It has been said that humanity’s ability to rise above all other animals has nothing to do with our intelligence. It is due entirely to our ability to communicate. When it comes to communication, humans really trump all other species. We started with our ability to develop simple networks, which led to intricate networks, which led to vast cities and civilizations, and finally resulted with the cell phone next to you right now. Our communication skills have peaked (well, maybe not) and we are currently at the highest point of communication evolutionary speaking. Yet with these advances, we also see a few downfalls. We find ourselves with many technological anxieties and here’s why:
Am-I-missing-an-important-email anxiety:
When your email is constantly next pressed up against your left butt cheek, it creates an environment where we are all expected to be available all the time (also we may one day see a rise in butt cheek cancer). If you leave your phone behind, there’s the constant fear of, “oh no, what if my boss is trying to contact me? What if I forgot something? What if I’m unavailable and I get fired for not being close enough to my phone to answer that important email and then I’ll have to sleep in a box next to Penn Station.” Obviously this over-exaggeration didn’t exist fifteen years ago, but the digital era has provided us with a new kind of work-related anxiety.
Why-are-they-not-texting-back anxiety:
Again, the average person is never more than three feet away from their cell phone (disgusting, right?). So when you text somebody, there’s a pretty good chance they heard it, and there’s the chance they might be ignoring you. Or, maybe they lost their phone, they’re in the shower, they went hiking, or they;re just fed up with all this technology and they’re going old school and replacing their cell phone with a tin can and yarn.
I’ve been noticing recently that this anxiety isn’t even unique to relationships of a romantic nature. I texted a friend a few weeks ago asking if I could have a ride from the train station and when she didn’t answer, I immediately assumed she hated me and wanted me to be beaten to death by the creepy hobo that lives under the platform. She ended up texting me back a few hours later saying she had turned her phone on silence to nap and was “so0o0o0o0o0o0o sorry.” Again, fifteen years ago this wouldn’t have existed.
Are-all-my-friends-hanging-out-without-me anxiety:
Have you ever signed onto Instagram or Facebook and seen all your friends hanging out without you? Or worse, have you ever gotten a snapchat from your friends while they’re hanging out without you? The digital era could easily be called the voyeuristic era. Not only do we have access to everybody’s lives online, we willingly send each other snapshots of our lives in real time. Think about how weird that would be forty years ago. Imagine your parents growing up, taking a picture on a polaroid and then immediately running to their best friends house down the street, shoving the photo in their friends face and saying, “hey, look what I’m doing right this second.” Why do we even do this? Do we want to make each other jealous or are we so insecure that we can’t be with people without showing other people, “hey look how cool and popular I am! Look what I’m doing right this second! Don’t you want to see what I’m doing?” Snapchat is about five steps away from that black mirror episode where people have cameras installed in their brains and videotape their entire lives.
Obviously, technology has greatly improved the quality of life and advanced humanity even further. But as “they” like to tell us, “all things in moderation.” Technology is great but don’t let it cause you unnecessary anxiety. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go watch the 200 second snapchat story of the guy who isn’t currently texting me back.
[Featured Image Credit: Matthew G via Flickr]