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“Headphones in, world out.”
Keira Embry, a student at the University of Oregon, pulls an imaginary pair of headphones over her ears. “If you see me with these things on, do not even attempt to approach me.”
After being asked But what if your future partner or future new best friend is the one that approaches you?
“Nah, then it wasn’t meant to be.”
If you relate to Embry on this one, then you are part of the problem. If you put your head down to scroll on your phone to fill the boring minutes of your day, then you are also part of the problem.
The problem is our physical community is dying. There has been a large drop in stranger-to-stranger connection, as people seem to be talking to each other less. Curious? Notice how many people talk to the cashier helping them at the grocery store, or if anyone is chatting in waiting rooms.
I have noticed that people, mainly the younger crowd, have an anxious attachment to their phones and other devices. In classes, in public and even while spending quality time with others, the phone will always win over the user’s attention. It has become an impulse to fill the bored and quiet minutes of the day with mindless social media usage. I am just as bad, because I can’t even begin to tally up how many 30-minute chunks of my day I’ve thrown away on Instagram.
We have unlimited access to people online, and not in a good way. I could find out intimate details about a classmate’s life, and never actually speak to them. We are getting to know people without ever looking them in the eyes, which chips away at our community.
Eugene is a very special place, filled with accepting and open people. Wandering into Kampus Barbershop, a longtime business in the west campus area, I decided that this would be a validating look at Eugene’s community. Stereotypically, a barbershop is lined with men of all ages, chatting back and forth and exchanging important community news.
But, “There’s less energy when you walk outside,” owner George Dudley told me. “There used to be this buzz, you know, and now it’s just everyone kind of looking down at their phones.”
We do not practice filling boredom with banter anymore, and instead watch 10-minute dinner recipe videos. This banter has not fully been eradicated, but it is more likely that I see a person sitting on their phone as opposed to chatting with the person next to them with whom they are sharing a space.
Technology has changed for the worse what people consider substantial human interaction. Looking down at your phone while someone is talking to you takes away the meaningfulness of that conversation, cuts your attention span in half and is, quite honestly, impolite. It is now normal to juggle three or four different text threads, but doing this takes away the human aspect of conversation, and we are forming relationships that can’t have the same meaning as they did before our tech dependency. The time spent with the other person is not as valuable. Similarly, stalking your friend’s co-worker’s social media page to the point of knowing where their mother went to high school, yet never saying more than hello to them, is also considered normal now.
My generation will not be able to do simple things like look back and picture specific details about the way a place looks. I’m just as bad, because I’ve walked home and stared down at my phone the whole time. If asked, I would not be able to describe a single person that walked past me.
This is just one lens through which technology sucks the depth out of life. Another is the trends we see on social media. Countless users who mark certain interests or hobbies as “uncool” place people who enjoy those sorts of things into socially unfavorable categories. This discourages uniqueness and individuality in young people at their most impressionable age. Relying on the opinions of others because of what you have seen online a,so discourages people from being social.
Due to both of these reasons, I fear for the significant maturity gap in our development when looking at our social skills compared to past generations. I’m concerned about the grip technology has on my generation, and how dependent we are on it as we enter the “real world.”
Meaningful relationships take both time and effort, two things technology actively works to cut in half for us. The foundation that relationships are built on via texting and social media are not solid ones. Future generations are going to be put at extreme disadvantages when it comes to socializing and dealing with the discomfort of the unknown. They will never know a world without technology, and slowly their physical community will matter less and less.
The way you interact with your community is your choice. So next time you choose “Headphones in, world out,” repeat that statement to yourself and take a minute to realize what it truly means.
