Essay 4: Love, Intimacy, and Technology
While movies, books, plays, and love songs certainly provide all individuals with a distorted view of both love and intimacy in today’s day and age, It also seems that it does not matter where love is mentioned or in what it is mentioned people act like starved animals that are in need of a steak dinner. As a result all the information about love and romance and relationships that is available to individuals may provide them with a dreamy and fanciful view of love and intimacy in the digital age. It is also true that technology and the many advancements of mobile communication that are available to help people navigate their daily lives no matter where they live in the world is very extensive and shockingly overwhelming to say the least. It is also true that people who are blessed to live in the new millennium are so enamored with technology and the new ways it helps them on their daily journey through life that they use it to connect with anyone and everyone for any reason whether searching for a lifelong love affair with an individual or connecting with family and friends.
This becomes most apparent in the way we approach relationships with other individuals, while it is true that long gone are the days of courtship, handwritten love letters, all night landline conversations, face to face dates with interesting prospective suitors, and the possession of meaningful gifts that are given to a person in order to indicate relationship status. Even just the personal connection a person experiences when they are engaged in a committed, fulfilling, secure, relationship with another person. Modern individuals that live in the digital age are turning their backs on the traditional relationship cus...
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... it has greatly affected the world as we know it in many ways both good and bad, it has also helped us navigate and deal with our daily lives on this planet that we call Earth. It is also true that with the daily advancements of technology our intimate relationships that we cultivate with other individuals are suffering greatly due to the obsession that human beings have with technology, but they do not have to suffer if we are willing to make a conscious effort to engage in meaningful, interesting, face to face conversations with the people we choose to have intimate relationships with no matter what prompted us to engage in a relationship with that person whether we are dating them, they are our friends, family, coworkers, or strangers that we met on the street everybody should have the chance to cultivate various relationships with different people.
Noted Pop-Culture comedian Aziz Ansari, with the assistance of New York University Sociologist Eric Klinenberg, attempts to make sense of the current dating environment in his new book Modern Romance. By employing elements of humor, historical reference, and contemporary sociological techniques, the authors present both the advantages and disadvantages of the search for love and happiness in the new millennium. This paradox is exemplified by the question of whether or not we are better off now, with more choices in our lives, than we were seventy five years ago. Because living focus groups were employed to gather data, the range of the book dates from post-World War II to the present and its members from the “Greatest Generation” to Millennials. .
How we meet and interact with other companions are changing throughout generations. Between the two readings From Marriage Markets by June Carbone and Naomi Cahn and Love Me Tinder by Emily Witt explains how relationships are changing and how technology is affecting people relationships. Carbone is an expert on family law and holds the Robina chair of law, science and technology at the University of Minnesota. Cahn is a professor at George Washington University Law school. The second reading by Witt, she is a journalist, an essayist and a critic who work was published in most of the popular newspapers and magazines.
As time passes society goes through numerous changes and many go unnoticed. However, there is an apparent difference in relationships now versus relationships in the past. This is because of the use of technology, specifically social media and texting. These changes are seen in almost every aspect of relationships, from how they form, develop and sometimes even end. But the important idea here is not just the fact they have changed, it is the notion that the use of social media and texting is actually harming relationships more than it is helping them. It is important to look at the causes and what exactly is happening within the relationships that is harmful. From there, one can start to discover what they need to change in order to not let technology affect their relationships in a negative way. Though there are some positives about the use of social media and texting, it is absolutely vital that this generation starts to recognize the damage being done to their relationships.
Stephen Spielberg once remarked “Technology can be our best friend and technology can also be the biggest party pooper in our lives”. With this quote he describes the contrasting views in each article. “Love in the Age of Like” by Aziz Ansari and “Is Facebook Making us Lonely?” Both discuss the effects of technology on humanity, but from different stances. Ansari states in his article that because of technology Americans have never had as many romance options as they currently do allowing increased interaction. He does also make a counter claim to his own claim by pointing out the downsides of online dating. Marche however, argues that while technology’s advancement
And the heart, even in this commercial age, finds a way”(222)—implying that, although not perfect, online romance can work. He evidences his statement by illustrating how online dating “slows things down” (221), “puts structure back into courtship” (221), and “is at once ruthlessly transactional and strangely tender” (221). For example, he describes how couples might “exchange email for weeks or months” (221) when using a dating site, effectively slowing the dating process and adding more structure to courtship. He displays the transactional and sensitive side of Internet dating when he points to Internet exchanges between couples that “encourage both extreme honesty (the strangers-on-a-train phenomenon) and extreme dishonesty, as people lie about their ages, their jobs, whether they have kids and, most often, whether they are married” (222).
