The Decline of Human Interactions

[+ WilliamM]

It's not as big problem in colleges now because almost all students use laptops to take notes. So they can check their messages during class.

[+ quoththeraven]

To think that years ago we used to leave the house to get AWAY from the phone. Nowadays we won't leave home without it! Something seems totally out of whack!

 

I will only answer the phone when I'm out if it's convenient for me. Since I don't have Bluetooth or some other handsfree device, that doesn't generally include while driving.

 

It's possible to have and use new technology without letting it run our lives. However, there are a couple of countervailing factors:

 

1. The 24/7 job, or at least the expectation of it, enabled by e-mail, work-owned tablets and laptops, the cloud, and remote/online conferencing and networking as well as cell phones. This is scarier to me than people being buried in cell phones, especially as no one's being paid more for this access. It means many people are never away from their jobs.

 

2. I have more friends and interact with more people in rewarding ways here, on Twitter, and as to personal issues, on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth than IRL. I am grateful that technology has enabled this. It's also a huge boon for those who are shy or anxious, like my daughter.

 

So no, I won't be joining you in telling new tech and those who use it to get off my lawn. It has its benefits as well as its detriment, and I don't think it's accurate to point to smartphones as the cause of the death of social graces.

[+ FreshFluff]

I rebel against lack of humanity by...

• Smiling at strangers
  
• Winking at hot guys
  
• Tipping all service industry folks as if I was a lotto winner
  
• Petting dogs in the park
  
• Chit-chatting w elderly folks at airport gates
  
• Looking at my escort directly in the eye and thanking them for their time
  

 

What do you all do?

 

TR, if you really want to rebel, you can try

• Petting elderly folk at airport gates
   
  
• Tipping hot guys in the park
  

[+ FreshFluff]

It's not as big problem in colleges now because almost all students use laptops to take notes. So they can check their messages during class.

 

Many profs have banned laptops for some time now. To help students take notes, profs often make slides available before class. If the class has a quantitative component, it's tough to take notes on a laptop anyway.

 

If they want to sneak a look at their phones under the desks, fine. But no one wants to face row after row of laptop screens.

[+ WilliamM]

Many profs have banned laptops for some time now. To help students take notes, profs often make slides available before class. If the class has a quantitative component, it's tough to take notes on a laptop anyway.

 

If they want to sneak a look at their phones under the desks, fine. But no one wants to face row after row of laptop screens.

 

Good idea, but I still see laptops in class rooms in universities all over the country with political science/history courses (occasionally C-SPAN will broadcast a class or two).

 

Also I have been auditing classes at a university here in Philadelphia for ten years. In all that time only two professors were against laptops -- it was in the same semester four years ago. But, I do not have classes with quantitative component.

[Moondance]

In Jock's original post, he was speaking about the decline in courtesy and civility he has observed in just the last few years, so I don't think we can pin that on technology, nor on what seems to a lot of us like a society that has become increasingly discourteous and uncivil, but over a longer arc of time. Maybe the negative effects of communications technology have accelerated in the last few years, maybe our lack of consideration for one another has too, but it's a narrow time frame for either of these things to have had as significant an impact as Jock reports.

 

Since his post is focused one escort-client interactions, I wonder if the change is specific to those? And, if so, why? Is it the prospective clients he's attracting, or have others had the same experience? Have an influx of new escorts and clients changed the dynamics of the market? Are the behaviors (or communications practices, or expectations, or needs, or fears) of established escorts and experienced clients different in a post-Rentboy environment?

 

It seems likely--and it's been mentioned on the Forum--that, at least for a while after last August, it was most comfortable to rely on established relationships. So does it logically follow that new connections are approached with more trepidation than before, that red flags are perceived more often by wary escorts and wary clients? And does that lead to communications that end unexpectedly, to a drop in the percentage of new contacts that lead to appointments, to more (and more abrupt) cancellations? And maybe even to a greater wariness toward what should be the pleasure of getting to know one another because there is more concern than ever about discretion and personal privacy?

[+ Truereview]

In Jock's original post, he was speaking about the decline in courtesy and civility he has observed in just the last few years, so I don't think we can pin that on technology, nor on what seems to a lot of us like a society that has become increasingly discourteous and uncivil, but over a longer arc of time. Maybe the negative effects of communications technology have accelerated in the last few years, maybe our lack of consideration for one another has too, but it's a narrow time frame for either of these things to have had as significant an impact as Jock reports.

