What a world we live in. Technology has enabled communications to make the world a smaller place. Seems exciting, huh?

The latest news can be sent to the masses in seconds through the airwaves, down a wire, over a cathode ray, and straight into the eyeball. It can be wired via satellite from Rafha, Saudi Arabia to Ames, Iowa, set on the presses, delivered to your doorstep, and read by the always receptive eye.

The need for interpersonal communication is suppressed by the mass media, especially as mediums continue to diversify so they can target specific audiences. Technology also suppresses human interaction.

Today a person can be completely informed of the world going on around him or her without speaking with a single human being—almost. This is scary to me. At least we still talk to people when we buy food, probably not for long though. Think about how a person can call companies for paying bills or ordering items through touch tone telephones and voice mail. It frustrates me when I want to talk to a human being about making a phone call, but all I get are recordings.

We also can maintain bank accounts without going to the bank because of ATMs. Department stores with a variety of items allow selection and purchasing of items to be done with as little interaction as necessary.

In some places gasoline can be purchased with credit without having to talk to a cashier. Movies can be selected through pay-per-view entertainment. Newspapers are on the ‘Net instead of the stand, TV has diversified through cable television, radio targets specific audiences. It has become convenient for people not to have to speak with people.

Eventually another person might not even need to be there for sex because of virtual reality. A person could simply enter a program. I suppose two people could have interactive sex even if they are miles from each other. With the help of sperm banks they could have virtual reality sex for procreation if they wished even if he is in Rafha and she is in Ames.

Today we don’t see the old men sitting in front of the drug store, the teens at the soda shop. The Norman Rockwell America has gone. If he was painting today, he would have to portray electronic media. The family on the couch watching television. Young Bobby listening to his CD’s while surfing the ‘Net in his room. A young couple choosing what movie to watch at the video store.

This creates an environment for loneliness. It becomes harder and harder to get closer with our fellow human beings. I wonder if this environment produces the Ted Bundys, the John Hinckleys and the need for people to reach out for someone to love at any cost like Susan Smith did.

It seems convenient not to have to interact with the idiots of the world, but those idiots can come back to haunt us all. The more the world is able to communicate the more it becomes a lonely place. A person can be a hermit in the middle of New York City.

We all still have need for human interaction no matter how we try to avoid it at times. What happens to those lonely people who try to reach out, but are stifled by a world who can get by without having to speak to them? Just as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; those with friends can get more friends, and the lonely get lonelier—because of these “great” advances in communication.

The human need for face to face interaction is the one thing that can save us from letting a world of convenience isolate ourselves and others.

It makes me wonder when we see doctors prescribe medicine for hyperactive children who have been diagnosed as having attention deficits. It makes me wonder when teenage women get pregnant on purpose so they can have someone to love them. Kids joining gangs because they need to feel like they belong to a family. The lack of need for interaction has weakened families. How many families do you know who watch TV during dinner? Mine did, usually. How many kids are kept from bothering their parents by watching the world’s best babysitter, Disney on VCR?

If we are willing to not to let “society” control us, we can rise above simply by giving one of the most valuable assets we have to those outside our circle of friends. That asset is a friendly ear. We are pretty good about that in the Midwest, and it could be why we have less social problems than other parts of the country. I think the more social a society is, the less social problems it has.

Tim Frerking is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Pomeroy.