Where Is Our Humanism Headed - Article Example

Jaeyoung Ryu WRIT 340 Spring Assignment Where is our humanism headed? If you have watched the first episode of the first season of The Newsroom, you would probably remember Will McAvoy’s answer to the question “What makes American the greatest country in the world?” He said that America is no longer the greatest country in the world, not like in the past. Once all fields of science and technology have been developed, the image of our society where we are living in today has become totally different from the past in terms of urbanization. City centers of major urban areas have been adorned with high-rise building, and people who work at skyscrapers mostly deal with ultramodern technologies such as computer, smart-phone, and its software. It sounds like people work with machines as though they were machines themselves. This paper argues that we are losing humanity because of advancing technology. Forsaking Humanism in the Face of Technological Progress Since the early nineteenth century, humankind has been going through industrialization, urbanization, globalization, and informatization. Owing to well-developed technologies, the world has been much more comfortable. For example, we can access all the information we need or seek via smartphone anytime, anywhere. There is almost nothing that we cannot accomplish with our technological skill. Nevertheless, society members have been creating higher boundary and wider relationship distance with each other ever since they learned to type on the keyboard and touch the smart-phone screen. Compared to the past decades, people today have spent fewer conversations with their family members. Furthermore, it is common these days to see people looking at their mobile phones while they are in a dinner table. Have we thought about what we are missing? We probably already became used to technologies that give us so many benefits, to the point of forgetting what our humanism is all about. It sounds very familiar, but you cannot guess how many people define this meaning in a precise manner. Primarily, humanism is an ethical stance that focuses on the values of human beings. It is simply for the people in terms of a perspective of a human nature. Over time, the frequency of use of humanism has been dropping since the last 1970s. We are losing the notion of humanism, and it is because well-developed science and technology have weakened it. One of the essential things that we are missing nowadays is interpersonal communication skill. We have been very familiar with new kinds of technology and software. Even though the software comes up with the new model that requires learning how to operate it, early adopter disseminates information on how to use such technology as a missionary like Apple Evangelist. They are good at dealing with technology communication devices but not communication skills. Paul Barnwell (2014), author of The Atlantic article “My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation”, reports that his students who have become accustomed to communicate with each other through communication devices (e.g. mobile phones, e-mails, and social media) have conversation problems in the real world. It is no surprise that the younger generation of today prefers online conversation to off-line communication. According to the Pew Research Center, one of three teenagers sends over hundred text messages. More than half of the adolescent population prefers typing on the keyboard to communicating face to face. Young adult generations have exercised and used their finger muscles more than their mouths and tongues. According to William Strauss and Neil Howe (1991), historians and authors of “Generations: The History of Americas Future”, present-day younger generations or, more specifically, high school and college students today are mostly called ‘millennials’, or generation Y. This generation has been increasingly exposed to numerous social media networks, especially Facebook and Twitter that are basically online community. Those technologies are called Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). CMC simply involves all communication that transpires through any kind of communication technology device. Millennials take advantage of CMC; they do not need to respond to someone immediately because it gives them enough time to think about what to answer. Moreover, they become more careful about what they are going to say and they are able to edit their response any time before they decide to send a message. Due to these kinds of advantages, millennials like being on online conversations even though the topic of the conversation is somewhat serious or requires face-to-face interaction. They are more likely to express their feelings and opinions through CMC than in face-to-face conversation. This is why Barnwell (2014) is worried for his students who could be in trouble due to lack of interpersonal communication skills which they would need during their job interview. Their success later in life will partly be determined by the quality of their interpersonal communication skills. Although the world has been better because of technological developments, there is no company thus far that offers job-interview through texting or even CMC. The problem is, this happens not only to millennials but also to people who are regularly exposed to social networking. People who spend a great deal of their time on cyberspace become confused of the difference between reality and the virtual world at times. This confusion causes several problems. One of these problems relates to human relationship management. For instance, some people truly believe that all people in their contact lists and friends list in Facebook are their ‘real’ friends. In Facebook, users easily become friends with others who they probably have met just once. Stephen Marche (2012), author of the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely”, reports that Facebook makes users feel lonely. The original goal of Mark Zuckerberg for inventing Facebook is to help people make their own connection to the real world. However, people who are active and popular in the real world are more likely to carry the