According to “The Evolution of the Internet,” written by Kate Mannix and Sean Hall, the internet is “revolutionized the way in which we stay connected on a daily basis.”
Today, we not only look to the internet for efficiency in receiving and sending information. It is used for socialization and forming relationships.
Many individuals with parents who were born in the 60s, 70s and even early 80s, have probably heard how attached millennials are to technology and how they were not nearly as reliant on it as we are now. Most of us know all too well how much they prefer to talk in person or call instead of texting.
In the past five years, our parents are trying to ease into the Information Age by tuning into social media, even if they not as active as the average millenial.
What our parents don’t realize, however, is that it’s much more difficult to communicate in person now than before. Nowadays, there is more peer pressure, cliques and often times more judgments from others. On the internet, people are more free to be themselves or portray themselves as their ideal image.
Forty percent of Americans feel more comfortable engaging with people online than in person, according to a Life on Demand study.
The internet has made it easy to hide behind a facade. It gives a person the ability to connect without face-to-face conversation which is exactly what some people need.
Many people feel more at ease expressing their innermost thoughts to someone online than in person. Let’s face it: it’s nerve wracking telling your crush that you like him or her when you’re stammering on your words and sweating profusely.
Online allows people to think before they respond and prevents a person from saying something embarrassing.
Some people can argue that they are shy and nervous about face to face conversation while others don’t have the time to magically run into someone in the street like Nicholas Sparks movies. Although it is romantic and exciting to bump into the potential love of your life, but communication is not what it used to be.
Especially with relationships. In person, some people don’t know how to have an intellectual conversation without allowing their eyes to linger to the lips of the person they’re talking to or to that one piece of lint on their t-shirt.
Online there are no distractions, just the words of the person you are talking to.
Without distractions of physical appearances, it is easier to pay attention to what the other person is saying. People don’t stay connected for long over physical attributes. It’s the way that person makes another feel and the depth of conversation that is shared between people. All of those factors combined creates a bond and the blossoming of a new relationship.
