We are Generation Y. We were clad in remnants of 80s fashion throughout the majority of our elementary school pictures. We fell in love with the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, only to later discover we had lost our minds in junior high. We learned to drive when the price of gas was under $2.00. We also came to college incessantly attached to our computers and the fast technology of AOL Instant Messenger.
The obvious impacts of AIM for the majority of people our age are beneficial. It’s instant, for one. No waiting and no hassle, especially with the way the internet runs today. It cuts out the small talk apparent in any other type of conversation because you can get right to the point. If you still have small talk on AIM, you’re simply bored.
It encourages our creativity by letting us choose from a myriad of icons, and if one does not suit our tastes, we can even make one from scratch. Not to mention the witty and sometimes colorful away messages we come up with.
However, one thing that irks me about AIM is that it has altered the social development of our generation. No longer do we favor calling someone to talk — rather, we type. Why pick up the phone to actually hear a voice when you can write something in a pink curly-q font? The exact same change can be seen in our parents’ generation, for they received the exclusive use of the phone somewhat like we received the technology of AIM.
The inevitability of this alteration is what defines our generation in the first place. If there had been no change, we might have ended up exactly like our parents. Though some might like that idea, I’d like to see a show of hands of those who would admit to wanting to forgo our generation’s individuality.
While AIM has obviously changed our patience levels and the way we abbreviate, it has mostly changed how we interact with others face-to-face.
Most people are not people people. That is, most of our “Jiminy Crickets” have to force us to even slightly interact with humankind, if at all. You might think this category does not include you, but take a minute to think about your class discussions. Usually there are the two or three students who monopolize the conversation and then the other 20-something students who sit and secretly sleep with their eyes open. I don’t know which group to congratulate — the people who will have a hard time getting along with others because they talk too much, or the individuals who will never convey their thoughts well because they lack any sort of expression.
That is not to say we all fit into two categories, because exceptions seem to always exist. But it’s hard not to agree that we all lean to one side of the spectrum.
Is this a good thing?
I’m still not quite sure.
I am not saying this as an adversary of AIM, for I am very much an advocate. Don’t mistake me for a hypocrite either, because I do admit to being somehow socially inept; I have also fallen victim to the easy-ways-out AIM can create. Example A: We all have some qualms about talking to those special people of the opposite (or also same) sex. I still become unpleasantly nervous when calling someone like that, whereas I feel free to talk like myself online. While this is not a personal quality I admire, and despite the fact that what I say never comes across quite right without the actual voice inflections, I recognize this as a problem many of my peers also have. We take the easy-ways-out by IM-ing rather than calling, and many of us can forget how ironically awesome it feels to have butterflies in our stomachs when actually speaking on the phone. Or, gasp — in person!
This alteration of conversation skills surfaces in physical encounters as well. Have you ever talked to someone who spends the entire conversation looking everywhere but your eyes? That alone can make a person uneasy, in spite of what words can eventually find their way out of that person’s mouth. However, something perhaps more uncomfortable for many today is having a conversation with someone who looks directly into your eyes the entire time. Try it next time you talk to someone and watch them squirm.
People cannot handle eye contact anymore because it is too personal. While I cannot attribute this all to the popularity of instant messaging, it is a valid place to start.
I guess when surroundings change, so must the way we interact with each other, and everything else adapts and falls into place. The thing is, we often don’t realize it until another change is on its way, and then we find ourselves adjusting again.