If you can do that I think the habit will start to decrease.

I met a girl a few months ago who had deleted her Facebook and Twitter. She put it quite simply:

“How many of the people you communicate with on these sites are people that you actually KNOW and spend time with?”

I thought about it for a while, and I realized – the people I spend the most time “talking” to online are the people that I see in person perhaps once a year – if that.

Keeping in touch via technology is great for people who don’t live nearby.

I talk to the girl who has the room next to mine more via Facebook and texting than I do face to face. This week I initiated an effort to spend time with all of my roommates, a little “roomie party,” – but it didn’t happen.

The girl on the other side of the wall didn’t respond to my Facebook message ]=

It really is sad and pathetic how much people are addicted to these things. When I go to a movie, most people are flipping open their phones while the credits are still rolling – before they even stand up to leave the theater! If you can’t go 2 hours without contact with the outside world, I think you have a serious problem.

Same is said for when you do spend time with someone, and they spend the entire time texting other people. It’s like, come on, really?

Unfortunately, my job involves maintaining a Facebook and Twitter account for the business, so I can’t stay off those sites.

I’m trying to make a point of limiting my time with technology though. I turn my Blackberry off at 9pm every night. Tuesdays (when it’s not raining), I go to a park and spend a few hours reading – reading an actual BOOK, made of paper and everything.

I would also like to point out how bad dependency on technology can be when things like the TD Bank glitch happen. I don’t know all the details, but google it if you haven’t heard about it.

What good is all this technology actually doing in the end?

Your point is valid though. You should control technology, and not the other way round.

It can be the same with email. How much of it is meaningful? Probably less than 1 percent. It makes me sad.

It’s not a black and white issue, of course. But we are expected to process so much information so quickly now that we are left with our head spinning. At least I am anyway.

Great post, as usual! Very relevant to me actually, as I’m one of the few people I know without a Facebook account.

I quit Facebook late last year. All my work colleagues had started to pile in on the craze. I’m 23, some of them are in their 60s and it just didn’t feel right. I know how terribly ageist that sounds but I can’t help it. More importantly though, as we are nurses, there is the potential for some serious breaches of patient confidentiality via Facebook. I just didn’t want to be part of that.

Secondly, I spent too much time checking out what my fiancee’s ex-girlfriend was up to. When I met Stu, I knew very little about her. Through Facebook, a nagging curiousity became a quiet obsession. Eventually I found the resolve to quit and I’ve never looked back. In fact I’m glad I don’t have to clear all the sheep/flowers/quiz invites from my inbox on a daily basis. That has really reduced my stress levels!

I do, however, have an iPhone and you kinda made me feel guilty about it. I am one of those in the cafe! LOL! I admit, the iPhone is permanently attached to me. But I use it a lot because it is expensive and I want to justify the cost. However, it’s not all bad. Since I can’t put it down, I am texting and phoning more and taking more pictures. I am halfway through Wuthering Heights, regularly planet-spot and am learning the world capitals again, all through my apps. I even have meditation tracks and a gratitude journal on there. You’d be proud, TDM, you really would!

I agree with your final words: we are being persuaded that we need these technologies. We don’t. I will text, phone and meet up with those people who I really want in my life.

Off the strength of this post, I might shut my Twitter account and go back to what I was doing with the net eight years ago: reading and writing fanfiction and blogging. I get more satisfaction from those than I have through any empty social media site, and I think that’s the key.