Does technology make us antisocial?

This question was posed in the learning path recently. At first my mind screamed “Of course it does!” and I believed it. A particular event comes to mind whenever I think of this question and the answer my brain screams at me. I was down in Sydney with some mates to watch Manchester United play the A-League all stars and before the game we headed into the city and found ourselves in a massive shopping centre. We boarded the escalator which took us up to another level. During the journey, the escalator passed over the food court and as we gracefully soared over the masses gleefully grazing their lunches I noticed something, namely, every single person was sitting staring at their smartphones. Even people who were sitting in groups of people were doing it. I couldn’t believe it, these people were sitting with friends or work colleagues and couldn’t even be bothered to strike up a conversation. So when this question popped up my mind immediately went back to this situation.

But as I thought and chewed this question in my mind I had a thought, does it really make us anti-social or is technology actually changing the way we interact?

I researched this thought and found this website that basically says what I am talking about: Technology has changed the way we communicate; it hasn’t made us antisocial. One line from the article reads:

Technology has changed the way we communicate, but it hasn’t eliminated communication.

Facebook, Twitter and text messages have simply replaced writing letters and the like. People are still being social – just in a different way.

After all, they don’t call it SOCIAL media for nothing…

Dave