Technologically Unsound

I have a cell phone which allows me to keep in touch with friends, family members, classmates, extended family, mentors, mentees, the old, the young, people I'm close with as well as with people I'm not. I can call them for a long conversation to try and grasp a little closer to how it would feel to be with them at that point in time or I can text them some information that doesn't warrant a phone call.

I have two email accounts, one that keeps me up to date with the latest spam, newsletters, special limited offers, and other information that I could really care less about. The other account provides me with some of the same useless information (but on a lesser scale), information from the various school programs and majors I am involved in, gives me pertinent information about my life at college, and keeps me in touch with people that I hold dear.

I have a facebook page in which I have hundreds of friends from both past and present, family members, acquaintances, as well as a few people I have never met or talked to in real life (and probably never will). This facebook account allows me to keep in touch with people without actually talking to them or by just posting an "I miss you" or a quote from a good time we had way back in the past. This account is basically a quick way of exchanging information about our current life, whether that be a status update with "mmm....coffee" or "fml...my life is over because of this French class" or a new set of pictures that help us remember our nights or to commemorate the birth of a new child...the list goes on and on.

I have a webcam and Skype that allows me to get one step closer to interacting with someone who is geographically distanced from me. Now I can see and hear the person that I am talking with and it is as close as we can get for the time being....

I also have a blog (as you all know, but may have thought I forgot that I had) which gives me a place to put some thoughts that I have about life in general. Not many people know about my blog, but I am grateful that some people care to read it whether anonymously or in the form of a follower.

With all of these various forms of technological forms of communication, one would expect that I would be pretty well up to date with people and a loss of contact with someone could be blamed on a technology malfunction. However, I often feel like very little of this technology has helped my life in significant ways. Sure, I am able to keep in pretty close contact with those that I choose to text or call on a regular basis. But I have found that when people only are present in my life through a facebook page, or a text message, or an email, I lose track of them. To clarify, when there is no other contact than an occasional message every now and then, it seems like I lose track of their lives and in the same vein, they lose track of mine.

I have a brother across the world in Oxford. I have a friend working in New Mexico. I have a friend going to school in Chicago. I have a friend going to school in Pittsburg. I have a girlfriend near Rochester. I have a friend moving to Kansas City. I have a friend moving to Tennessee. I have a friend moving to Ireland and one moving to London. I have friends that are around the state in Fredonia, Buffalo, Oneonta, Orange County, Syracuse, Binghamton, et cetera. I have family out in Western New York, in Texas, in Ohio, and North Carolina. I have friends who live two dorms away, two floors away, and a state away.

All of these people spread around the globe, and technology helps me keep in touch with them but also makes me feel guilty when I don't. I guess we all just get caught up in our lives now and have a difficult time imagining that others are living their lives without us there. They are surviving just fine without my physical presence and I am doing the same. Although there may be an ache in my heart or a thirst in my soul that is only quenched when they are near, I am physically okay and emotionally stable without their physical presence.

Although technology helps soothe this ache at times, I feel that it always leaves me wanting more. More conversation, more information, more feeling, more thought more interaction...just more. Something is missing from these artificial forms of communication. When we attempt to fill the void that we feel inside ourselves with this technology, we are about as successful as a child trying to fill a hole in the sand with water.

We have simplified communication with all of these technological advances. We have turned what used to be very interpersonal and moving into an artificial exchange of information that stagnates all forms of personal contact. As a close friend told me, "I think that all of these technological advances in communication are just more developed forms of noise." I agree with him on this because this noise interferes with how I perceive people and our relationships.

With these 'advances' I can no longer see people face to face, see the body language and microexpressions they give off, hear the real laughter, see their quirks, hear their heart or breath, and feel their soul rise as a conversation touches on issues which they are passionate about. With these 'advances' some part of the connection has been interrupted. Some piece of information has been lost. It's like putting together a puzzle and realizing you've lost the last piece. Like writing a letter and forgetting to sign your name.

There is a mark that each of us has that makes us who we are. A mark that we leave traces of on those we interact with. A mark that is unique to every individual. A mark that cannot be seen or heard, but only felt when we are in the here and now with someone. A mark that we will remember when people are removed from our lives. It is the mark that fuels the formation of a memory. I can only hope that our perception of this mark will not fade over time. Although our minds may be clouded by noise, I can only hope that our souls may have the strength to separate the truth from the artifice.