In that same way, I am asking a question about todays technology which goes beyond the "why is technology making us dumb?" framework, and warrants an answer beyond, "well, because technology is passive, and anything passive must be bad for you and a detriment to your intellect."
Question:What do you think is the main reason that digital communication has become a retreat from face to face conversation for the modern teenager?
To answer this question, I asked my brother, Max if he could give me his response to this. The following is what he said..
Jake: Why do you think it's easier to have technological interactions rather than face to face conversations?
Max: Some people don't have to basically. IF they want to change the subject whenever, they can. They can do it. And if they don't feel like talking to a person for a long amount of time, they can just quit the conversation whenever they want
Jake: So you think it's about convenience?
Max: Yea
Jake: Do you, Do you think it's all about convenience? Do you think that...?
Max: I think it's half about convenience, and half about, people are just afraid to face people face-to-face.
Jake: Do you think it's about development? Do you think that it's about people who just aren't learning to develop properly?
Max: No.
Jake: You don't think that?
Max: No...I wanna' go play Xbox
Max: Honestly, umm.. that's what I think. Are their any more questions or no?
Jake: Do you have anything else to say on it, because honestly I need more
Max: Just make some shit up..about me.
Jake: Yea, I'm just trying to know what you actually think, it just makes this easier.
Max: That's what I actually think, and than just add some shit on, aight?
--End--
Interview- Max Friedman from Jakob Friedman on Vimeo.
The day after I posted the response and video of my brother answering my question, I interviewed some people on the street asking them the same question. Andy took us out to 23rd street to find people to "solicit" quick surveys of our technology questions to random people to see how intellectual and thoughtful the answers to what we were asking would be. I asked alot of different people and got a whole variety of answers.
For the most part, I found that the best answers were the most honest, the ones where people responded based on their own lives and not with rhetoric about what they think, or what they feel is commonly believed in society. I got one answer from a person on line for Duncan Donuts, who turned out to be an I.T. consultant. He gave me a really honest response which actually made me re-think my own question a little bit. On the other hand, I got a response from one not-so-friendly guy who "answered" my question before I finished asking it. That was not such a useful response.
Overall, I got 5 responses, 2 of which were repetitive, so I decided to put up 4. These responses are as follows.
Why do you think that people prefer digitalized interaction as opposed to face-to-face interaction in todays modern American society
"I don't know if they actually do prefer it truthfully"
Said one man who claimed he was "late for work"
"I prefer physical, physical is definitely better, technology results in less meaningful communication, and things become lost in translation. Online provides more direct responses, but much less clarity and little emotion whatsoever"
An Indian man who was on his Blackberry, but was kind enough to take the time to give me his thoughts on my question, and shook my hand at the end. He demonstrated that physical communication which lacks so much in the world of online communication.
"Oh, I'm not a fan of it"
That is the response of a man who really didn't have much interest in answering my question, but couldn't help but blurt something out before he passed me completely.
"Well, I'm in I.T. so I am going to be biased, but I would have to say that their is a positive side to online communication. Sure it's less personal, but its also less small talk. Online you can get more done in a conversation faster if you ask the right questions and get right to the point. Its not better than physical interaction, and it definitely has its disadvantages"
This guy gave me a great answer, he went really in depth while he was on line in front of Dunkin Donuts and i pretty much just wrote down half sentences trying to write down as much of what he was saying as I could. I'm glad I did because he made me think about the positive side to this whole tech-communication thing. Hell, it might have some advantages after all.
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After I had asked people on the street, and my brother about this question, I asked my friend Hunter the same question to get his thoughts about what he felt was the general preference between digital and face-to-face communication in todays society. He was only able to give me a short answer because he was also in the middle of doing homework, but the following are his insights into my question.
"I think that today most people would prefer to communicate briefly over the internet or through text messages, but the way I see it, is that technology is more of a secondary form of communication, not a first choice"
I really was intrigued by this, so I asked if he could elaborate on this a little bit before he continued doing his homework.
"Well, I think that for some people, who really aren't capable of socially interacting, the development of Facebook, ichat, text messaging and all that is a great way for them to circumvent that real experience. In my life however, I try to limit how often I use any of that technology, because interaction just seems kind of stupid and pointless unless it is in real life."
This was, what I assume had been another thought he had, but wasn't really an elaboration of his original point. I repeated his first point and asked if he could talk more about technology as a "secondary form of communication".
"I mean, like I said, technology isn't really communication, I feel like it's a way to contact people to be able to actually communicate. I try to use my phone only when I want to meet up with someone, and really only use my phone to text my girlfriend. Other than that, I don't really use technology as a substitute for the real thing, it just doesn't make much sense to me."
This may come off like he was making unsubstantiated generalizations, but from personal experience and having known Hunter since 4th grade, I can say for sure that this is true, he uses technology for creative purposes, is barely on AIM, and on facebook maybe once a month. He doesn't text that much, and when he does, its usually always to his girlfriend. In my opinion, Hunter is living alot less in the digital world than the majority of America (myself included), and that just seems to be alot healthier and more time efficient. The time that Hunter doesn't spend on facebook, and AIM, gives him time to do like... important things pertinent to the actual world.
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