The End Of Social Interaction As We Know It?

[Sigurris]

I regularly go to a thai music venue for food and drinks. The place is very popular especially with Bangkok Hi-So's down in Jomtien for the weekend. But what has struck me over the last couple of years is the massive increase in Thai women (not exclusively) who go there with a group of people and spend all night on the Devils spawn, Facebook or someother social network page. So you go out with friends and spend the evening ignoring them so you can talk to your virtual friends??

Mark Zuckerberg (the inventor of Facebook) is a socially inept man who created the most famous social network tool in order to make people as socially inept as he is.

Will we end up with superfast fingers and no ability to converse?

[lomatopo]

Yours is a common observation and a lament associated with probably any new technology?

These people probably ignored each other in the pre-FB era? Or don't have the necessary self-restraint to put down their phones? Or much to talk about?

I suspect that paleolithic men were sitting around after the discovery of fire and bitching about how nobody enjoys raw meat any more? Or that our grand-parents were bitching about this new-fangled "wireless" around which everyone was sitting listening and ignoring each other.

Finally, not sure how your impressions of Mr. Zuckerberg were formed? Hopefully not solely based on Jesse Eisnberg's portrayal of him the the highly fictionalized film, "The Social Network"?

[kblaze]

chiropractors who specialize in neck and spine issues will see a business boom in 20-30 years as all this handheld tech is killing posture

[horsewell]

I think this is just a phase and people will find something new soon enough. I see a lot of bad posture without Facebook and other hand held devices.

[Ratsima]

I'm sort of a misanthrope so I find the decline in personal interaction to be quite comforting.

[Ianatlarge]

I got to say, chill. So people (some people) like to go out and social chat surrounded by live music and other people. Not the end of the world. What if they were reading an old fashioned paper book, would that be bad? Chill. And, I suspect that the world will be a more social place in the future, partly due to these new social network things (which include this forum).

[asiamaster]

The music in there is probably so loud that they can only communicate via their devices...

[aalek85th]

I saw a Japanese family in a pizza shop. Man was on his phone, browsing the internet.. his wife, as well, and their 8-10 yr old daughter was bored stiff.

They didn't say a word for about 40 minutes. Extreme case, but I see it more and more.

A month ago in a bar, 4 young Thai's came in, ordered a bottle of whiskey ice soda.. the usual. 10 minutes after, 3 of 4 guys where on facebook. I sat there for an hour more, rarely I've seen them speaking to each other.

Bar is a place for socializing. If you don't have a need or whatever to socialize at a given day, stay home and post stupid pictures on facebook.. then chat about them.

The whole thing is creepy. Thankfully, there are normal, balanced people out there.. so even if this thing goes out of control even more, there will always be balanced people who will give hope.

[drdoom6996]

Watched a woman (young) texting run straight into a glass window in a shopping center. She looked up, changed her direction, and continued to text. I suppose until she ran into the next glass window.

[Maggusoil]

You go up to the girls on their devices and say. Hi ladies, I'd like to send you a message! They go Oh! Really? and you get their addresses, at least their email.

Then send them a photo of your "credentials". Something I found useful once on a certain dating site, which was a bit more explicit shall we say.

Its a great ice breaker and gets a lot of laughs I found.

Even a date ! There are opportunities everywhere, if you are creative and

well

lets say not normal

who wants to be normal??

I've got a bone in mine.

[Maggusoil]

OH yes sorry, its important NOT to send that to a girl on her own.

Streuth. You neve know some people are so stupid. They should be a couple of girls

or more. You have to be outnumbered, otherwise it could be a bad move.

Sorry

[winstonc]

i always thought facebook is for children,,im not wrong,,,

[USNret]

she may have been chatting (online) with her friends who were sitting right across from her. It happens! But I agree, it is the downfall of social interaction as we know it. I was at a buffet restaurant recently (on a U.S. military base, 3 young people load up their food & go to their table. Then each promptly whips out their digital device and spent the meal silently ignoring one another.

I'm thinking: One of these three had to have invited the other two to lunch; who's idea was it? I'd be pretty P.O.d if someone invited me to lunch then ignored me the whole time.

[tonypace02]

It's going to get worse. When desktops start processwing at teraflop speeds, computers will have voice I/O capability. There will be no typing to slow you down. I realize there are some voice programs on the market but they are limited by current processing speeds. Once the teraflops hit the market, the voice I/O programs will sell like condoms in a whorehouse. No typing speed limitations, no typos. And, with the processing speed enhanced, the video accompanying the voice message will be at actual speed.

