Week Six: Changing Social Connections

I've never really had the experience of living in a world without Facebook or email or instant messaging.  As a college sophomore, Facebook exploded in popularily during my freshman year of high school.  Before that, everyone had a myspace.  So for me, I've never really experienced a world without multiple electronic ways of communicating with my friends and family.  I do, however, think that Americans are more isolated today due to technology.  I have a large circle of friends due to various schools, jobs, and activities but my close friends who I having meaningful conversations with is much smaller.  Before all of this technology invaded our world, people had to make an effort to talk to their friends.  They had to go out and travel to see people who lived a long distance away instead of just calling them or Skyping with them.  I do think that this issue is something that society as a whole should be concerded about.  People seem to steadily be loosing the ability to interact face to face with strangers.  A lot of times when placed in awkward and uncomfortable situations, people pull out their phone to play games or text/email friends so they don't have to deal with strangers.  Technology has definitely helped people keep a wider circle of friends but it has made people more isolated due to the fact that their conversations are less meaningful