Today’s Technology: Benefits Come with Great Responsibility

As I type here now, I demonstrate the benefits of today’s technology. The ability to voice my thoughts on current local and national topics of interest allows me to publicly air my opinions, (hopefully) inform my audience and can also alleviate the stress of actually paying attention to our modern day society. There are, of course, many different venues that today’s teens, adults, civic leaders, celebrities and businesses choose to use separately and simultaneously. Cellphones, text messaging, e-mail, websites, social networking, etc. They all have their benefits that come with great responsibility. If misused, they can come with detriment and great embarrassment.

I was always happy with my pager. I even upgraded to the pager that had the QWERT keyboard later on that you could send the first text messages with. It gave me regular weather, financial and sports updates and relieved me of having to decipher numeric messages. (I’m not sure how many of you used to do this but I could read full numeric sentences as if they were written in plain English.) I’ll admit that I didn’t retire the pager until late 2005 when my future wife finally went out and bought me a cell phone because she could never get a hold of me (sound familiar?). I’ve always seen the benefits of e-mail, especially when used for mass transfer of information to multiple individuals and websites have done wonders for today’s news, information and commerce. Text messaging can be handy when used to communicate during times that a phone call can’t be made or isn’t warranted. All these things definitely have a place in our everyday personal and business lives and should be embraced for the benefits they’ve provided us. All things equal, they should not be mistaken for or ever replace human interaction. Face to face contact and dialogue is still the most effective means of communication. It provides a real atmosphere with body language and interjections that all the aforementioned will never be able to provide (unless a sarcasm font is developed). Unfortunately, these technological advances don’t always allow you the ability to re-think or edit something that was said or posted and are coming to replace this dying, yet vital, mean of communication. This is where the added ability to communicate in the social media realm have added another nail in the coffin of proper human discourse.

Let’s put all of our cards on the table here. I have a Facebook and Twitter page (and I encourage you to sign up to them if you haven’t already). Even after years of ridicule of them and other social networking sites and applications, I still brought myself to jump on the wagon because of one simple, selfish purpose: To promote this website. I’ll admit, they’ve worked wonders. Combined, they account for 30% of this sites mildly sizable (yet growing daily) traffic. I don’t fully understand the mind frame that feels the necessity to use them the way that most do but to each their own.  My only posts on either of them are to announce updates to JackKarwacki.com. I’m not stubborn, I just don’t see the need to let everyone know I’m jumping in the shower, taking a nap or “going out to get blasted”. I definitely don’t want embarrassing pictures of me posted for all the world to see and would like the opportunity to screen and edit the thoughts in my mind before broadcasting them to the world with the simple press of an enter key. Because I use them properly, I’m receiving great benefit through added publicity of this site.

There’s been countless examples of prospective employers not hiring a candidate due to the picture of them passed out on the floor of a college frat house on Facebook and they’re never ending cases of the misuse of Twitter but I’m going to focus on Kansas City Chief’s running back Larry Johnson today. After a weekend blowout loss to the San Diego Charges, Johnson went on a diatribe calling out his coach, fans and reporters on his Twitter page. He made several references to the money he makes and on more than one occasion used homosexual slurs. He probably meant everything he said in the heat of the moment. He probably wasn’t that apologetic during his apology to said coach, fans and reporters, yet was rather more sorry that his career with the Chiefs was now in jeopardy. We all have those moments. We all feel anger, jealousy, and emotions that can’t always be controlled. The problem here was that he didn’t say those things in a locker room to his teammates, or to his family and friends afterward. He hopped on to Twitter, typed away, and broadcasted his inner most thoughts to everyone in the world. He showed no regard to anyone but himself and this self loathing cry for attention can never be taken back.

When I type something for this website it goes through several edits, nights of rest and re-visits. When I type an e-mail, I carefully check the individuals it’s addressed to and re-read the message several times to ensure accuracy and proper impact. The problem with Facebook and Twitter is that it feels like your just sending a text message to your friends and family. It feels like you’re publicly complaining on your porch to your closest confidants. You forget that you accepted a “friend request” from one of your colleagues or that a business associate is now following you on Twitter. At this juncture of your life, regardless of age, you may have no issues with mass-broadcasting pointless thoughts or divulging personal information and pictures that you most likely wouldn’t choose to share with more than half of the people you’ve chosen to allow into your virtual world. I get it. But the point here is that you never know what impact or impression you’re making on these hundreds of people or the opinion they’re now forming of you. Even more importantly, you’re not allowed the opportunity to respond or defend those opinions in person since they will most likely never be aired face to face in reality, yet rather as gossip and hearsay that may never even find it’s way back to you. Now most don’t act as irresponsible as Larry Johnson, nor would they warrant the national media attention that an NFL star would but that doesn’t negate the level of responsibility that should come with the use of social networking and all forms of communication for that matter.

What we should take home here today is to never forget how to stop by a friends house; pick up the phone to call your mom from time to time; and exercise the same level of caution that you would talking to someone in person as you do utilizing these beneficial technologies in cyberspace or face an embarrassment that you may never be able to repair in reality.

Source: FoxSports.com