This week's readings gave me nightmares.
Though it may seem futile, I maintain a stubborn resistance against relying on digital technologies for communication. I refused to get a cell phone until I returned to the woods (rural MN roads will kill you in the winter), and even after I had one, I rarely use(d) it to talk to people. The phone I have now, which I've had for almost ten years, is not "smart" and can barely send texts. In fact, I didn't know how to text until I started grad school, and I only started texting because it became a requirement. I do it now, but I don't like it. I don't like the immediacy, I don't like the expectations, and I don't like how it's encouraged people to adopt a lackadaisical approach to communicating. By nature, I am slow, considerate, and careful, and these new modes of communication prevent me from being able to conduct myself in a comfortable way.
Moses & Katz's chapter (which I originally thought was titled, "The Phantom Menace") focuses on emailing instead of texting, but it merely reinforced my fears and frustrations about technological communication. Below is a list of quotes that made me bite my nails:
"Ideologically, work and leisure have become virtually interchangeable. But the ideological dimensions of technology are often hidden from or ignored by the people who are too busy in both their professional and personal lives to keep up with the changing technology, never mind fully recognizing and examining the ways technology begins to influence their lives" (Moses & Katz 75).
"Clearly, the ideology of technology is tied to capitalistic goals of production, which cannot help but change lifestyles" (77).
"The speed of email has led to behavioral expectations that are not defined by reciprocal expectations, which are established by social norms of an institutional framework. Instead, speed... has established behavioral expectations" (89).
"Other behavioral expectations that result from the technical characteristics of email can be framed as conditional predictions or conditional imperatives, such that since email is "always" accessible, people feel like they have to check email continuously... Computer users are constantly interrupted by new email messages.. The characteristic of accessibility also sets up expectations that people are always within reach" (90).
-Personal and private have been replaced with public.
"Some people may appear to develop an 'addiction' to email, also known as 'emailoholism.' One symptom may be that people expect immediate responses to their messages; because of the instantaneous nature of email, they feel the need to send and receive messages instantly, and thus constantly check their email just in case messages are waiting... 'communication enslavement'" (90).
-Enjoy the silence? Can anyone do this anymore? Evidence points toward no.
"I feel my life is fading away..." (91).
"Some studies have shows that regular email users speak to fewer friends, immediate family, or neighbors face-to-face during the week and have weaker ties with their communication partners than do people who do not use email" (97).
I was really hoping Moses & Katz would offer a final thought that might assuage my fears. They failed me. The point they make in their conclusion (and the one I am still struggling to accept) is communication has become dependent on technology. It is no longer possible to get by on human interaction alone, at least not in our society.
My questions:
Is this a good thing?
Is this a bad thing?
Is there any other way?
How do we bring humanness back into communication?
How do we separate work from life?
How do we get younger generations to recognize the consequences (and benefits) of technological communication?
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