People have the fundamental desire to maintain strong connections with others. Through logic and reasoning, Sherry states, “But what do we have, now that we have what we say we want, now that we have what technology makes easy?”(Turkle). Face to face conversations are now mundane because of the accessibility to interact at our fingertips, at free will through text, phone calls and social media. Belonging, the very essence of a relationship has now become trivial.
Cellphones, television, and computers are just three of the most popular ways that we communicate in today. They have made a substantial impact on the United States simply by being readily available and easy to use. People are often discussing how technology has impacted us. Many believe that technology is actually hindering society rather than helping it. Then there are those who doubt technology has made our social interactions better. Certainly, this is true; without the advances in technology, our level of social interaction in education, businesses, and relationships would diminish.
Albert Einstein once said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” This quote is fully representative of society today. It has distracted us from..... One second my best friend just texted me… Ok what was I saying?.. Oh right; It has distracted us from our studies, our loved ones, and even our driving. Technology is making us less intelligent, oblivious to our surroundings, and antisocial.
Movies and television influence Americans’ and people all around the world by altering their views on current events, and what people think is the norm, especially when it comes to love. This raises the question; are people growing up in this generation forming true meaningful relationships or just superficial “acquaintances”? With the rapid decline of marriage in the United States it seems inevitable that true love is declining as well; or it is possible that love is simply evolving to something
Advances in technology have complicated the way in which people are connecting with others around them and how it separates people from reality. In “Virtual Love” by Meghan Daum, she illustrates through the narrator 's point of view how a virtual relationship of communicating through emails and text messages can mislead a person into thinking that they actually have a bond with a person whom they have stuck their ideals onto and how the physical worlds stands as an obstacle in front of their relationship when the couple finally meets. In comparison, the article … While Daum and X discuss that technology pushes us apart and disconnects us from the physical world, they evoke a new light into explaining how technology creates the illusion of making
The articles “How Computers Change the Way We Think” by Sherry Turkle and “Electronic Intimacy” by Christine Rosen argue that technology is quite damaging to society as a whole and that even though it can at times be helpful it is more damaging. I have to agree and disagree with this because it really just depends on how it is used and it can damage or help the user.The progressing changes in technology, like social media, can both push us, as a society, further and closer to and from each other and personal connections because it has become a tool that can be manipulated to help or hurt our relationships and us as human beings who are capable of more with and without technology.
Whether technology is with us or hurting us, we still have to use it and it affects our lives daily. We need it to get a hold of someone. We need it to do our jobs. Most importantly, we need it to keep our lives away from harm. There are many ways to manipulate technology, but technology has more good to it than bad. There are those who use it for good, like investigators so they can figure out the real story. Then there are those who use it for bad, just like those who commit cyber bullying along with other minor and major things. We need technology regardless if people argue they like or not. There is no way to stop technology and keeping people from making it better. With the developments in technology, we may be able to enjoy all the pricey luxuries and still enjoy life at the same time.
Society has been impacted both negatively and positively by technology. As a result, every aspect of our lives has been influenced by technology. Hence, life is easier, yet it has taken away some of the enjoyment. For example, remember the days of less stress and more personal interaction, when there were no online messages, no emails, social media or cell phones. We have become excessively dependent on technology. As a result, we need to rely less on technology even though it has made learning fun, and business, daily tasks, work, travel, shopping, making new friends and staying in touch easier. In conclusion, technology has a lot of benefits, yet it could take over our lives and become our worst enemy if we aren't careful.
To sum it all up, people can see many positive effects of technology on different aspects of human life such as education, personal safety, agriculture, and the environment; however, not everyone thinks about its downsides. Though modern technology indeed facilitates people’s tasks and duties, it may weaken human bodies, ruin nature, and destroy good values regarding social communication. I believe in technology, I completely support it, but only to an extent. I say go ahead and enjoy what technology has to offer, learn about the world we live in, entertain yourself and consume in it. Just until it doesn’t affect your appearance or the people around you and especially the person in you. Think about it like this, we as humans made machines we can’t let machines make us who we are.
... It's extremely sad how technology demolished any sense of human interaction. About 10 years ago, we didn’t have access to social networks or all of the internet that currently serves youngsters. Back in the day, if you wanted to meet new people you had to go to school or to parks to find people your age who could be possible friends. I personally believe that technology is the key to success; it has made countries all around the world grow from what some people thought to be uneducated into more developed and modernized countries.