pushing my car, and drove right past me in order to get in line. My car is a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta, and I am 5'2' about 120 lbs. I pushed the car as far as I could, and just sat in the driver's seat crying. Still, no one came to my assistance. It was about 15 minutes later when two gentlemen pulled up and asked me if I needed a jump.
To me, this is an unacceptable trend in society.We, as a society, are so caught up in our own lives, trying not to get involved, that we are alienating ourselves from what truly makes us human.
We are spoon fed everything these days. If it is not readily available, we don't want it. When it is readily available, we ask when will it be available faster and better. I watched comedian Louis C.K. the other day, and he touched on something that I, too, am guilty of..no patience. He was commenting on cell phones today, and how they are simply amazing, yet if we can not upload, download, send an email, or watch a video immediately, we consider our phones pieces of shit. I still remember try to write a program in DOS for my Computer Science class in high school. If you were successful, you got to wait for the dot-matrix printer to complete the printing process, then you got to tear the perforated edges off! We have memory blockage these days, and it most likely stems from almost everything done for us.
I know technology is only going to advance, thus isolating us further from each other, but I believe that human interaction is very important to separate us from machines. What happens if and when all of this collapses? Don't we need something to fall back on?
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