TMI - (Too Much Information)

In the world where "facebooking", "tweeting", "blogging" and "I posted you" are common phrases, it leaves me to wonder what happened to face-to-face interactions, and when did technology become a third wheel in our relationships? What did we do before Facebook, Myspace and Twitter? When did having a texting conversation become normal, and why can't we (or do we just refuse?) pick up the phone? In this age of technology, have we just become lazier?

Granted, we still have those annoyingly loud people who stubbornly choose to have their relationship/drama/inappropriate/private conversations in obviously public places (you know who you are). . . but when I find myself retreating to my computer, texting, facebooking and emailing people instead of actually seeing them, it really gives me a jolt. Where has human contact gone, and will we end up like Demolition Man where we don't even have physical contact to have sex???

Personally, I still value my face-to-face interactions with my friends and family. As I get busier with work, my personal life, my social life, my hobbies, etc. . . actually squeezing in a dinner or a lunch or a coffee date is next to null. If I can hit two or three birds with one stone, I try to - which I'm sure most people do as well. We dine with a few friends instead of just one, we lunch and conduct business at the same time, we catch up on emails and facebook - we've become a multitasking technology savvy society! "I just don't have time" is an excuse I hear myself telling MYSELF. . . but if I look at my statuses, and check my facebook wall, I'm ashamed to admit that I probably did have that five minutes to chat with a friend (if even over the phone), or ten or fifteen minutes to just grab a cup of coffee, or even have lunch or dinner. It isn't that my schedule is so bogged down with vital tasks and duties, it's that I've chosen other means to fill my time. Even when I am face-to-face with someone, I find that I am texting someone else, "yelping", or facebooking.

Which leads me to. . .

Finding love in this day and age.
Forget Los Angeles (CA). If you're a normal human being, you're working, going to school, running errands, hitting the gym, hanging out with your friends, going to the bars or clubs, going out to eat, grocery shopping, etc. . . you run into several persons and people throughout your day. Not only do you get to see these people, you have options over the internet. I'm sure that you get the emails - some escape that spam filter!, facebook messages, texts, etc.

You think you find the one. You hit a speed bump in your relationship, and instead of working it out and communicating the "old fashioned way", we turn to our "trusty" technology. My love/hate relationship with technology is this. . . it is as great (or awful) as the user. Porn is as easily accessible as your favorite apple pie recipe (no pun intended) - if you have a smartphone, you've got access. Want to find someone to chat to? Easy as punching a few numbers on your phone. Need eye candy? Look no further than your laptop. Don't own a laptop? I'm sure a friend has one, or borrow their phone. We easily share all of our daily activites and whereabouts to millions of strangers each day, minute by minute.

Want to see how a baby is born? Google it.

Maybe my brother is on to something when he refuses to get a facebook account - and if he isn't on facebook, he obviously is not on twitter, yelp, LinkedIn, Hi5 or any of the other social networking sites. I think a little mystery is left to be desired when we choose to share our entire lives for everyone else. It feels like people want to create their own celebrity by tweeting about their daily lives (WHO CARES who you just ate lunch with or talked about or was thinking about or what you're excited about?!). . . on the other side of it, people are so damn nosy and want to share everything (including their opinion, hence why I'm allowed to have my own blog). A milder argument is that having blogs and facebook and such is a tool to be able to record our lives as quickly, easily and efficiently as possible. Ten years from now, my daughter can look back on what I did (or didn't do), and see the fun activities that I've recorded in my statuses. I can look back and see accomplishments and great moments in my life.

But at what cost?

When do we say BUH BYE to the leech that's taking over our relationships and get back to basics? Why do we rely so heavily on technology to get us through the day (I know some of you can relate when you freak out 'cause you can't find your phone, or your battery is dead)? Is it really necessary to Google someone to find out where they're from? What happened to our communication skills and simple honesty? It may be easier to communicate virtually, but don't we start to lose that connection? That HUMAN connection? If we rely so much on our computers and phones - they may never "learn" to think by themselves, but we do give them the power to rule our lives. Take a break. Ask your friend or significant other how they're doing. Learn to ask questions in person. Do you remember what color their eyes are? What are their thoughts on a topic close to your heart? When was the last time you shared a secret with just one person without posting it as your status or tweeting it to the internet world?

Computers, phones and technology in general are great. . . but I guess my lesson for myself, my reminder, is that they are just tools. I can't rely on them to convey messages that I want the people closest to me to know. Posting I Love You or ♥ IS NOT the same as telling someone to their face (as is posting a hateful message vs. telling someone the truth to their face - but that's another topic for another post).

Life is just too damn short to let something that doesn't really think for themselves (and doesn't literally have a heart) let someone I really care about know I care about them.

*** MANY thanks to MY SOURCE* for coming up with Demolition Man (I couldn't remember the title for the movie, and even with my researching skills, still couldn't figure it out) What a lifesaver!! ***