Through the Looking Glass

Hello, hello. First update in 2 weeks as last week was the July 4th weekend and I was all over the place without a chance to sit down and write something decent. I still can't believe it's already July...

Anyways, I was without a phone for a few days this week and boy did I feel the pain. No texting, instant messaging, sending e-mails, checking scores, reading news articles, looking up answers to trivia questions, or browsing Digg images...for a whole 48 hours! Crazy right?

I'm just kidding of course, but that's the general sentiment isn't it? When people forget their phone at home or break it and are without it, they act as if they've lost a part of themselves for the day. For some reason it's just so damn difficult for people to get through the day without a cell phone. Sure, you feel like you're not connected to anyone or anything and lost without a map, but I don't think that's the culprit here. People have become so used to texting, AIM, and other communication technologies that society as a whole is losing the face-to-face communication skills that are necessary; the root word in communication is community, and we're losing out on our last opportunity to create one.

With all of this neo-communication going on (including viral advertising), life just doesn't seem real anymore. Even the part that was real before, the part we could control, is slowly becoming a facade. I can't find the article right now (I'll continue searching and post it when I do), but I remember reading about a company advertising it's camera by hiring people to walk up to tourists and others, offer to take a picture of them, and after doing so, strike up a conversation about the camera. By doing this, the company had ensured themselves direct access to consumers, as well as their full attention on the product they were peddling. I seem to remember the article also stating that people were then offered the camera for what would be pitched as a cheap price, but the actual retail value; some people would buy the camera on the spot, but even for those who didn't, they had just been greatly informed and influenced to buy a particular product. I don't know about you, but that's creepy as hell to me. Now when people walk up to me, I have to have it in the back of my mind that they might be a plant by a company to try to get me to do (most likely purchase) something? WTF.

Things like this have now made it so that face-to-face communication can't be trusted. I used to think that as long as I wasn't a spy for the CIA, I could pretty much trust that the people I interacted with had genuine intentions; good and bad they may be, but still genuine. Advertising like this is not genuine, its fake and casts a cloud over the reliability of human interaction. I knew I texted for a reason! I can choose who I want to message and control who reads my thoughts and influences me....I think....?


Note: I made it so that I could moderate comments (I don't want this to turn into a Digg comment page...ugh) and after applying the option, it deleted all of the comments that were already there. I dunno, but I tested it and I think it's working now.