The Global Tower of Babel?

Sometimes I can't help but feel like communications studies isn't being taken as seriously as it should around the Ivory Tower. Our ability to communicate with one another is one of the fundamental aspects of being human. No great accomplishment or body of work would be possible without clear communication. Industries like advertising succeed best when boiling down communication to it's essentials. Globalization requires a shift in communication to more visual signifiers in order to transcend language and cultural barriers. The global village might have arrived, but how can we do anything but stand and stare at each other across the fence without proper communication models? 

Off the Grid

As pathetic as it may seem, I told myself that for six full hours I wouldn't use any form of social media. I cut out all of the Internet to reduce my temptation, and I put my Blackberry on silent and stashed it under one of my pillows. 

On instinct alone I must've tried to check either my computer or my phone a dozen times. It was eating away at me, what was I missing that was going on. Some might interpret this level of reliance as "an addiction" or a step in the wrong direction, but is it really that unhealthy to want to be socially connected? After all, on the other side of that technology, it's living breathing human beings with real emotions, that we've forged bonds and friendships with. Social media simply provide the channels and the conduits for us to communicate with one another. People didn't travel more than 7 miles from their birthplace before the invention of the printing press and nobody seems to yearn to go back to those days. Why can't we embrace this new technology for what it is, not "big brother", not "the matrix", just an easier way to reach and communicate with one another. 

My Name is David and I'm a Blackberry-aholic

I confess, I'm addicted... I never understood the allure of the Blackberry until I finally purchased one. I wondered how people could be so rude and oblivious, mindlessly walking and texting, texting while in conversation with an actual human being standing right there in front of them. And then, I finally got one of my very own...

Blackberry Instant Messenger (My Achilles heel). I thought I was a polite person but the Blackberry changed me into a walking Faux Pas. Lending half of my attention (at best) to the person actually in front of me, and the lion share of my attention to the Blackberry. Maybe the grass is always greener, that blinking red light signifies a mysterious present that we can't seem to resist. My only question now is whether or not I should renew my Blackberry plan or try and go "cold turkey". Maybe this is just the new order of things, anyways my phone just buzzed, detox will have to wait.