Do you think technology is ruining the social nature of humans?

[Professionally Unemployed]

From cell phones and texting to facebook and twitter humans don't really socialize face to face anymore. Reclusive socializing is quickly becomming a norm and I don't really see how it should be considered healthy. The tv is really the last techonoligical medium in which people can get together and enjoy but yet it is only a matter of time until that becomes obsolete.

[Leaira Hathaway]

Yes, big-time! I hate all this new technology, to be honest.

[xander]

I don't believe there's one real, solid, easy answer to that. It all depends on how willing some people are to socialize with each other face to face. Not everybody only uses facebook; in fact, most people in the world talk to each other face to face, because most of the global population does not even have an internet connection! So no, I do not think technology is ruining the social nature of humans yet, and the more people like you there are who ask questions like this, the less likely technology will ruin our species' social nature.

[Robert]

Im not so sure it's "ruining" it. Its definitely changing it, transforming it. But through all these technological outlets there are positive aspects. There are positive things to social networking, and texting can be convenient, and harm free if it's not in excess.

There's a transformation occuring, this is true. But im not so sure were ruined or doomed.

[Kaviani999]

ABSOLUTELY. Whether it's Hikikomori types, Facebook "addicts", or girls who use their cellphones as props to avoid social interaction, it's a serious disease.

I expect we'll have socialization classes soon because parents sure are not taking any lead in teaching their children how to live properly in that respect.

[araktsu]

People don't communicate by sitting and staring at a television at the same time in the same place.

Much Internet use is no different than staring at television.

Most television programming is designed to tell you what to think. If being part of a mass audience is your idea of social interaction, you may have a point (your text: "The tv is really the last techonoligical medium in which people can get together and enjoy"). I cannot agree.

What do you mean by "ruining the social nature of humans"?

You have not adequately defined your terms and have provided no evidence to support your conclusion. What do you think constitutes the social nature of humans?

Innate social behaviors were selected for over evolutionary time. Two-way communication is one of those behaviors. It is unlikely that the human brain will suddenly change due to social media such as this site which tends to rely on that particular behavior.

If writing letters is a social function then so is social media. Did letter-writing contribute to a decline in social interaction among human beings? I don't think so. Television probably did because of the propensity of people to stare at television rather than engage in human relationships. But even that did not change innate traits. If anything, it changed culture due to a human propensity to acquire behavioral models by observational learning.

You are communicating with other live human beings on this site; with television you are staring at video entertainment and propaganda, not communicating. The former is a function of innate social behavior, not evidence that human social nature is being ruined.