If we get into the petaflop processors (only the U.S. military has one of those at the moment) I foresee a time when we will be computing in holograms.

[comserve]

i always thought facebook is for children,,im not wrong,,,

yES IT IS. i'VE FINALLY FOUND OUT HOW TO CANCEL MY FACEBOOK REGISTRATION. They certainly don't make it easy to do.

My email is a lot freer of spam now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more messages like: Fred likes fred's new photo. WOW

[jack1964]

• In 20 or 30 years, we won't need too much social interaction. We will be able to order it as a download, and it will humanise itself in our lounge room.

Findafriend.com will be spawned, and we will be able to create the most beautiful friends and lovers in the world, who will love and admire and hang off every word we say. They will cook for us, make love, and clean our rooms. They will never say a harsh word about us.

They will go out, buy our food, and buy our beer, but not eat or drink any of it. The only money they will need is the money they bring with them from their cyber world, and that's just used to play cards with us when we are bored.

Facebook will come to an end, as who wants real friends of the human kind with all of the baggage and attitude they have. Your new friends will be cyber, will be life like, and real to touch and hold. You can order them online, and they will appear instantly in your space, and when your sick of them, it's "beam them up Scottie" Not such a bad world after all.

[manarak]

as long as the girls end up in my bed, I don't really care.

[Songhua]

as long as the girls end up in my bed, I don't really care.

Status update: entering house

Status update: in the sack

Upload photo

Status update: ooh

Upload photo

Status update: heading home

Remove as friend

[Payboy]

Can't really blame Facebook, it gave people something to do at work.

[lazygourmet]

35 years ago while listening constantly to my Sony Walkman, I was already considered as an antisocial...

But they were wrong, I am just a misanthrope.

[stoli]

I got to say, chill. So people (some people) like to go out and social chat surrounded by live music and other people. Not the end of the world. What if they were reading an old fashioned paper book, would that be bad? Chill. And, I suspect that the world will be a more social place in the future, partly due to these new social network things (which include this forum).

Yes, I would think that going out with friends to restaurants so that I can read a book and ignore them to be very offensive. The OP was right on. The world is losing the few social skills they have left. What a shame.

[asiamaster]

i always thought facebook is for children,,im not wrong,,,

yES IT IS. i'VE FINALLY FOUND OUT HOW TO CANCEL MY FACEBOOK REGISTRATION. They certainly don't make it easy to do.

My email is a lot freer of spam now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more messages like: Fred likes fred's new photo. WOW

You didn't have to cancel your FB registration to stop notifications coming to your email. You could have done that in your FB settings. You probably had it set to public or friends of friends as well - if you would have changed the settings to friends only the number of notifications would have been less. FB can be a good tool but you have to know how and when to use it. It takes a bit of discipline to not become addicted to social media and I do agree that the usage of social media is getting out of hand.

[Freedomfighter]

Thanks Facebook for helping to turn Thailand into more of a 'Zombieland' I am constantly bumped into by zombies who are glued to their 'dumb phones.' with not a care or awareness of who or what is in their path.

When I'm on the BTS(broken train system) the zombies are in full force, totally oblivious to anything except their mobiles and that damn tv blaring mindless commercials.

From the looks of things, you'd think the locals had never seen or read a book.

[jojodontyouknow]

My friend who is a social worker took one of the teenagers she consults with to McDonald's for dinner. The girl was too shy to order her food at the counter so asked my friend to order for her.

Even my last serious boyfriend asked me out on our first date in a text. What a surprise that we had communication issues later on...

What is this world coming to???

[smokie36]

I'm quite happy to see dysfunctional families playing with portable devices rather than beating each other up or worse.

How lucky we all are!

[aalek85th]

It's not about FB, it's about human psychology. FB and other stuff are just suppliers. And it's ok.. but not in a bar. It's ok even on the BTS or whenever the person is alone/idling. Many people can't stand to do nothing in this modern age.

[Eesat]

I was just in Vientiane,Laos in one of my favourite restaurants,Kab Jai Deu.There was a party of 3 Thai women and a Thai guy doing the Thai national pastime thing and eating 40 dishes,while drinking a nice bottle of wine.

One of the woman was sat there with her iPad and I just thought,how sad do you have to be to do that,it's unlikely she was paying the bill but maybe I'm wrong?Even if she was,I still thought it was incredibly rude and they were all my age,in their forties!

[SinglePot]

Yes.

[SinglePot]

The music in there is probably so loud that they can only communicate via their devices... [/

Clever answer asiamaster.

Pre microchip discotheque.

Edited June 21, 2013 by SinglePot