Technically Communicating

With the development of texting and Facebook, connections have certainly grown stronger.  Or have they?  Facebook has promoted networking and making connections.  You can write on some one's wall that lives on the opposite side of the world and you can be "friends" with someone who you've never really met but this one person you met at party is "friends" with so-and-so who's friends with so-and-so who knows this someone so you sent them a friend request.  Now this someone chats with you every time your icon says you're logged on.  In the meantime Facebook is also helping to keep in touch with old high school buddies and family members.  If they update their statuses enough you can literally know all about their lives on a day to day basis. This is handy and both of these are considerably positive but what about serious communication.  Anybody can communicate with anybody without forming meaningful relationships that are deeper than just "poking" someone by pushing a button.  People can also control how they are perceived by tampering with their profile information.  The person you chat with may not be the person you think they are.  Stalking is also not a healthy form of communication and runs rancid if one has a Facebook account.  A few years before Facebook came along there was another astonishing development in the communication world.  It was dubbed, texting.  Overall texting is fantastic.  Its convenient when you don't have time for a phone call or you just need to tell someone something that only requires a couple of words.  This is definitely positive but this isn't how most of us utilize it.  Now people text entire books rather that talking on the phone.  We've even created "Sexting".  I don't think I need to elaborate on the lack of communication with that idea.  There are people who are confident through text and can't even look at you when you talk to them in person.  Klosterman discussed how computer games and technology in general can pull one away from reality and stint one's creativity.  I think Facebook and texting do the same.  They take people away from reality and can block the mind from communicating with people as opposed to machines with people on the other side.  Klosterman also discussed relationships on the Sims game.  He became frustrated when he tried to compare them to realistic everyday relationships.  Relationships that only communicate through texting and Facebook should also be considered frustrating.  There really is only light communicating.  Although I participate in and utilize both of these technologies on a daily basis I'm aware that they can have harmful affects on communication skills.