technology

There are many arguments against social networks, like facebook and twitter, and the technology that helps us keep up with them, like smart phones and tablets. Bill Keller's recent article in the New York Times makes the point that by forcing us to think in 140 characters, twitter is making it's users less thoughtful, more rash, and basically not as smart. We no longer know where to go without a GPS system, and no longer know how to interact with human beings.

This weekend, I hung out with seven people in a three day, three state whirlwind trip. I was the only one who did not have a smart phone. The first time I noticed this was half a day into the first leg of the trip: a bike trip around Block Island. We stopped at a seafood restaurant for lunch. I was already tired from the two hours of biking we had done, hungry for food, and excited to be sitting on a chair that was larger than my hindquarters. I settled into my seat and looked at my menu, unaware of what the others around me were doing. After I had decided on the lobster roll and a $2 Narragansett on tap, I looked around the table to see my five other friends all checking their smart phones.

I commented on how I was the only one without a fancy phone, and my friends started to talk about what they were each doing. Two were checking their email, two were checking in on Scavengr, and one was checking in on foursquare. I knew what all of these things were from being an informed twenty-something. The two friends checking their email began asking about the two different location tracking tools, and a debate ensued about which was better. One friend installed the Scavengr app and another installed the foursquare app. They did a social check in, so they could say they were hanging out with each other at a certain place. I sat with my hands on my lap, watching as they talked about their social networking tools. I had nothing to add.

The next day, three of us went into New York City. After meeting up with friends in Brooklyn, navigating our trip from our hotel near Times Square to Brooklyn via GPS on the smart phones, we headed back to Times Square to try to find a bar to hang out in. By that point, the two smart phones had died and we were on our own to find a place to go. We did it the old fashioned way. We asked two sets of cops where we could find a fun, low key bar in the area. Neither set had any ideas. We went to two hotels to try to ask a concierge, but it was too late for them to be helping. We went to one hotel bar that turned out to be closed already. Finally, a movie theater employee gave us a bar name and intersection that we could head to. We used our commonsense and navigation skills to find the intersection but, an hour after we got off the train, we found ourselves two blocks from our hotel without a bar in sight.

We hadn't wanted to go back to the hotel to charge the phones, afraid that we wouldn't want to leave again, but we gave in and headed back. One friend owned an extra battery for his phone. It took 10 minutes for him to change the battery, search for a bar, and call to make sure they were still open. We went back outside, hopped in a cab, gave him the exact address of the place we wanted to go, and were at the bar fifteen minutes after leaving the hotel.

Those who avoid social media and the technology around it like to come off as better than those who do use it. They say that they don't need to interact online, they would rather interact in person. They say that they don't need the internet at their hands at all times, since they got by just fine without it before. The problem is, though, the world we live in is not the world we used to live in. We live in a world where our real life conversations revolve around things that happened on facebook and twitter. If you avoid it, you deprive yourself from participating in that in person interaction. We live in a world where concierges' close at 10 pm, because they expect you to be able to figure enough things out on your own to get by without them.

I thought about getting an iPhone a year and a half ago when my Verizon contract was up, but at the time, I couldn't justify switching providers and paying extra money for the convenience of having internet on my phone. It was a luxury I didn't need. The day my new contract is up in September, I plan on going to get one. It's necessary for me to fully participate in life.