We live in a society where everything is becoming modernized; it’s all about being new and better, being fresh and far superior then anything else that’s ever been seen. It certainly isn’t a bad thing; change, but it’s affecting us in a way that we didn’t foresee, causing humanity to abandon what makes them human. We are losing qualities we’ve long had, becoming far more virtual in what we do, and starting to forfeit features that distinguish us from one and another.
It is Bob Mondello who writes in his piece, Our Media, Ourselves: Are We Headed For a Matrix?, “Nothing physical to establish that one person is different from another. It is a horror story in which humanity has abandoned all of what makes us human.” It is true, as we become more advanced; we’re losing characteristics that distinguished us from each other. In a virtual world, everyone is the same, how can you tell the difference between to people when all you have are their words on a screen? Computers and phones and the like don’t emit feelings, they don’t show compassion or understanding, anger or grief, just the cold hard words, no emotion. We are losing our human traits; take for example this passage from the short story, The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, “She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people-.” Face to face communication is the world’s oldest form, and will soon die out thanks to technology, but this certainly isn’t the best decision for our society. Real life interaction is what gives us all of our great and not so great qualities, what teaches us how to display emotions and build relationships, without it, we wouldn’t be human.
A bit drastic maybe, we’d certainly still be humans when it comes to appearance and genetics and all that jazz, but we wouldn’t have the same characteristics, wouldn’t have the same ability to really feel. Humanity relies on interaction with others to continue its progress. One could say that through advancements in technology, we’re still allowed quite a great deal of communication, thanks to video chatting and instant messaging, texting and calling, but it’s not enough. To look at someone through a computer screen, you see them, but you don’t feel them, and not just physically, you don’t feel their emotions, their expressions. E.M. Forster also writes, “I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you.”
We cannot jeopardize humanity by losing our human characteristics. As technology advances, we can surely advance with it, but we mustn’t forget the things that make us, us. Face to face interaction and individuality can outlast anything if we let it; we have the power to choose.
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