Social Isolation Research Paper

Social Isolation

The term social networking is used so often in today’s society that the majority of technology users think they grow socially as fast as their friends-list expands. A short ride on a public bus or train tells a completely different story. On one side of the bus sits a group of friends that are supposed to be hanging out together, yet all they do is play with their cell phones, text other friends, or browse YouTube. On the opposite side of the bus lies a group of strangers completely engrossed in their music, blocking all attempts at communication by placing ear buds in their ears. Why, if technology is meant to bring us together and allow humans to socialize, do we use it instead to socially isolate ourselves? The solution
is simple: put down the cell phones, take the ear buds out, and talk to your neighbor. Put that silicon comfort-blanket in your pocket and speak to the person next to you. Remind yourself that the stories and lessons learned by that person are invaluable when compared to the weather forecast or the latest Facebook update.

With technology so easily at hand, the majority of us have become increasingly dependent on these number crunching devices. When the waiter so politely lays down the bill, we reach for the cell phone to use our “tip calculator” to calculate the tip instead of making the simplest ten percent conversion in our head. Earlier in that dinner scenario at least one person paused and read an email or text from a friend that absolutely could not wait until after dinner. It has become commonplace to interrupt a friends conversation in order to pull out the cell phone and check email, or “Google” a fact pertinent to the conversation at hand. I remember dinner at the family table being a ritual worthy of no interruptions: a time to enjoy and socialize on a personal level after a hectic day.

At this point, I could point out causes ranging from lax parental guidance, to ignorant teenagers looking for the next Facebook fix, but I want to focus on common decency. From my travels to Great Britain I learned that Americans have a constant bad habit of interrupting conversations in order to insert their point of view or to ask an unrelated question to the person speaking. After hearing this from a British coworker I started paying attention to the interactions between my fellow American coworkers and my British coworkers. It took less than an hour to see that scenario played out multiple times. From then on, I took the job of politeness police; pointing out every time one of my American coworkers would try to squeeze into my conversation and interrupt in order to ask an irrelevant question. It soon became clear how, by awareness alone, I changed a 25 year old bad habit. By changing my bad habit and revealing the error in our ways, the workplace became a much happier area with both sides knowing the expectations of the other: common decency.

Common decency can be applied directly to the case of using a cell phone during a simple conversation with a friend. Think back over the events you witnessed today. Count how many times you saw someone pull out their cell phone and use it while distractedly speaking to a friend or coworker. If you don’t remember this happening earlier today, wait until tomorrow. You’ll notice conversations everywhere being interrupted by these items that are supposed to enhance social interaction.

Face to face conversation is not the only victim of technology. Social interaction as a whole has suffered due to cell phones and music players. Doctor Martha McClintock, a Psychology Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, theorized and proved for her senior thesis that women in her dorm began to synchronize their menstrual cycles solely from their pheromones transmitted through social interaction. This amazingly complex event most likely would not have happened if they had stayed in their dorm rooms and texted each other on cell phones and Facebook.

The mind and body relies heavily on connections made during the most basic of human interactions: communication. Cell phones and other technologies have made it easier to communicate long distance but at the same time have become a type of roadblock. It is too easy to go in for a long day of work, come home, and call a friend or family member, chat for a while, then go to sleep feeling as if the need for company has been satiated. If that pattern continued, it would be easy to imagine that person becoming a home body, fearing human contact, and starting to order groceries online in order to avoid speaking to a cashier.

Sure, I took the last example to the extreme, but someone needs to address the issue. You may not agree with the last example because you’ve never seen it for yourself, but I have.

Something much easier to imagine, or to remember, is a night that you were lonely at home and wanted to go out for the night. Calling a friend and chatting while curled up on the couch did nothing for you. For some reason you really needed to get out of the house and talk to that friend in a setting with plenty of drinks and food. Sound familiar? I would also go on to suggest that in that time of need you did not pull out your cell phone once face to face with your friend, instead deciding to enjoy the moment and chat the night away.

Of course I need to address those of you with a strong “inner geek.” I have a strong need to have the newest, most customizable devices available today, but I have learned self control with these devices by not using them at the wrong time.
I know a lot of you will have a hard time with this, feeling like you are not being rude, but acting within today’s norms. Allow me to say this: norms can be changed for the better. Become a geek with high standards, and help that become the norm!

With the world at our hands, it feels like a constant need to have that world in your hands at all times, connecting you to the World Wide Web. Introduce self-control. It won’t be easy; changing a bad habit never is. The next time you sit outside, sharing the sunshine with a friend, leave the cell phone in your pocket. Leave the iPod in your pocket and out of your ears. Do your best to hone in on your friend, letting nothing distract you.

Just as we learned from fables as a kid, we learn from stories, more than any other source, today. Let the stories from your friend or that neighbor in the bus take you away from your world and use that lesson in your world. Realize that technology can be a convenience, but, too much of a good thing is never really that
good.

To wrap up all the complex thoughts with the use of my highly complex silicon computer, let me tell you that I learned this self control. I had at one point allowed myself to be sucked down into the digital world but luckily a friend and I were hit by a stray ray of sun and we woke up. All I ask of you is to step out into the sun and wake up a bit! Now, with your simple awareness of the problem, you can start to change a bad habit you never knew you had. Put down the cell phone, and listen to the stories so important to our human race.