Is Technology Making Us Anti-Social?

When I first read this question my immediate response was NO! I have had this argument many times with my husband who is constantly at me for being on my smartphone too much. He thinks that is is rude to be on social networking sites/apps when in the company of others. I have always countered that with the argument that rather than excluding myself from the people that I am physically in the company of, I am actually adding extra people to the experience through a digital presence. People that are not able to be in the same location as me are still able to share in my experiences, whether in real time or a day, week, or month later when they happen to come across something that I have posted. Communicating with more people, how can that be considered anti-social?

When I was answering the question on the studydesk however, I think there was something about the wording that made me answer the other way….

I answered true to this because I know that I am guilty of doing it.

But then this came up…

I can get just as engrossed in reading a book as I sometimes can when I am looking at a screen. But the former is always considered to be more acceptable. Why?

Perhaps, the reason some people get offended when people are paying more attention to their devices is because it’s not exactly clear what that person is doing. Once upon a time, I might have used the computer for a little while to play a game, then made some phone calls to catch up with friends and family and organize plans for the weekend, had a look through some recipe books in the kitchen to organize dinner, driven into the bank or post office to pay some bills, visited the shops to buy a few things, and curled up on the couch for a while with a good book to read. These days, I can do all that (and more) on my iPhone…without needing to get up at all. In the first scenario, no one would have thought to pass any judgement on what I was doing, I was quite obviously getting things done. But when I get all those same things done with my phone, I am constantly bombarded with comments such as “You’re always on your phone” and “put that thing away for five minutes and spend some time with your family”.

So no, I don’t think technology is making us anti-social…it’s just a different way of being social that some people are having a hard time adapting to and accepting.

(I will most definitely be showing the above picture to my husband next time he has a go at me!)