Momentary Fleeting Thoughts on the Death of Human Interaction in the Digital Age
By Nate Thayer
November 14, 2013
I have had dozens of communications with people today–by text, by email, by Google and FB Instant Messaging, from all over the globe. I have been communicating with people for nearly 12 hours, uninterrupted.
But just now, my telephone rang, and for the first time today, I heard my first human voice.
It was a computer generated call: “Hello! The FBI reports that there is a home break-in every 15 minutes. If you allow us to put a sign in your front yard, we will install a security system in your home for absolutely free. To learn more, please push one. To be placed on a ‘do not call list’, push nine.”
I actually hesitated. Then I pressed nine.
I feel an even more cold feeling than I did before, even more isolated than I already do in this new wonderful digital world of borderless information that, I am told, is bringing the human species closer together, connecting the world.
I fear that the human voice, human interaction, facial expression, the nuance of humour and meaning and tone of the voice, human touch, the comforting sound of just another breathing and a beating heart nearby, the meaningful expression of eyes, are no longer considered important, little less the primary tool of human communication it was last time I checked.
Are we really becoming a global community? or are we isolating ourselves into billions of virtual cubicles, fibbing about our human essence, applying makeup to our universally shared flaws, creating a fiction of ourselves instead of celebrating and learning from the many differences we all have and should revel in?
I will not surrender till I see the whites of their eyes.
And Skype doesn’t count.
