Interpersonal Communication Loss

The Loss of Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal Communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and nonverbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT for the social studies of science and technology asked the question “Would you rather text than talk?” to people. What she concluded was that “People would rather text because they are so used to being short changed out of real conversation.” People have gotten used to being ignored or come second to a person's phone. People pay more attention to their phones than the person trying to have a conversation with them. “They are so used to getting by with less that they become almost willing to dispense
with people all together.”(TEDtalksDirector) People have given up on each other because our phones are an easier companion than actual humans. Our phones can tell us information in a second, they give us entertainment, and they don't start rumors or ignore us. We expect more from technology and less from each other. Technology appeals to us most where we are vulnerable. We are designing technology that gives us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Phones help us feel connected by ways we can control. Our phones give us the ability to control what and how we want to be perceived. Our phones have taken control of how we act, what we say, and what we do. Each day in the United States six billion texts are sent and America is responsible for approximately 45% of the world’s text volume (Burke). Dr. David Greenfield, the director of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, says around 90% of Americans would fall in the category of overusing, abusing or misusing their devices, according to a recent nationwide telephone survey he did with 1,000 people in conjunction with AT&T. Greenfield's research found that while 98% of respondents said that texting while driving is dangerous, nearly 75% admit having done it (Wallace). Why are people so afraid to speak to someone in person?
One of the reasons for cell phone and social media addiction is dopamine. Engagement with social media and our cell phones releases a chemical called dopamine. That is why when someone receives a text, they feel good. Dopamine is a chemical that is released throughout your body when we do certain things. Dopamine is the exact same chemical that makes us feel good when someone drinks alcohol, smokes a cigarette, and while gambling. Dopamine is highly addictive. Instead of adolescents turning to their friends for help in times of stress they turn to the temporary relief of social media, similarly to when an alcoholic turns to drinking for the temporary relief during times of stress. Because these kids are turning to social media, they don't have the meaningful relationships with their friends. They don't talk about the stress to their friends, they tweet about it on their phone with only 120 characters to express their stress where it is then sent to hundreds of their “closest” friends. Some people realize they need to try to put their phone down and make those close relationships with people but doing so does not have that addictive quality a phone has. Author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek talked about social media's addiction to smoking, gambling and alcohol. He said
"There's nothing wrong with social media and cell phones, it's the imbalance of them that is. Alcohol is not bad but too much is, gambling is fun but too much of it can be dangerous. If someone is sitting at dinner with their friends, and they are texting someone who's not there, that’s a problem/addiction. If someone is sitting in a meeting with people they are supposed to be listening to and their phone is on the table face up or face down that sends a subconscious message to the room that ‘you’re just not that important to me right now’. The fact that they cannot put it away is because you are addicted. If someone wakes up in the morning and checks their phone before they say good morning to their boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse they have an addiction. In time it will destroy relationships, cost time and money and make your life worse”.
When Simon Sinek said social media addiction can make your life worse he was not over exaggerating. There is science to back this statement up. An article was released in 2014 called Seeing Everyone Else's Highlight Reels: How Facebook Usage Is Linked to Depressive Symptoms (Usage). This research shows that people who spend more time on Facebook have higher rates of depression than people who spend less time on it. More research was done at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine about the effect of social media on a person's mood. They found that “the participants use social media sixty-one minutes per day and visited various social media accounts 30 times per week on average”(Chowdhry). The average smartphone user checks his or her phone thirty-five times a day (“Cell”). What made the University of Pittsburgh’s study alarming was that more than a quarter of the participants were classified as having “high” indicators of depression. The researchers asked the question “Why would heavy social media usage cause depression?” They found that “the exposure to highly idealized representations of peers on social media elicits feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier, more successful lives.” They also added that “spending more time on social media increases the exposure to cyber-bullying, thus causing feelings of depression. Social media fuels “Internet addiction,” which is considered a psychiatric condition linked to depression.” SOURCE This psychiatric condition is caused by the release of dopamine that was mentioned earlier. These studies show that yes, social media can affect someone's life negatively and can give them a higher chance of having depression.
According to the National Security Council, cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes a year.
One in four crashes are caused by distracted driving by a cell phone in the United States (Texting). In April of 2014, a woman was killed in an accident caused by cell phone use. At 8:33am on her way to work she updated her Facebook status saying “The happy song makes me HAPPY!!” At 8:34 am, a minute later, a 911 call was placed reporting the crash. Her car drifted into the grass median and into the opposite lane where she collided with a truck. The car caught on fire and she died instantly, she was thirty two years old (Hastings). Using a phone while driving can cause horrendous effects for the user or an innocent person. There are many commercials and advertisements all around the United States and the rest other world warning people about distracted driving. Those advertisements reveal that people know phone usage while driving is dangerous but they choose to do it anyways. It’s illegal but people do it anyways even when they know what could happen. We think “Oh that'll never happen to me because I only use my phone when I'm stopped.” If we use our phone when we are stopped we could start to use it when we are going slowly in a neighborhood. That could lead to us texting while driving on the main road going forty-five mph, the next time we could be texting on the interstate going seventy mph. We feel we can multitask well enough to quickly type a message and pay
attention to the road but answering a gbtext takes away your attention for about five seconds. Traveling at fifty-five mph, that five seconds is enough time to travel the length of a football field. Texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road (“Texting"). We know that with the thirty-two year old women and many others who have been hurt by distracted driving, that that quick one word five second message could end gruesomely. We are so addicted to our cell phones that we can't wait ten minutes before we get to our destination to respond to a message or to like someone's picture. Albert Einstein once said “There lies before us, if we choose, continued progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest.” This quote can be taken a few ways but most people would paraphrase into two sentences: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” This sounds harsh considering all the brilliant minds that have made self-driving cars, a rover on Mars, or battery powered robots that can vacuum your floor without you being home. I feel Einstein was saying that our greatest honor is to be able to connect person to person; if we stop because we are too focused on materialistic things we are not giving this opportunity of life meaning. He didn't want people to be so focused on their phones that they miss the beauty of the world. Being on a phone too often can cause more than just higher rates of depression, it can cause the loss of a meaningful life. In conclusion, interpersonal communication is on the rise of extinction.
The addiction of cell phones will only increase because of all the new technology and accessibility for them. Cell phones are the equivalent to digital cocaine. Once you start to use your phone more and more you can't help yourself from looking at it during dinner, class or a meeting. This can start to affect your life negatively at school, work, and in relationships. We should stop being digital zombies and realize what we are missing when we are on our phones. The question is are we at the breaking point? Have we reached the point where we start to realize what we are doing and are trying to fix our problem with phones? No, many people don't see a problem with the high amount of phone usage each day. There will come a day when people will understand the negative effects of constant phone usage and will try to stop, but will it be too late? Will we have lost interpersonal communication
forever?