A Lack of Humanity

"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." ~B.F. Skinner

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. " Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Max Frisch

*I would like to preface this article by admitting that many of the things I am avidly against, I have used or do currently use to some extent. This article is written to me as much as anyone. I would also like to disclaimer this article by saying that this is not an attack on Facebook, or any other social network, or even any other technology. This is simply my personal views of how it effects modern humanity.

  In his most famous piece of literature, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury portrays his fictional, futuristic look at how our world be in just a short time. Unfortunately for those of us who have read it, this book is far from fictional. If anything it seems to be simply a slight exaggeration of what is really going on in our world.
The world of Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopic American society in the early years of the Cold War. Guy Montag, the protagonist, worked for the government as a fireman, also known as a bookburner. The world had so evolved in knowledge and technology that they had discovered ways to fireproof houses and other important structures, so the job of the firemen was actually to burn things down not to put fires out. In this world, most books, if not all, had been illegalized by the government, so the job of the firemen was to find and burn any books people were harboring, and the houses they were in as well. Oftentimes the person would stay in their home while it was burned down around them. Their love for freedom and expression was so great, they were willing to die with the books they loved.
  The personal life of Guy Montag was an even greater struggle. He was married to a woman he loved with all his heart, and yet she barely existed outside of her home. The people had discovered a way to input music directly into the ear via small headphones called “seashells.” Sadly, the only time Guy’s wife ever took those seashells out was when she was in the parlor with her family. Her “family” was a long list of television shows that she watched in her parlor, and her parlor consisted of four massive walls that were just giant television screens. Occasionally she would have friends over, but only to watch her family, or she would go to her friends’ houses to watch the family. Guy hated this and slowly began to see her lack of love for herself, and her lack of love especially for him. He realized he began to grow out of love with his wife due to her removal of herself from reality.
  Much more is written in this book, but for this article I wanted a brief summary of the reality about personality that Ray Bradbury saw, what now seems, so long ago.

  In a world ruled by Google, Facebook, and MP3 players, the reality of Bradbury’s vision is surely being seen. Personality has slowly been pushed out the door as modern technology is received in with open arms.
Social networking is a great tool for reconnecting with old friends, finding long lost relatives and even meeting new people who you may have many things in common with. However, social networking lacks in the things this world needs most. The things that make us human; Individuality, personality, and expression. People who spend days on end doing nothing but updating status, tweeting, and texting, end up with a terrible ability to communicate well. Accentuation in words, expression in phrases, spelling, and the ability to have an intellectual conversation quickly falls apart. If this nonchalant attitude towards these negativities continues this world will be overrun by illiteracy and emotionless people. Time and time again social networks, such as Facebook, have caused relationships to be destroyed, while creating the illusion that relationships are being strengthened. The ability to comment on someone’s photo album or their updated status attempts to create a personal approach to the internet, but then they add things like the “like” button, which just takes away the personal. It’s as though these websites are trying to slowly make everyone uniform by giving them the option to forget saying something to someone, and instead just acknowledge that it was a worthwhile statement, picture, video, etc...
  Mp3 players are the “seashells” that Bradbury so amazingly created in his mind. And his perception of what the future would look like is so accurate it is scary. As I walk through the mall, or down South Street in Philadelphia, I see many, many people ‘plugged in’ and completely out of touch with reality with the world around them. Even couples walking, while holding hands, girl holding a full conversation while the guy has one earphone in, so he has something to do while she talks, or vice versa. It’s as though the technology has created some kind of more prideful view of ourselves, and even made us view our personal interests as more important than the interests and needs of those around us. I have personally witnessed people completely disregard a homeless man in Center City Philadelphia because they were too busy texting, or too busy listening to their mp3 players. It was not even that they didn’t want to help the man begging on the street, it was that they didn’t even notice. They were so plugged in to their own selfish needs that they hadn’t noticed a man who was in much more need than they. It angers me when people do this because the pride that they have is so great they can’t even pause a song for more than one second to give a dollar to a man who, for all they know might not last the night.
  I am not in any way against these modern devices/networks etc...but I have great concern for people that don’t see the constant use of them as detrimental to their humanity. Using all things in moderation is a principle every human should live his life by, but in this age of “getting stuff” we have lost the view of others. We have lost our view of true friendship by creating false ones. C.S. Lewis is quoted saying - “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”
  If we lose our ability to communicate with one another effectively, and lose our ability to create lasting relationships, our lives will lose their value, and we cannot afford to lose the thing that makes us who we are.