First semester freshman year, homesick and lonely, I was infinitely grateful to be able to easily keep in touch with my friends from home. However, I soon found that, after hours of conversation, I had neither said anything nor furthered my friendships. E.M. Forster’s “The Airship,” written in 1909, describes with disturbing insight one aspect of modern human relationships. His depiction of long distance relationships devoid of physical contact are an unpleasant parallel to one of the primary methods of communication in our generation- instant messaging.
A growing group of my friends refuse to use instant messaging. They feel that the conversations are so unsatisfying that they would rather wait to have conversations in person. And I’m beginning to see their point. One of the greatest parallels between the story and actual IMs is the nuances- or, the lack thereof. The grainy machine in Forster’s story can’t show the small facial expressions, or capture the subtlety of inflection that make up more of the conversation than the words themselves. The knowing winks and affectionate touching that normally comprise all the affection and meaning of a real human conversation are replaced with :). I find this a less than ideal substitute.
Also parallel was the idea of refusing to have just one conversation. Vashti hesitated even to restrict herself to a conversation with her son. The multi-tasking, or more realistically, fragmented, abilities of my generation cause us to have upwards of five or six conversations at once- but how compelling can any of those conversations be if we’re talking about seven different topics in seven different tones and waiting for seven responses. No witticisms, no inside jokes, no illuminating expressions, no infinite loops of giggling, can possibly come from this method of communication.
The dystopian coldness of interaction in “The Airship,” having shown increasing popularity in the real world, warns us of a probable outcome of increasing reliance on IMs. Constant use of a method of communication so fundamentally unsatisfying can only result in damaged relationships. I, for one, am starting to prefer loneliness.
What are the benefits of IMs, and what are its drawbacks?
How can we prevent ourselves from becoming Vashti?
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3 comments:
I think the way we can prevent ourselves from becoming Vashti is by doing what some of your friends, and I myself, do, that being waiting to have conversations in real life, or at least on the telephone, instead of through a keyboard. So much emotion is lost through a keyboard, that the true meaning of what people are saying, many times, is distorted or lost entirely all together. If we refuse to have IM conversations, then we can avoid becoming Doug's, and begin to think of ways to develop better technology than simply IM's. This could be, perhaps, virtual technology involving sight and sound, along with touch, that can mimic the real thing. Or, even, a teleportation type of technology where users can beam themselves to a specific room, somewhere far away, in a Matrix-style manner, where they can interact with their friends. Until this technology is developed, however, I believe that we should stick to face-to-face conversations, and only resort to IM'ing and telephone conversations as they are absolutely necessary.
I think you provided a very interesting parallel between IM and Vashti's environment with the Machine. Human interaction is a vital element of life, and instant messenging is an unsatisfying replacement.
I definitely would not prefer loneliness to instant messaging. While instant messaging and email are the least personal ways of communicating, they are still convenient and connect people. It's extremely easy to misunderstand people and to hide behind your computer screen while IMing, but I think that this impersonal form of communication is better than loneliness. I mean, yes I am a very outspoken and social person so loneliness will never bode well for me, but I can understand why IMing doesn't work for everyone. I feel like online conversations don't damage relationships, but rather no communication at all will destroy a relationship.
-Kate
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