Technology neither brings us together nor drives us apart. It rather gives us tools for specifying social activity in greater detail. It used to be that I had to wait until I saw one of my friends at the coffee shop in order to share something with her, now I can just do so via Facebook.
We tend to think of "before Facebook" as some pre-2000 state that's never returning, but that's not really the case. I have friends where we might know each other for a month before we take the step to friend each other on Facebook. Some people I won't interact with on Facebook. Lots of my relatives I block. If they want to talk to me, I'm readily available via chat or message on FB, it's just the daily flow of stuff they're publically sharing I'm opting out of.
I think a lot of older people who lived significant parts of their lives without social tools tend to make the effects of having them out to be more than what they are to those of us who grew up with them. Most people I know use them perfectly naturally, they don't waste hours and hours on Facebook or bury themselves in their phones to escape social interaction.
They just move flexibly from social arena to social arena. When I'm at the bar, I'll pick up my phone if there's nothing interesting going on and play a game or text or whatever, then just put it down when I get bored of it or someone interesting comes around. We use technology as a way of filling in parts of your life that would otherwise go wasted with something that could be more meaningful.
To worry about software replacing the real is just missing the point.
We tend to think of "before Facebook" as some pre-2000 state that's never returning, but that's not really the case. I have friends where we might know each other for a month before we take the step to friend each other on Facebook. Some people I won't interact with on Facebook. Lots of my relatives I block. If they want to talk to me, I'm readily available via chat or message on FB, it's just the daily flow of stuff they're publically sharing I'm opting out of.
I think a lot of older people who lived significant parts of their lives without social tools tend to make the effects of having them out to be more than what they are to those of us who grew up with them. Most people I know use them perfectly naturally, they don't waste hours and hours on Facebook or bury themselves in their phones to escape social interaction.
They just move flexibly from social arena to social arena. When I'm at the bar, I'll pick up my phone if there's nothing interesting going on and play a game or text or whatever, then just put it down when I get bored of it or someone interesting comes around. We use technology as a way of filling in parts of your life that would otherwise go wasted with something that could be more meaningful.
To worry about software replacing the real is just missing the point.