Our world is increasingly pushing toward the mobile interface and ease. This comes in the face of working harder and experiential interfaces. While every progression in the human experience is very personal to a generation and beneficial, there are definitive drawbacks to moving in any given direction also.
I recently was at a restaurant in Chicago with my family, and as we are waiting for our food I notice this gal sitting in a booth with another guy there and she isn't even speaking with him. She is taking selfie after repeated selfie. The selfie itself didn't seem all that bad to me. It was curious to me how her face contorted with each new picture, proving not only her dissatisfaction with the previous ones, which only varied in micro-expression, but also the complete disregard for her setting.
I am a millenial myself, and I definitely understand wanting to post pictures of where you are at and your happenings. We all want to share what we are doing in life and let our friends know. It's a relationship element that everyone wants - people sharing events and life stories. There is a social element of that which seems evident to me, but it is becoming more and more obvious that my generation and the next one are abandoning many of the benefits of the past in exchange for the future benefits.
I think it's a well-backed argument that the benefits of traditional social relationships are more weighty than those of the mobile world. I personally have a few rants to give off about some specific things that I find problematic. Please feel free to indulge:
1 - Selfie-nation: I have no issue with selfies. I have a problem with people losing the experience they are having for the mobile experience. That particular gal sacrificed her experience with another flesh and blood person at a place in an iconic town for some "likes" on facebook or instagram. Similarly, people regularly sacrifice actually WITNESSING events in exchange for posting tons of pictures online for everyone to see. I think we all know that most people are clicking on "like" or saying things like "oh cute!" and then on to the next one. I, for one, would much rather have the experience. I view my life as collecting various experiences. Some of them are good and some are bad, but they all belong to me. They are all memories and events that I can recall and visit again in my mind. Despite even the worst parts of my assorted life, I wouldn't trade my origins or experiences for a "like" or a "share."
VALUE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND LIFE - You only get them once.
2 - SnapChat: I realize that I am getting into some debate with this up front. In the advent of social media and pursuing the best way to relate, there are many false pretenses that are generated with services like SnapChat. The idea that a picture has "gone away" digitally is inaccurate. Once something is posted online or in a mobile interface, it can be retrieved. The idea that there are chat rooms where people randomly are sent videos and services where pictures are sent "anonymously" create a problem where people aren't able to see the cause/effect relationship to their actions. When you take those selfies and videos of yourself in less than savory dress, you are exposing it to hundreds of thousands of people. It's not just your "friends" that can have access, despite what your "settings" say on facebook and such. The services here are not specifically the problem. The problem is that people forget the direct consequences of their actions.
USE CAUTION WITH PICTURES/VIDEO - once you put it out there, it's out there
3 - Tinder - The idea here is completely deplorable to me. Sex in general has always been a commodity, so to say that it is "becoming" one is inaccurate. I think the big problem is that sex has long been both a commodity and a very relational and personal thing. It's a very strong bonding ritual and unifies two people in a way that nothing else can. Tinder's line of thinking is purely devoid of all of that interaction. It's absolutely grotesque that someone can go to an application, look at a picture, swipe their finger to the right, and (assuming the other person does also), they will agree to sleep with one another. It strips the experience of the integrity of getting to know someone. You lose all of the deep emotional connections of knowing someone and the things that make sex a wonderful and beautiful thing. In an easier way of saying what I mean, you are giving up all of the relational and personal aspects of sex and exchanging that for a true "commodity," where it is simply a transaction.
PRESERVE THE VALUE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES - Sometimes the old way of doing things is better and carries intrinsic value. Once you lose it, you can never get it back.
In general, I think there is a general sense that older methods are not deserving of the same respect as new methods. There is definitely a value to new experiences. Online dating, facebook, snapchat, and other interfaces certainly add a wider availability to create connections, but the important thing to remember is that the generations before us have held value also. There is something about opening the door for my wife that gives me a deeper satisfaction. There is something about pulling the chair out for her and holding her hand that holds more value. It has nothing to do with her "ability" to do those things, but has everything to do with the respect and love that I feel for her. Those actions convey a deeper level of respect and honor, and I think that is something sorely missing from the way that we currently experience things in a mobile world.
On the other end, there is something about coming home to my wife and a cooked meal that cannot be explained. It's not about the convenience. It's not about being chauvinist or any kind of agenda. It's something that she chooses to do for me and that respect is something that older generations understood.
I guess what I am getting at is that for every advance we have in pursuing the future, there is also a deep value to the way of the past. We didn't get to where we are now as a community and people without standing on the shoulders of those generations. While there are a lot of things that were messed up with race and gender issues, there are nuggets of gold in there that should not be thrown out with the refuse of the past.
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