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How has technology affected my interpersonal communication? Let me tell you!

Being one of the oldest students in this class, I have the advantage, and perhaps the disadvantage of having been alive and self-aware for several significant technological advances in our society. When the internet became available to the general public in August of 1991, I was about to turn eleven years old. I lived in an upper lower-class area in Victoria, B.C. where previously long-term communication was either achieved through “snail mail”, the telephone, or when my mother would yell my name from the balcony of our apartment building. The idea of communicating with someone via e-mail was unheard of and completely new. In my small mind, it was inconceivable. Even though the internet was available to the public at that time, I still did not find myself aware of it for several years, up until the point where I entered high school.

Over the years, I was afforded many opportunities to get comfortable with the technology. Now, not only do I use it daily, but I also enjoy it and look forward to the advancements it brings. However, as I reflect on my time spent utilizing this tool, I am acutely aware that it did not always serve as a positive influence.

When I first began to use it, the allure of the internet was that it allowed me to keep in touch with people that I knew as a child, meet new people, and eventually it allowed me to expand my social circle. All of these points are positive attributes; however, too much of a good thing can be harmful, as the saying goes. Shortly into adulthood, I became very sick. I had developed a form of social anxiety disorder, which when coupled with an obsessive personality led me to an unhealthy internet addiction that lasted for several years.

This illness, and my inability at the time to recognize it helped degrade many relationships that I held dear. Although the internet served as a mechanism to allow me to talk with people without having to subject myself to the perceived “dangers” of the outside world, through it, I became isolated, angry, and even lonelier than I had in the past. My friends and family, to their credit, did their best to help me overcome this situation, but I resisted their efforts seeing no issues personally. From the time I developed my addiction, to the day I was free of it was almost three years and ended with my laying in a hospital bed. Through my addiction I had neglected my mental health so much that it began to take a physical toll on my body. Due to a combination of an inferior diet and a lack of exercise, my immune system was compromised, and I had developed an aggressive strain of pneumonia which nearly took my life.

Although I was able to overcome both the pneumonia and (over time) the internet addiction, I will never escape the memory of laying in that isolated room, or the fear I felt at the time. It is that memory that motivates me to move forward, to be better, to do better than I did before. Even though I would not ever want to repeat that experience, I also would not change it if I could.