Hello World!

Welcome!

Can you remember the last time you called one of your friends and asked them what they were doing and what were their plans for the night? And I mean, actually dialed the number and had a conversation? How about the last time you called that specific someone who you are newly interested in just to see how their day was going? If you are anything like me and my peers that I observe around me, vocal conversation is dwindling and is being quickly replaced with text messages, Facebook wall posts and iChat messages. It seems to be that no one has the desire to pick up the phone and call someone but rather they would like to spend 5 minutes to type up a conversation they could have had in a 30 second phone conversation. Is this because our cellular phone minutes are oh so precious and few that we do not want to risk going over our minutes? I’d bet no- as I hardly pick up the phone myself just to have a good “chat” with someone other than my mother.

Here is some information about myself and why I feel the need to explore these issues. I am a female undergraduate student on the west coast, between the ages of 18-24. I am studying communication and minoring in web technology and want to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, whether that is in film, television, fashion, new media, etc. I love everything to do with technology: I avidly follow the popular tech blogs to keep up with what is the new thing as it is ever changing (i.e. mashable and techcrunch). In addition to my interest in technology I am also a member of the greek community here at my school and am constantly observing how new media trends are affecting interaction within the community.

Some questions and topics I hope to address on this blog are:

What implications does this transition from face to face, vocal interpersonal communication into digital, text based or online communication have on our society? Specifically, what effects does the wide spread transition to new mediums of interpersonal communication have on my generation? My roommate last year candidly told me that she never picked up my phone calls and responded in text message specifically because she felt “awkward” on the phone. Will my generation not be able to interact as well face to face? Will we become “socially awkward?”

These are some of the topics that I hope to address and ponder on this blog. I want to explore how this transition into new mediums of interpersonal communication such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, texting, etc. is effecting our relations with older generations (i.e. the baby-boomers response to our new communication trends: will they ever be able to adapt or are these mediums suitable for widespread use from all generations?). What are these new mediums doing in regards to the meaning of “friendship” and close relationships with the use of jargon such as “Facebook Friends” and MySpace’s “Top 50” etc.

So tune in as I explore interpersonal communications trends in relation to upcoming technology…there is big change going on in the world around us and we really cannot just stick our heads in the sand to escape. So let us attack it head on and make the most out of these new tools that are becoming available to us while being careful to not be oblivious to the implications such transitions have on society. Read on…