Week 10 - Face-to-face interaction

When I thought about and learned about livecasting so far this week, I couldn't help but think of the ever-decreasing face-to-face interaction in our society. I've never attended a webinar, but I started to think about what it would be like to attend one. I thought that I'd never be able to pay attention. I envisioned myself sitting at my desk in my apartment trying to watch this webinar on my computer screen while sitting in an uncomfortable chair, text messaging, and looking at Facebook. That's the problem with the internet. There are so many distractions. Even when I try to do my homework for this class, I get distracted by Facebook or YouTube or other sites. When I'm in class, though, I don't. Why? Because it's disrespectful to the teacher and other classmates, plus it's usually against the rules of the class. So, that got me thinking of how I could make my webinar experience more worthy of my time. If I ever have to attend one, all I have to do is go with other people and possibly get out of my familiar surroundings so I can concentrate more. Plus, I'd have to set up my computer to a TV screen so that I am not huddled around the computer.

Another problem I predicted with my webinar experience is not being able to talk to anybody about what I had experienced and learned (at least face-to-face). Actually attending a live seminar is much, much more appealing to me than attending a webinar.

Sometimes all I want to do is get off of the computer and go chat with someone face-to-face. I talk to my friends over text messaging and the internet more than I do in person it seems like. During our text messaging sessions, we usually just make plans or what not (not have actual lengthy in-depth conversations), but during instant messaging, I literally talk to my friends as if I were with them in person. That is something I've been doing since as long as I can remember. When I first used instant messaging, I thought that was so cool. Now, I wish it wasn't so prevalent in my life. I used to be in school for eight hours a day, most of them spent learning, but I was always around people doing some sort of live interaction. Now, I feel like I spend more time on the internet for college classes than anything else.

Mark Glaser talks about cell phones killing face-to-face interaction in his blog. He makes some interesting points and even told a story about having dinner with his friend and his friend's iPhone. I thougth that was interesting because I feel like everybody does that nowadays, including myself. Even though I'm complaining about the lack of face-to-face interaction I have in my life, I still text message while having lunch with my friends at the caf. I usually only text when someone texts me, but still...

It's also been said that social interaction is good for a person's health. Yesterday, I read about the Children's Health Magazine's 100 best places to raise a family. The article talked about why Lincoln Nebraska is such an ideal place:
"A key factor to a long, healthy life is a sense of belonging to your community," says John Scheer, Ph. D., an associate professor of nutrition and health sciences at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. In fact, one study found that older people with strong social ties were more likely to live 10 years longer than those who kept to themselves" (Colletti, J. & Weber, J.).

As I jump into career life (and an ever-growing online world), I will always do whatever I can to keep face-to-face interaction common in my life because nothing can replace it. What are your thoughts?