same image in the social media. The number of ‘likes’ in someone’s posts on Facebook somehow suggests how popular s/he is; in addition, the number of comments and pictures tagged by other users partly indicates someone’s popularity. “Solitude can be lovely,” Marche (2012) says but “being lonely is extremely bad for your health.” John Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, discovered in his study a correlation between online interaction and feeling of loneliness. If someone spends too much time in online interaction, s/he is more likely to feel lonely. On the other hand, people are less likely to feel lonely when they are more involved in face-to-face interaction. However, it does not mean that all Facebook users are lonely. When people rely heavily on Facebook to keep in touch with others, it will make them feel lonely. However, Facebook will be the greatest tool if people use it to increase face-to-face interaction in the real world. Speaking to someone face to face is one of our greatest pleasures rather than communicating from a distance or through CMC. The problem is, millennials have not yet recognized what real pleasure is since having technology around to assist them in their daily activities is considered normal. Online identity is the second major problem because of confusion. Jessa Lingel and Tarleton Gillespie (2014), authors of The Atlantic article One Name to Rule Them All: Facebook’s Identity Problem, talks about the issue with real name and user name. The Internet is a virtual place where everyone can exercise free speech due to anonymity, and it has fewer restrictions compared to offline settings. Laura Guerrero (2010), a professor in Arizona State University and a communication student herself, demonstrates that people occasionally tend to make fake identities online when they make their own profile. For instance, some people put another person’s photo on their profile picture instead of their own photo. Those who use fake virtual identity are more likely to be brave or assertive on cyberspace than in the real world. In consequence, these online identity problems encourage online stalking, online privacy violations, malicious comments, or cyber bullying. All of these will finally lead to the problems in online ethics. Faster Internet speed allows us to access all information whenever and wherever we want, and bigger hard drives allow us to save and track the information we have gathered or looked for. At the same time, people with fake user identity can have equal access to the information without any form of authorization unless they have to pay to gain access to certain information. These factors have broken down online ethics with regard to online authorization. For instance, everyone who uses the Internet can use Wikipedia nowadays. Even though there are reference sources at the bottom of the page, do we really care where the information comes from if we find the same information on Wikipedia? Google occasionally shows statistics data about a user’s certain keyword without revealing where it comes from. We should think about who owns the data. Everyone has the right to use the Internet, but we should be morally responsible to consider or acknowledge the author of the information before we use it. If you are a Facebook user, you must have seen fake news on newsfeed at least once. Someone twits or posts propagandas or fiction stories on the unofficial or non-major online news site and shares posts as if they are real. Here are some characteristics of news: (1) timeliness-- whether it happened today rather than before; (2) impact-- how it affects society; (3) prominence-- whether it happened to a famous person or not; (4) proximity-- whether it happened in a place where society has some connection; (5) singularity or novelty-- whether it is unusual; and, finally 6) conflict or controversy-- whether people argue about it or not. What the current generation seeks is timeliness. We want to hear the story or news faster than ever before and want to share it. This is why we persistently check Twitter and Facebook’s newsfeed rather than credible newspaper websites. There are too many things to follow up on major newspapers. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter users share hot issues and breaking news with each other in real time. It is one of the easiest ways to select what to read. The problem is we do not double check the credibility of the story or news we are reading. In using the social media, we should not practice blind optimism or accept all information without knowing their veracity. Conclusions In America, we can do whatever we want as long as we do not break the law or harm our neighbor. As such, individualism coexists with communitarianism. However, the color of individualism has been clearer than communitarianism since new technologies settled down with humankind. We used to run into the future too quickly, and we have missed what really important in our life. In terms of interpersonal relationship, it would be better to communicate with people face to face rather than interact through interface. Television used to put some distance between a person and a book hence we called it ‘boob tube’. Nowadays, YouTube and Internet put distance between people. Humankind is currently living in a paradox wherein the existence of humanity causes grief while at the same time mandatory in today’s world. Works Cited Barnwell, Paul. "My Students Dont Know How to Have a Conversation." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. Lingel, Jessa & Tarleton Gillespie. "One Name to Rule Them All: Facebooks Identity Problem." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 02 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. Guerrero, Laura K., Peter A. Andersen, and Walid A. Afifi. "Communicating Identity." Close Encounters: Communication in Relationships. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Sage, 2010. Print. Marche, Stephen. "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 02 Apr. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. Strauss, William, and Neil Howe. The History of Americas Future 1584 to 2069. New York, N. Y.: William Morrow, 1991. Print. Read More