Social Connections
The manner in which people communicate is constantly changing as time goes on. Communication has improved from taking months to reach someone in another state, to almost a second to reach someone across the globe. Developments in technology has been the main contributor to this improvement However, as Steven Johnson discusses in his essay, “Social Connections,” as technology continues to become more sophisticated, it closes off human communication as much as enhances it.
Johnson’s introduction of this idea genuinely starts the readers thinking process of this strange situation. I personally asked myself “do my iPod and phone cut me off from the people around me?” My answer certainly agreed with Johnson’s proposal that “We wear white earbuds that announce to the world: whatever you’ve got to say, I can’t hear it” (414). A personal example of this is I typically listen to my iPod to “disappear” from a social situation such as a conversation my friends might be haven that I do not wish to listen to, or when riding in the car with my mother, and especially when taking public transportation. I use my iPod as a symbol that I do not wish to communicate with anyone else.
Johnson makes a very valid point in introducing this tactic that many Americans share when they wish to separate themselves around the public. It allows the reader to relate to his argument. In addition, he also discusses how devices such as the iPod have restricted communication, but that the internet and global technology has benefited the manners of human communication. He does an excellent job in tying his analysis of Thomas Friedman’s column to his own argument by using it as evidence. However, his argument could have been stronger if he discussed the human need for social interaction.
