Recently I had a conversation about the Rogers Service Outage. It truely showed individuals how much they rely on electronic devices. One woman at her hair appointment said that she took out her phone as usual and realize that she was no longer able to use it as a social crutch.
The younger generation has always had electronic devices at their disposal whether its a tablet or phone. They have grown so attached to this inanimate object that they forgot how to actually talk to each other! The fastest way of getting ahold of someone is checking their story to see recent postings. Life suddenly became more about getting that picture perfect moment rather than living in the actual moment. Humanity lost touch with what is most important, each other.
Most individuals are like passing ships in which you don’t actually see the person but instead see through them. Catching up became checking for recent posts rather than having a conversation. Will this be the downfall of Society?
If you find that you have not a genuine conversation with anyone recently it begs the question, “If this is how I am, how are working professionals in the future?”. Regardless of differences at the end of the day we are all humans and should be treated as such. When someone is being described they don’t talk about your most recent status update. They talk about your personality or physical features . Can you say the same in future? When you go into a doctors office you give up all your personal information and lay everything out on the table in order to get help; would you rather your Doctor treat you as a human or a number or a patient file? You are your own unique individual and rather than put you in a file cabnet with the rest of patients. You have personal experiences that shaped you as an individual and want someone to get to know you before making a diagnoses to impact your life. If society doesn’t do that now do you expect better for the future, after all the younger generation is the future?
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
THIS! Thank you for your post. It is a true and genuine concern for me.
I used to live in Waterloo for 12 years. and my husband (then BF) worked at Blackberry, the grandfather of smartphones. Also local to Waterloo, so 6000 Waterloo residents worked there. Back then (early 2000’s) when Blackberry was the only smartphone on the market, I noticed if I left the room instead of striking up a conversation with someone nearby i would return to my husband with his face buried in his phone.
I know this seems like a weird observation because, as you pointed out in your blog, this is literally how society functions now. But at the time, you could go into any room and pick out every single person who worked at Blackberry because on Friday night, in a packed bar of 200, they were to only ones glued to their phones. I saw it when it started and I see it now 20 years later. So to answer your kind of hypothetical question. I do think smartphones and by extension, social media is the downfall of social interactions on a “normal” level for future generations.
Also, your post reminded me of a photo that went viral a number of years ago. Since I can’t share a photo with you here is the link. https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/703356/this-phone-free-old-lady-has-reminded-the-world-to-stay-in-the-moment-see-the-pic
As somebody who’s been a bartender for almost twenty years, I see both negative, and weirdly, positive sides of this. It can be kind of offputting and lonely when everybody sitting around the bar is silently engaged in their own conversation. This used to be a space for spontaneous conversation with strangers that could pretty much go anywhere, and what erupted could be hilarious, fascinating or totally obnoxious. This still happens, but not as often and not in the same way. On the other hand, I think having a tool to make yourself less approachable is sometimes okay. Women in particular (sadly still) seem to get bombarded should they decide to sit and enjoy a drink by themselves. Often people want to unwind and join the conversation on their own terms, and looking at a phone helps send the message that they are not ready to be approached, whether it is ignored or not. I think that this is perfectly reasonable.
Thank you for introducing and sharing your opinion on this topic.
Myself, I grew up without cell phone and all the gadgets. I do see the difference between myself and my children. I worry greatly for their social skills. Then I ask myself, is it accurate to use what I define as social skills to what kids use as social skills now? They are very different landscape.
A personal example was when I didnt let my older children to have cell phones until they had part time jobs. They were 16 and 15 years of age. They were left out of certain social circle and were lonely. I didnt believe it at first but they I went to my daughter’s volleyball game. All the girls sat in a circle on their phones laughing and using their phones. My poor daughter sat beside them completely invisible. It broke my heart. the next week my kids had phones. The positive was my daughter could be part of the crowd now, the negative was I lost her to her phone. Hours upon hours on the phone. she nerve had a break and never talked with me.
The positive was that my older son was working alone in a park until 10 every night. The phone gave him and myself a sense of security.
I dont know what will happen with my 10 year old. He has grown up on the tech. I fight to keep his hours down but the pandemic didnt help.