The Hiding Game

I've been noticing something lately. Actually, it hasn't been lately, it's been for a while now. People hiding behind technology. Technology - a blessing and a curse. I believe this wholeheartedly. It has made our lives easier, but it has also cluttered and complicated those same lives. One day when I was talking to my mom about something I had written in my blog, I finally asked her, "Didn't you read my blog?" I was schooled by her reply, which was, "Yes, I read your blog, but I want to hear your voice." Don't we all?

I first noticed the hiding game, as I call it, when I worked at Einstein's. Email messages to and from bosses or colleagues could say almost anything, and we assumed it wouldn't be taken half as seriously if those same words were said in person or on the phone. It was as if people used the label of email to cover up any harsh words or comments. I got caught up in that game, wordsmithing until the cows came home in order to get my message across, regardless of how it was said. A friend of mine said it perfectly a couple weeks ago when she said, "Email doesn't have a specific tone, nor can you create one, so you can never fully understand the message. You can never truly understand what someone is trying to say." I was thrown back to that first communication course I had in college, when I learned about the messages and how they are interpreted. I never knew that I would use that information again.

I have noticed the hiding game more and more in the last few years. Cell phones and text messages are the newest tools. I like text messages, especially when I'm at a place like a noisy restaurant or watching a sporting event. But what I don't like is when people can easily dial your number and call you instead of texting you. It's like they want to say something, but don't want to say it to your face. Call it being a coward, call it being passive-aggressive, call it being lazy. Whatever it is, I think it's hiding. (And don't think I'm immune from this, oh yes, I do it too.)

And now that I'm on Facebook (which is a whole other post in itself) I notice that people are hiding all the time. My neighbor said Facebook is kind of like reading Us magazine, only the people are your friends. You want to see the pictures, read the latest, and gossip about those people without them seeing you do it. It's so true. So we become "friends" with all these people who have been in our lives at some point, but don't maintain the friendships in the traditional sense. We don't call, we don't meet in person. We just send occasional notes to let them know we're reading their information, but it stops there.

Where is all of this going? I'm not so sure. But I know by the feeling that I have right now that the tone isn't so good. Maybe you could sense that, maybe you couldn't. Regardless, I'll have a more upbeat post tomorrow. but for now, I just needed to get on my soapbox. And use technology to do so.