Granted I'm not a PLS major, but I am in fact a good friend of a PLS major that is a part of this group, Cornelius Rogers. We've talked now and then about life stuff, and since it so happens that PLS majors are huge fans of life stuff, I thought maybe I'd share a piece of my noggin with y'all. In order to get my point across, I first must paint a picture of what my life is like on a normal work day. I was a Biological Sciences major at ND, and I am now working in a research laboratory at IUPUI near downtown Indianapolis. I am my boss's only employee, and unless I leave the lab, I am the only person I see for 8 hours. If I am lucky, I will happen to be eating lunch at the same time as another worker on my floor. Perhaps there are only two other workers on my floor that actually both a) bring their lunch, and b) decide they would like to eat said lunch in the break room on any given day. So, one could posit that my work life is lonely. I would comment that my work life is focused.
Anyway, when I do venture out into the outside world on a normal work day, using IUPUI's shuttle buses to get to and from the main part of campus, I find that my fellow passengers, young and old, are absorbed in their connections to the rest of the world. These connections in general include talking on the phone, surfing the web, texting, emailing, or simply listening to music. I am not starving to talk to people, but it would be nice to have a natural person-to-person conversation, something which I rarely find on those shuttle rides. These trips are only one example of what is increasingly common in our "connected" culture: a complete lack of connection to others in the physical sense of the word. I may not feel lonely on these rides, but I am most definitely alone.
It is a given that a 3G connection will be what we can use in the coming years to stay connected to friends from college, high school, or even earlier, but try as one might, only a small fragment of what friends in fact are shines through in their communications with you. Nothing can replace the veritable presence of someone else in your physical location, interacting with you, smiling with you, laughing with you. An "LOL" from a close friend across the country is great, but the laughter of a true friend in person is freakin' awesome. As social beings, we are bound to enjoy almost any type of communication we have with others, be it person-to-person or person-to-device-to-telephone-tower-to-device-to-person. Perhaps there is a relationship between the amount of enjoyment one can derive from a conversation and the amount of reality involved in that conversation. I would argue that there is. It's kind of like the missing you still feel after a phone conversation with a distant friend. Because they are there, and you are here, a key component of human interaction is lost. It's the reason why even the strongest romantic relationships are tested when the two partners are at a distance. Each member of the relationship really isn't receiving all that the other member can offer, and something is again missing.
So, my message is this. If you enjoy fulfilling, genuine interaction with other human beings, you will not find it on the internet. It may in fact be difficult to find friends in graduate life as genuine and awesome as the ones you found at Our Lady's University, but this should not stop you from seeking out new friends to confide in. The connections you have from the past should only help you to branch out and find others for your future.
Nathan Hammes
*Regardless of its depth, I must comment that this communication is entirely superficial.
Anyway, when I do venture out into the outside world on a normal work day, using IUPUI's shuttle buses to get to and from the main part of campus, I find that my fellow passengers, young and old, are absorbed in their connections to the rest of the world. These connections in general include talking on the phone, surfing the web, texting, emailing, or simply listening to music. I am not starving to talk to people, but it would be nice to have a natural person-to-person conversation, something which I rarely find on those shuttle rides. These trips are only one example of what is increasingly common in our "connected" culture: a complete lack of connection to others in the physical sense of the word. I may not feel lonely on these rides, but I am most definitely alone.
It is a given that a 3G connection will be what we can use in the coming years to stay connected to friends from college, high school, or even earlier, but try as one might, only a small fragment of what friends in fact are shines through in their communications with you. Nothing can replace the veritable presence of someone else in your physical location, interacting with you, smiling with you, laughing with you. An "LOL" from a close friend across the country is great, but the laughter of a true friend in person is freakin' awesome. As social beings, we are bound to enjoy almost any type of communication we have with others, be it person-to-person or person-to-device-to-telephone-tower-to-device-to-person. Perhaps there is a relationship between the amount of enjoyment one can derive from a conversation and the amount of reality involved in that conversation. I would argue that there is. It's kind of like the missing you still feel after a phone conversation with a distant friend. Because they are there, and you are here, a key component of human interaction is lost. It's the reason why even the strongest romantic relationships are tested when the two partners are at a distance. Each member of the relationship really isn't receiving all that the other member can offer, and something is again missing.
So, my message is this. If you enjoy fulfilling, genuine interaction with other human beings, you will not find it on the internet. It may in fact be difficult to find friends in graduate life as genuine and awesome as the ones you found at Our Lady's University, but this should not stop you from seeking out new friends to confide in. The connections you have from the past should only help you to branch out and find others for your future.
Nathan Hammes
*Regardless of its depth, I must comment that this communication is entirely superficial.
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