Computer Love

Need a special girl (Ooh, yeah)To share in my computer world I no longer need a strategy Thanks to modern technology Shooby doo bop shoo doo bop I wanna love you Shooby doo bop [I wanna love you, baby] computer love Shooby doo bop shoo doo bop I wanna love youS hooby doo bop my computer love
~ Computer Love by Zapp Rogers (1980s)

I am a wanderer constantly on the move to new places. Therefore, I have lots of long distance friends in far off places. Some of my dearest friends live hundreds of miles away. I used to love technology as it allowed me to maintain ties with my “cross-country” contacts. Telephones, email accounts, pagers (although I never owned one), Blackplanet (back in the day), AOL Instant Messaging, mobile phones, and text messages were essentials to maintaining contact with people. But have you noticed that as technology improves to higher levels of sophistication, we have less and less interpersonal contact?

I hate to text message! I really do. It is so annoying yet my friends always text me. I hate to respond because I am thinking, “yo, please just call me”. I’d rather hear your voice anyway. Then people get mad when you don’t respond to a text. Also, I hate that I feel obligated to answer my cell phone whenever I have it on me. I feel guilty if I don’t answer a call. People get pissed when you don’t answer your cell phone but really do I have to always be available to the world because I have a mobile phone? But really I don’t like to talk on the phone all of the time either. It gets hot on my ear and my arm hurts from holding it up during long convos.

Am I being a jerk? Shouldn’t I be glad that people want to contact my wack a**? But is access really the issue? Is it because communicating is so simple now, people who I would not ordinarily be in contact with now have access to me? I think so. Before cell phones and text messages I really didn’t keep up with a lot of people but now…it is too much to handle sometimes. Or am I still being a jerk? I just miss the days of face-to-face contact. Even people in my city are quicker to send an electronic correspondence than to call me on the phone.

Can technology ruin friendships as it permits people to distance themselves not only physically but emotionally from people? Will I always have a Nextel-based relationship? Are we going to be relegated to phone sex and internet chat rooms for venues to explore our romantic sides? Is EHarmony the new way to “meet exciting new singles”? Is technology bane or boon? Am I too old-school?