Friday 7 December 2012

Ramblings: Mobiles, communication and social situations


On one of the first weekends of the academic year away with the OTC, the rules of the mess were explained to the first years. There are two major rules to help the sociability of the place. These involve, respectively, no PDAs, and no mobile phones in the mess. I remember during my first year having a few free glasses of port going around courtesy of those caught, which well serves to get the rules into your head, especially as a broke student.
However, recently, outside of OTC, I've found myself quite stunned by the sheer number of people who go around on their phones, with headphones in and such. It's worst when someone does it in the pub, because it almost seems to form a wall between the people on either side of him (unless of course, those two people don't care about talking over people. Personally, I find it quite uncomfortable."
In any case, I found myself faced with the question the other day as to whether people spend too much time on their phones, and not enough speaking face to face with people, and I have to say, I agree to a point. I myself find myself guilty of it. I often listen to speakers through podcasts as I walk to uni in the morning, and I've occasionally found myself not realising people in the real world are waving to me or saying hello until they've already passed me.
I do think that texting, or using social sites such as facebook or twitter does become antisocial in certain situations. It is as if the online personas of people sometimes seem to become more important than those they speak to, although in reality it is likely not true. Some people even text or facebook people in the same room. Sure, it might seem funny between the people involved, but it can make the other people in the room feel put out and unimportant.
That said, even though texting in social situations is a sure-fire way to kill the atmosphere, phones have very much become a great way to communicate with people who are not nearby. Of course technology now allows face-to-face interaction over long distances, via wi-fi using applications such as Skype or Face-time. These prove to be a great alternative for long conversations, and are often preferred over regular phone-calls to familiar people. However, these applications are not always practical. Most people would prefer to either phone a person or see them in person. Skype and Face-time are almost some grey area in the middle, and something I would probably only use for friends and family, but then that's just me. Certainly a normal phone call has definitely not out-grown its value as of yet.
Texts on the other hand have some entirely different advantages. They give you the opportunity to contact people if you are not sure whether or not they are available to speak on the other end of the phone. They do not require someone to answer immediately, and so people can take the chance to think about what they are actually saying. They are also a great chance to get an answer to a question if you don't have time to phone, or are involved in a social situation, and a phone call would be inappropriate or antisocial.


Anyway, this is just a little post on my views on the issue. Can you tell I'm stuck somewhere in the middle on this one? As always, let me know your thoughts if you happen to pass by.

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