Connection Leads to ...Isolation?

It is very rare to walk across campus and not see at least one person talking on a cell phone or to even sit through an entire class without hearing the ring or vibration of someone's phone at least once. With modern day technology we are increasingly becoming connected: cell phones, wireless internet, instant messaging. What does all this technology mean from a sociological perspective? How does it influence the way we shape our communities and societies? I remember talking about this in an English class last year when we were discussing isolation and alienation among the characters of different novels.

It would seem with all of our mobile devices that we are more connected than ever, and advancements in technology are ever increasing this. But how connected are we really? If we look at all those walking and talking on their phones or texting, they are totally absorbed in what they are doing, how much are they noticing of the world around them? It would seem that by being 'connected' to phones or whatever else we are isolating ourselves in this little bubble of technology, not really a lot of human communication going on. So how do we build community with people who we rarely see or talk to face-to-face? At the same time as we are connecting to the internet and our cell phones we are disconnecting from actual human interaction. I return, once again, to Freire's statement that dialogue is necessary for all humans. I guess you could argue that texting is like talking to someone, same as facebook and instant messaging, but in most cases it seems so impersonal. Let me just log onto msn to have meaningful discussion interrupted by emoticons to try to display my feelings. I guess I just feel that when I type something with exclamation marks and smiley faces or frowning faces, its just not the same as if you could see my actual excitement or hear in my voice how disappointed I was. And when you're having a bad day, how about I'll send you something that looks like this: *hug*, doesn't that make you feel good?

I'm no different than everyone else, I too am rather attached to technology, I think I check my e-mail about every 10 minutes, as if when someone send me a message they need an immediate response. I guess this summer I am looking forward to the interaction I will have with others in the community where I will be staying. I will probably not have a cell phone and internet may be a 20 minute bus ride away. It will be different not having all this technology everywhere, but I think I will appreciate it. As others have said, I look forward to getting away from technology and having a more simplistic lifestyle. I hope that when I return I can appreciate more the technology that we do have available but at the same time be less attached to it and more attached to actual people through relationships and friendships and working among the community.