Opiniões, críticas, reflexões, comentários e saudações serão extremamente, e sempre, bem-vindos

sexta-feira, 25 de julho de 2014

All we can say

People are always trying to improve their way of communication. Since the Stone age, millions of years before, our ancestors were already trying to communicate to each other using draws, gestures and guttural sounds. Nowadays, thanks to the development of new technologies, there are many ways of communication, like social websites. Ironically, though tools like this last one were created to facilitate social interactions, they are contributing for a less social society. There are two main reasons for that: Reduced needing of face-to-face contact and the opportunity to hide behind a computer screen while saying an opinion.

An individual rarely needs to deal with another person along his day-to-day activities. That is because even the most simple day-to-day tasks can actually be done by using the internet: paying bills, buying food or even taking classes. It facilitates our lives by saving more time to more important tasks, like working and taking care of the family. On the other hand, It makes the social interaction less personal and less frequent. As people are getting used to this way of living, social skills will become more and more weak, until the day when maybe any social contact will not be necessary for living, creating a new kind of "Stone age".

Most people are afraid to declare in public their opinion about something, to ask questions and to tell people the way they feel. It is always a challenge to face an audience when being proponent is needed, however, these opportunities help people to develop sophisticated ways to express themselves. Asking questions puts people in prove because they need to expose themselves and be humble. Though this might be hard, helps people to construct solid knowledge. Maybe tell someone how we are feeling is the most difficult of these three examples, since some feelings just cannot be expressed only by words. People need a closer interaction, as face-to-face, to understand each other; the closest as possible to say "I love you".

Avoiding direct social interaction, the relationship that once was person-to-person is becoming more like person-to-machine-to-person, or even person-to-machine-to-machine, or person-to-no one-to... exactly, an incomplete sentence.

The new technologies are tremendously helpful. They were developed to help people in many fields of their lives, as in locomotion and communicating. However, they did not came to replace humans abilities but to improve them. The best way to use technology without making people less social is remembering that It is a tool, not part of out bodies, and that we control them, not the opposite. It is easier to understand a touch than the social media's "Stone age" guttural sounds.




Pedro Lança Gomes

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