The Medium Is The Message: Has this generation sacrificed interpersonal

connections for omnipresence?

Do you remember the song Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra?

The intro goes like this:

"Hello,
How are you?
Have you been alright, through all those lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights?
That's what I'd say. I'd do everything, if you pick up that Telephone...."

This song's lyrics have been on my mind lately, an all-too-familiar feeling of that thought when we
want someone on the other end of the line to pick up the phone, answer a text, or read and respond to
our email that we've sent.

Over the past 100 years, telecommunications has snowballed into a monster of mythical proportions. It
started out at Alexander Graham Bell's initial invention of the telephone, available to a select few
businesses. Then everyone managed to get a telephone in their home. Then the ubiquitous phone booth
appeared. Still, communication was real-time and in specific places. We were still regular
communicators, used to face to face, or even telephone to telephone. You knew when you spoke, who
and when and where you were talking to a person. Vocal communication was fairly straightforward,
and the response was immediate from the other end of the line, lest something was wrong. And unlike a
small notification tone, it was difficult to ignore a continuously-ringing phone.
Then voicemail started the roll down the hill of us communicating past each other. It gave us the ability
to talk with someone without ever actually talking to them.

Technology has quickly sped up, and through the 90s we found ourselves sending emails, sitting in
chatrooms, and on more compact cell phones sending SMS text messages, AIM and MSN Instant
Messenges, and now we use Google Hangouts, Allo, Skype, Snapchat, and a plethora of other
messaging platforms.

We have more ways to seemingly communicate with each other now then ever.

But how is our increased communication affecting our interpersonal connections? Can text on a
screen really be considered communication? And if so, how is it affecting our person-to-person,
voice-to-voice communications?

Media Theorist Marshall McLuhan, in the intro to his book "Understanding Media,"famously talked
about the effects new mediums of communication have on individuals:
"In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing
all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to
be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is
the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social
consequences of any medium —that is, of any extension of ourselves—
result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each
extension of ourselves, or by any new technology."

So let's take McLuhan at his word here: Adding each new medium of communication is akin to adding
a new part to ourselves. Communication over an additional platform is not merely something that can
be used and discarded, but adds another piece to ourselves. Another platform to check with our phones.

This cornucopia of messaging platforms is turning the human person into a grotesque beast, with arms
and limbs of communications that stretch deep into the digital ether. We are never totally in control of
them, as one person or another can suddenly and unexpectedly pull on one of our infinite limbs in an
attempt to reach us. The modern individual has become a ubiquitous, omnipresent individual. They are
always here or there, communicating with someone far away. And yet, they're never really 'there,' and
are having more trouble being present than ever before. Our limbs of communication have made the
human person in his current form hard to approach.

The modern person is blurring past, present, and future together as it catches up with a message from a
person that was sent weeks ago in a bizarre form of communication where time exists, but is not
accurately represented. While we're doing all of this, we're constantly looking down at our phones for
the next insignificant message, or text from someone we would rather be with, while never being truly
present with the people around us.

It's message overload. And what do we have to show for it? Seemingly infinite ways to connect to each
other, and yet, a feeling of being more disconnected than ever.
What has this done to our consciousnesses, both individual and collective?

I'll give a popular example, one that I'm sure many Millennials have been in:

Young love, a new relationship. Constant texting back and forth over a plethora of platforms. Then,
someone doesn't respond. The person waiting for the communication becomes nervous, like an addict
whose high has worn off, and is looking for another hit. Messages are the only way we can relate to our
fellow man today, in a world where even a phone call is odd and alien. The modern version of Jeff
Lynne's intro in Telephone Line, looks something like this:
5 minutes passes.

"Was it something I said?"

Re-read text. 10 minutes pass.

"I definitely should have used the word A instead of The. I was too vague. It was definitely me. Now
they're offended. Darn. Maybe in the next text I can make up for it after they respond.

An hour passes.

"Oh no, now they're really mad at me. Will they want to be my friend anymore?"

Two hours pass.

"They must hate me. I'm so sorry. But I don't want to text a second time in a row back! What do I do?"

Three hours pass.

"Oh no, are they still alive? Were they driving? I must have caused their death. Yep, they are definitely
dead. My poor friend...What will I be like at their funeral? What will I say? What will I do? Will the
police interrogate me?"

I've exaggerated it a bit for humor's sake, but this exchange we have with ourselves on a regular basis is
familiar to anyone under the age of 30. For a human being seeking real communication, screaming out
into the void of the digital world is the opposite of comforting, it is disconcerting and isolating.

There are dozens of other examples. Seeing read receipts with no message afterwards. Facebook Invites
to parties that go seen and unanswered. "✓Seen 3:42 PM" Pleas with friends to hang out that can be
quickly forgotten and discarded as a person can weigh his or her options, or come up with a crafty
response, quickly simply sit at "maybe I'll come." or perhaps never even answer at all.

Later on in ELO's Telephone Line, a repeat of the intro in the song goes like this:
"Okay, so no one's answering
Well, can't you just let it ring a little longer Longer, longer
Oh, I'll just sit tight
Through shadows of the night
Let it ring forever more, oh..."
Herein lies the challenge. As we slowly morph into beings that cannot control our ability to
communicate via text, will we fall away from a real sense of communication with one another? Or will
we push for something greater with each other? In an increasingly digital world, when will we push for
real, face-to-face, human-to-human connections? Or as the song suggests, will we simply wait forever?