Downside to technology

I am a huge fan of technology, but there are some glaring downsides to it. Here are just a few that I have found:

1. Cell phones take away the ability to aggressively hang up on somebody. Lets say that a man and woman are arguing about who was supposed to take the trash out and the discussion get heated and one wants to hang up on the other, you know to send a message of disapproval. When a cell phone is being used, you're not sure if you lost the call, if you battery died, or what. The best you can hope for is that your phone will beep and the screen will read, "Call ended." I've been hung up on before, with both a telephone and a cell phone. I can say from experience that I was impacted much more by hearing the sound of the receiver being hung up.

2. Typing can't really get the true feeling across. More specifically, emotions cannot be typed. If a phrase is typed in all caps, then it could convey anger or excitement. There is nothing for sarcasm, joy, doubt, worry, etc. Without the ability to use voice inflections, it is virtually impossible to get a true sense of what people are saying when they post something on Facebook, instant message, text message, and all that. For example let's take the statement, "I'm super excited for my dentist appointment today." For all we know that could be sarcasm, I mean who seriously gets excited to go to the dentist? But then again, it could very well be somebody, for whatever reason, is really excited to go to the dentist.

3. People have basically quit speaking to each other. With smart phones, Facebook, iPads and whatnot. It is easier and easier to keep in contact with others. The problem is that most of the communication is all being done on a phone over the course of several hours when the if the conversation was held through a phone call, it would have been over in minutes. What good is having a smart phone when it is used as a laptop and not as a phone. Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for text messaging and I know that sometimes a text message is necessary when making a phone call is not possible, but why completely avoid human contact just because you have unlimited text messaging?

I know that there are tremendous amount of positive aspects of technology and the advances being made. Through technology we are now able to achieve things we could have only imagined just 15 years ago. Advances in the medical field alone is nothing short of amazing and they are only getting better.

Maybe to help brighten someone's day, write them a letter and put in the mail. It seems that the only thing that comes in the mail anymore are bills and credit card offers, perhaps taking time away from technology and hand writing a nice letter could be a nice break.