Technology: Effects on 'Intimacy'.

According to a video I came across (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAkrl3pMblI), it's a common belief that technology is detrimental to intimacy. Considering that intimacy, according to this video, can be defined by closeness it seems questionable that a large portion of people today believe that their relationships are strong enough to base the decision to marry on these technological interactions. Sure, this video was created by students and has minimal credibility, but I still took their ideas seriously and took this as evidence that the effects on intimacy are more realizable than I thought.

The extent to which technology affects our relationships with our partners, family and friends is becoming increasingly apparent and worsening with every generation. This comes with the tendencies of our youth to become increasingly lazy and socially inept and with the compromise of critical thinking and communication skills. All of these affect work ethic and our relationships, but these are issues that we will talk about later.

The effects of technology on relationships seem obvious if you are a member of my generation (Generation Y). Woah. I just double checked that fact and apparently a synonym for Generation Y is now 'The Facebook Generation'. Anyways, young people have developed the tendency to rely upon electronic communication like instant messaging, text messaging and facebook to avoid the (now more than ever) awkward interaction that happens once mutual crushes are typically revealed. My generation will proceed in a different way than preceding generations; they will get to know each other with minimal face to face interaction. They try to get to know each other via text messages, asking personal questions that would typically be asked on a first date. Now what do they do on a first date? They put out. My opinion on how technology speeds up the illusion of intimacy. This role of technology might also be a factor in increasingly high divorce rates. People don't get to know each other as well, which results in their surprise when they find out that their new partner has all these crazy bad habits that weren't evident in typed sentences. Shocker.

When you think about globalization, technology and relationships, it's obviously worth mentioning that there are positive consequences as well. The Internet, for example, aids in facilitating interaction among people who would otherwise not be able to interact cost effectively or in the ways that they are able to today. Skype is a great example of a technology that encourages face to face interaction with its cost effective services which allow people to interact on a global level.