Electro-Love: A Look at Digital Relationships

Like many people around the world during this economic drop, I have been looking for ways to budget my money and cut costs. Recently, I was analyzing my cell phone bill and noticed I had over 6,000 rollover minutes and only used around 200 minutes a month on actual phone conversations. Meanwhile, my text message and data usages were through the roof! (Bare with me, this is going to get much deeper than you'd expect.)This really got me thinking about the fact that communication is becoming less and less personal and I truly think it is weakening relationships.

You see only a few years ago, I remember talking on the phone for hours with friends and family and it kept our bonds stronger because it was our main form of communication outside of spending time with one another. We would catch up each others lives and get updates. However, in present time with Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc., there is no need for these connections because we are bombarded all day with status updates and what's happening in the world of others. So at the end of the day what is there really to talk about?

I truly believe my last rendezvous went a little sour because of this issue. I was seeing someone for a couple months and we talked on the phone 3 times. Two of the times were to get directions and to let them know I was waiting outside. All communication was via text or Facebook, I HATED IT! It was already enough that we didn't see each other but then I couldn't even hear their voice when I wanted. It seems that people are comfortable with typing more than talking, to me it's lacks warmth and isn't personal at all. At least with talking on the phone I know I'm not getting a generic message-->>> We are all guilty of this, when you send a message like "What's Up?" to like 8 people and see who responds...(A MESS!) Not to mention it is nice to just talk on the phone with someone you admire, simple things in life!

I personally am trying to go back to traditional means of communication. While I will be faithful to Twitter and Facebook, I will still have phone conversations with friends and family. I also have decided not to add anyone I'm dating on social networks, that way we can have something to talk about when we see each other. I feel this will prevent having a digital relationship.

So the point of this message to you is this: Don't let technology weaken your relationships.

-Kevin Dwayne