Too Much Tech?

I have this friend. She's also a coworker. She also is a tech geek to the max.

Every move she makes, she checks in on Foursquare, which then updates her Facebook and her Twitter - both of which show up in my respective feeds. And we're talking about every. move. If something cool happens at the office - cool presentation, random mariachi band, whatever - there is an immediate post on her Tumblr and accompanying photos and/or video, as appropriate.

Sometimes, it's a nice mid-day distraction to see where she had lunch. But sometimes, I wonder - why do we need to share this much? It's starting to detract from our actual relationships. What's my best friend from grade school doing now? Well, her Facebook status said something about taking a break from her job (listed on LinkedIn as working in a development office) to go on a 2 week trip to the Philippines to visit her family - which I then saw pictures of. And, 6 friends got married this summer - didn't make it to the ceremonies, but saw the videos online.

What ever happened to staying in touch the normal way? Why is it now a cold, de-personalized stream of text and code? What ever happened to, you know, hearing the voices of the people you care about once in a while? We are biologically created to crave human interaction - in the flesh. But we have now mutated to get the same emotional reactions out of a text message that we used to get from holding hands. Technology claims to make it easier to bring us closer together, but really it just seems to be making it easier for us to exist apart. And our communication is missing the thoughtfulness that it had before technology made it easy to type a "143" to your significant other to say "I love you."

So I'm thinking about taking a break from some of it. Calling instead of writing an email. Sending congratulations flowers instead of a text message. Getting together for coffee instead of trading wall posts.

But... I'll probably still check in on Foursquare when I get to the coffee shop. Gotta get that badge, you know.

Epic Fail.

I'm starting again.

I promise.

I can make excuses, but that's just pathetic. So I won't.

But, if you're interested, I've been working my tail off (can you believe it's already been two years since I started this job?!), traveling to find sun (did you know that it's San Francisco's coldest summer in 40 years?) and reading 80 pounds of newspaper and magazines (why yes, it IS my personal quest to keep print alive).

And on that note - you can keep your Kindles, Nooks, iMaxis, and whatever else you can think of to put content on. Nothing will compare to paging through a magazine and imagining yourself in the photo spreads, or watching the bookmark move through the novel you try to read in five-minute spurts before falling asleep. You hear that? Nada. And it's not just me saying this, it's those clever folks at McSweeney's too. Read it if you don't believe me.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2010/8/11flowers.html