By AUSTIN HALL
The Internet and other technologies have built themselves a terrible reputation. A reputation where mothers must fear for their children’s lives or their credit cards, where crazy girlfriends constantly call to find out what their boyfriends are doing.
Whether it is apparent or not, technology has made communication easier in every way. Before cell phones and email, people could not simply text one another to reschedule a date, or call to say they were running late. They had to show up late, and risk getting chewed out, or not show up at all.
Cell phones can keep two people who are on opposite sides of the country in touch without having to wait to get home to call and hope the other person is near their phone. Cell phones are meant to be taken wherever the owner goes. Using cell phones is easier than writing a letter and awaiting delivery.
Smartphones can basically live one’s life for him. Finding somewhere to go for dinner or calling someone to give directions has never been easier. Most smartphones come with a multi-tasking feature, so now one can do both simultaneously.
With unlimited text or calling, which most everyone has nowadays, two people are never more than a few touches of a keypad away. Getting to know someone can be done in a million different ways. Texting makes communication between two people impossibly easy. Just shoot that person a text and get a simple response back fast. Texting has whittled communication down to its simplest form. This allows conversation between two people in a relationship to be simple and convenient.
People say technology has lowered the social skills of youth, but this is a choice made by the individual because anyone with a webcam can Skype other people to have face-to-face conversations. Apple developed Facetime, a program similar to Skype that allows people to communicate face-to-face on any generation 4 or higher iPhone, iPod touch or any iPad 2 with an Internet connection. Even though webcams lack certain aspects of conversation like body language or the setting affecting the mood, it still enables two people to talk and see each other while talking.
There are an abundance of dating websites to choose from. According to New York Daily News, 21 percent of Americans use online dating services, which drastically raises the variety of people to choose from.
There are dating websites for specific groups of people, like Christians or men looking for women from the former Soviet Union. ChristianMingle and AnastasiaInternational are websites that filter out people who don’t meet a certain criteria that someone is not looking for.
Years of time and money have been spent to create and improve these technological advancements. A life without all these helpful tools of communication makes most people shudder and some pre-teenage girls cry, but all of these technologies have been created, not to encourage social awkwardness, but to make lives easier. When used properly technology can help bring people together when they are far apart.