A Click to Humanity: Media and Friendship

Christmas Eve, 2002. It was quiet in our little apartment; my children, all under the age of five years, were anxiously waiting the enchanted hour of midnight. The clock strikes twelve, and the sounds of laughter start to fill the room. This is the time to open their presents; this is the time the fun begins! Excitement fills the air. But this year was different. This year we weren’t celebrating with our rather large family, who were now hundreds of miles away. Even with the happiness in the room, there was still a hint of melancholy because they were not there. Fast forward…Christmas Eve, 2012. The children are now ten years older, but the excitement of Christmas still fills their hearts as it did ten years earlier. Except this time was different. This time we had our loved ones ready to witness this joy once again. With the availability of the Apple application, FaceTime, the familiar faces of our family filled the iPad screen awaiting that magical hour, albeit hundreds of miles away. Technology can certainly have its downsides. On a personal level, it can take away from the physical aspects of human connection. Sherry Turkle, MIT Director of Initiative on Technology and Self, and an expert on how technology impacts society (Ramage, Bean, and Johnson 426) argues that constant connectivity gives the perception of camaraderie, without the requirements needed to maintain those relationships (426), but a digital project done on youth found that “Most youth use online networks to extend the friendships . . . The majority of youth use new media to ‘hang out’ and extend existing friendships these ways.” (Ito et al). In addition, with video-based applications available, relationships are able to flourish in real-time, and face-to-face, ...

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