Technology: Bringing Us Together on Valentine’s Day
There is a vocal part of the populace who says that technology disconnects people from other people. They say that being head-down in a computer is no way to connect with other humans. To this, I say, “Hogwash.” I’ll speak personally here, but I know that there are others who are in the same boat. I have never been MORE connected to family, friends and colleagues. Through e-mail, facebook, myspace, linked-in, youtube and other collaborative and “connecting” technologies, I know what a heck a lot more of my peeps are doing now than ever before. Sure, I still like getting the holiday card updates and personal e-mails and phone calls, but technology allows me to track my (Cisco plug alert!!) human network seamlessly and keeps me more connected to people, not less.
So, on this Valentine’s Day, I say, connect with your universe through technology, send your loved ones an e-card, order flowers online, book a restaurant reservation on opentable...or, go to match.com or yahoo personals or whichever site and meet the person of your dreams online…and, back on the personal side, I met my wife online some four years ago and couldn’t be happier. Happy Valentine’s Day, Bella!!
Posted by John Earnhardt at 12:54PM PST
Michael P. Mangone Feb 14, 2008
I couldn’t agree with you more John. I am a freshman at the University of Connecticut and in my communications class today we were discussing the effects technology has on inter-personal relationships. And while I do believe that there is a certain risk of becoming dependent on technology to provide communication and interaction, I think primarily that these new
forms of electronic communication are a means of working around such common barriers as being far away from a person, or just being in a position where one cannot simply call or speak directly to a specific person (say for example a significant other). And as far as all of these new
online personals sites to, I think they serve as a reminder that people are willing to look past the proximity barrier and find that person with whom they can establish a deep connection.