PoRtFOLIO

by Gea Koleva

In her book, Generation Me, Jean M. Twenge discusses the notion that “today’s people” prefer electronic interaction to in-person interaction. She feels that: “we’re malnourished from eating a junk-food diet of instant messages, e-mail, and phone calls, rather than a healthy food of live, in-person interaction.”

Even though non-physical communication cannot replace physical contact, I agree that our generation heavily relies on it. This becomes a threat to social interaction amongst our youth because you cannot see the way someone feels by just listening to his or her words. You cannot truly understand the experience written in words like you can through a direct encounter. You cannot read the emotion in someone’s words like you can hear it. Human beings function together to make society what it is, and typing or phone conversations are not the same as in-person bonding. In addition, I think that chemistry and physiology have a lot to do with smell, touch, taste, etc., and how your brain categorizes people and creates physical reactions and connections.

In What is Art?, Leo Tolstoy distinguishes the difference between a painting and a photograph in a similar fashion as Twenge sets apart electronic and in-person communication. He says, “It is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based.” For him, a person cannot be in the presence of a photograph: you can duplicate a photograph, and this can make it counterfeit because anyone can reproduce it (negatives, scanning the image, etc).

However, going to a museum to look at a painting allows you to be in the presence of that piece. Each painting has its own history and story. Several versions of a particular painting may exist, but each one retains its own uniqueness. Adding to a painting’s personality is the inability to duplicate it. A person can copy an e-mail, tape a phone conversation or, save an instant message to use over again. However, you can’t replace the actual experience that relates to being in the same presence as another person.

Also, electronic communication re-emphasizes the “now, now, now” mentality of instant gratification. People seem to have less patience for each other: instant messages are immediate, and if you don’t get a response to an e-mail in a day or so, it is too long. This threatens the act of actually having a genuine conversation with another person. Junk-food describes a snack, something in between meals. It pertains to a quick and easy fix. A person will come online for a quick conversation here and there, but will hardly have real discussions with people (the meal). The unhealthiness of junk-food relates to electronic communication’s weakness if overused, having a negative effect on a person’s social skills. Face-to-face contact builds character and social skills whereas electronic communication threatens it.

Our generation has fallen into the trap of being too dependent on electronic communication. We want fast results and responses and, as a result, we have become less patient and less social.