 

Since his post is focused one escort-client interactions, I wonder if the change is specific to those? And, if so, why? Is it the prospective clients he's attracting, or have others had the same experience? Have an influx of new escorts and clients changed the dynamics of the market? Are the behaviors (or communications practices, or expectations, or needs, or fears) of established escorts and experienced clients different in a post-Rentboy environment?

 

It seems likely--and it's been mentioned on the Forum--that, at least for a while after last August, it was most comfortable to rely on established relationships. So does it logically follow that new connections are approached with more trepidation than before, that red flags are perceived more often by wary escorts and wary clients? And does that lead to communications that end unexpectedly, to a drop in the percentage of new contacts that lead to appointments, to more (and more abrupt) cancellations? And maybe even to a greater wariness toward what should be the pleasure of getting to know one another because there is more concern than ever about discretion and personal privacy?

MoonD, you gettin' all philosophical on me after your hot guys in tubs post? A man of many layers...me like!

 

FWIW, here is my take: there are forces at play hindering human connection such as civility, intimacy, courtesy, etc:

1. Time - folks value it more than ever. Folks who work hard probably value it most, so things need to be simple and happen fast for that subset of clients and escorts.
   
2. Technology - it has accelerated human interaction and brought together people who would not normally meet. It has also provided a sense of anonymity that has made people more callous and uncivil.
   
3. Changing social values - America's view on sex is moving away (slowly but surely) to less of a puritanical outlook. With this comes a more practical, yet possibly less "romantic" way to connect. Look at Tinder.
   
4. The impact of Facebook - Although we should relish these times of self-expression, the advent of FB plus all the "me" generation tools, systems, advances are influencing people to become more inward oriented and, in many cases, selfish....look at selfie proliferation. Look at escort profiles...increasingly adding more personal, private insights - videos, interviews, Skype sessions.
   
5. Personal Conduct/protocols - think about 1-4 above, this will, undeniably, influence and change the way escorts and clients will connect. folks want things done their way, faster, more efficiently, with oneself (instead of "us") at the center of it.
   

[+ WilliamM]

MoonD, you gettin' all philosophical on me after your hot guys in tubs post? A man of many layers...me like!

 

FWIW, here is my take: there are forces at play hindering human connection such as civility, intimacy, courtesy, etc:

1. Time - folks value it more than ever. Folks who work hard probably value it most, so things need to be simple and happen fast for that subset of clients and escorts.
   
2. Technology - it has accelerated human interaction and brought together people who would not normally meet. It has also provided a sense of anonymity that has made people more callous and uncivil.
   
3. Changing social values - America's view on sex is moving away (slowly but surely) to less of a puritanical outlook. With this comes a more practical, yet possibly less "romantic" way to connect. Look at Tinder.
   
4. The impact of Facebook - Although we should relish these times of self-expression, the advent of FB plus all the "me" generation tools, systems, advances are influencing people to become more inward oriented and, in many cases, selfish....look at selfie proliferation. Look at escort profiles...increasingly adding more personal, private insights - videos, interviews, Skype sessions.
   
5. Personal Conduct/protocols - think about 1-4 above, this will, undeniably, influence and change the way escorts and clients will connect. folks want things done their way, faster, more efficiently, with oneself (instead of "us") at the center of it.
   

 

 

My guess is people said much the same thing when they started going to the movies and listening to radio. I am just barely old enough to remember our first TV in August 1949. People adjust, even to TV, escorts and Facebook.

[+ Truereview]

My guess is people said much the same thing when they started going to the movies and listening to radio. I am just barely old enough to remember our first TV in August 1949. People adjust, even to TV, escorts and Facebook.

Agree. We will adapt and find a way to find connection. These are just growing pains. Some of it reminds me about the movie "Her."

[actor61]

Whats even harsher is once in a blue moon they get decaf and I charge a lil extra and they don't even notice. Don'tstep up to my counter on the phone! Please and thank you.

 

Hugs,

Greg

Once standing in line for coffee, there was a mother with her 2 daughters standing in front of me and they were TEXTING EACH OTHER!!!!!!! When they got to the counter, they continued and people started yelling at them. The mother actually held up her hand and said, "I'll be done in a minute." That's when the manager stepped forward and escorted them out. THEY CALLED THE COPS and accused him of racism. It was all very weird.