This is a good piece from the Federalist that puts its finger on the heart of the problem with social media and infotech in general: Truly knowing and being known require presence. And learning to cope with difficult people requires that we be trapped with them both body and mind. If tech erodes that be here nowness (to butcher a phrase) we end up trading in depth of relationship and understanding for breadth and when it comes to knowing ourselves and relating to those around us depth always trumps breadth.
Technology can be escapism and it can be the basis for a shallower existence. That being said I take issue with the argument that it interferes with knowing oneself. That is completely dependent upon how you use it. Do you use social media to find lost friends and make new ones or do you use it as a replacement for fellowship?
I blog (duh) and it is only since I began regularly writing my thoughts that I have come to some understanding of who I am. It turns out that writing is how I work things out. Without blog technology and phone blog apps i would have never begun writing or come to terms with myself.
I think the biggest mistake this author makes is the same one that all those who lament the onrush of technology and change do: they identify where they are most comfortable (usually the practices that the learned in early adulthood) and define that as the pinnacle of civilization with steep slopes downhill to the past and future. This personal preference fallacy blinds people to the fact that there is always jarring change going on and we are all changing with it but despite all the roar, underlying human nature changes very slowly.
If teenagers are surley, distracted, obsessed over their cliques and uninterested in the outside world or the eternal questions so what? Teens have always been that way. Putting an iPhone in their hand doesn't make it worse. Or better.
It just is.
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