How the technology we use every day can hinder our personal experiences

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Can we live without our cell phones? What about personal computers? What is life without iPods, tablets, or even cable television? For everyone before our time, around 40 years or so, that was a regular day.

It seems as though everyone is connected, everywhere, all the time.

Technology has advanced to the point where handheld devices have changed the definitions for innovation and personal communications.

Interactions with others have taken the form of either solely face to face or various other methods of getting your message across, all depending on to whom you speak.

Technology can be regarded as the basis for most of our everyday lives, including high-definition video chatting by Skype, text messaging, picture or video sharing.

Affordable multi-core processor phones and tablets are available at our fingertips through giants such as Apple, Samsung and HTC, to name a few.

So what is all the hubbub about and what is in danger here? Face to face interaction.

This intricate form of communication is being uprooted and left behind to gather dust, and there are some who don’t like that, to say the least.

The very technology that is making it easier for us to talk to friends and family thousands of miles away, is the very same tech that is keeping most people glued to their screens and unaware of the world around them, even if just a few feet away.

The subtle nuances in people’s speech and being able to decipher between sarcasm and anger, just by listening to the tone of their voice is also in jeopardy.

The body language, or mannerisms, they express which shows you a mix of emotions, all of which a screen and some programming simply cannot capture. Yet.

Some may argue that face to face interaction is already six feet under and staying that way.

I choose to believe otherwise.

Personal communication is exactly just that, personal.

Be it in person, over the phone, via email, through text message or even carrier pigeon, there are still forms of personal communication between multiple individuals.

From this, we can choose whom to talk to, whom to share ideas and emotions with, and whom we want looking at our Facebook status updates, marathon-tweet sessions or silly pictures or videos on Instagram or Vine.

I believe that technology can help accentuate our personal lives with everyone, and if it seems as though it is making one medium obsolete, it is opening the doors for more varied, accessible ways of talking to one another.

The ‘personal’ aspect is still respected, but it is more in tune with our current day and age.

If you were to try and assemble a meeting with all of your friends on Facebook for updates or just hanging out, you would have a relatively hard time doing so.

Small attention spans, tight and hurried schedules, and an always-multitasking societal attitude all sacrifice the beauty and flow of communication.

The price is usually giving up the least convenient of the options, even if only to make the whole better.