by Professor » Fri Nov 30, 2012 9:02 am
Here's a very specific point.
I'm not a Facebook person. Didn't jump on the bandwagon at the beginning (thought I am usually an earl adopter of tech), and now view it as narcisistic. But, some colleagues were joking about something the other day, and one of them said, "Because RACECAR!" and everyone laughed. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I walked out. Come to find out, it's some kind of viral gif where you post a pic of a racecar doing something funny/amazing/etc. and write "Because RACECAR!" on it. They found out about it on FB.
If I had spent an hour a day on FB like many people, I would have known that. I'd have been able to join in the conversation. If the conversation had morphed into something about work, I'd have been there. But, because I didn't keep up with tech, I wasn't. And, since most people are on FB, chances are this will happen again. (Still not getting on there, though.)
I don't think we'll ever totally eschew face-to-face contact. But, I can easily envision a time when people who "got outside and played" are somehow at a societal disadvantage to those Xboxers.