TERRE HAUTE — Walkie-talkies were the iPhones of the 1960s. A kid with a walkie-talkie was a virtual Elroy Jetson.
When some lucky buddy landed a couple, we’d transfer all communications to the walkie-talkies, even if we were merely stationed on opposite ends of the garage, just a few feet apart. Technology fascinates humans. Today, two teenage girls will sit in the back seat of an SUV, texting each other without exchanging a word, aside from the occasional giggle.
Our preference for techno-communicado could reach epic extremes this winter.
Already, Americans have spent an astounding portion of 2009 online, on cellphones and on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. From April 2008 to April 2009, the total minutes spent on Facebook mushroomed to 13.9 billion from 1.7 billion — a 700-percent increase, according to a Nielsen survey. Last winter, the average American teenager sent and received 80 text messages a day, more than double that of the year before, also according to Nielsen.
Those wireless hookups don’t necessarily translate into fewer face-to-face encounters. Sometimes, the texts, cell calls, Facebook posts, e-mails and Tweets lead to more personal interaction, said Lee Rainey, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project in Washington, D.C. Still, the technology has the potential to make old-school conversation less necessary.
Now, with the H1N1 flu spreading, Americans may fully retreat to the remote safety of their laptops and cellphones.
Tech-talking could increase even more. In-person chats may require more caution, fewer handshakes and a pocket-sized bottle of hand sanitizer. Just like two kids, within eyeshot of each other, babbling on walkie-talkies, people may simply wave when an acquaintance walks into the same coffeeshop instead of greeting them hand-to-hand.
“It’s a big possibility,” said Tyrone Williams, a 22-year-old Indiana State University student.
Late for a class, Williams — a junior majoring in technology management — checked the time on his G1 cellphone Thursday morning. He coughed once, considerately into his jacket-covered elbow, just as flu-conscious health officials suggest.
The heightened awareness about H1N1 means cellphone calls, texts and e-mails could increase. It’s also less likely that people will allow a friend to type on their laptop, even for a moment, in a WiFi restaurant. “You don’t see people sharing [devices] a lot,” Williams said.
Sharing keyboards and phones is risky behavior, said Megan Bland, health educator for the Vigo County Health Department.
“It’s probably not a good idea at this time,” she said. “You don’t know if somebody is infected, and they may not know.”
She suggests waving instead of handshaking. Being less chummy in public this winter “would be a smart thing,” Bland said.
Avoiding unnecessary contact makes sense for health and economic reasons, said Shaniequa Lollis, a 20-year-old ISU junior. “A lot of college kids have jobs and kids, and they [should] do whatever they can to not get [H1N1],” she said.
Her friend, 21-year-old ISU senior Tifinie Garrett, said, “People might stay to themselves more, with, I guess, less face-to-face contact.”
Tech talk would be nothing new for their generation. The largest age-bracket of Facebook users, for example, is the 19.4 million 18- to 25-year-olds, according to the network’s statistics. But the 35- to 65-year-old group has grown rapidly this year, too.
Thanks to the H1N1 threat, the number of Internet users could indeed skyrocket, according to a study released last week by the U.S. General Accounting Office. If the flu reaches a pandemic, the jump in telecommunications and online use could overload local networks, the GAO report stated. The agency warned bogged-down networks could hamper the government’s ability to respond to the public in an emergency.
An even greater increase in online activities has social implications, too. Some are positive, and some aren’t.
Social networks could become a prime place for users to share information and experiences about the H1N1 virus, predicted Rainey, of the Pew Center. “My guess is, this winter, there will be a lot of commotion” through e-mails, instant messages, Facebook postings and Twitter Tweets about the flu, he said.
And, the debate about whether tech reliance fosters less personal interaction will be refueled. “There’s going to be more discussion of this than there probably has been for a while,” Rainey said Wednesday by telephone from Washington. Pew research has shown that frequent tech users “are not virtual hermits,” he added. “They’re very much social animals, and technology helps them do that.
“People who are the heaviest technology users are the most likely to have face-to-face encounters,” Rainey said.
A flood of even more users, cloistered temporarily by the flu, could experience the upside or the downside of cyber communications.
One virtue is that Facebooking, texting, IMs and e-mails allow parents, grandparents and relatives to stay in touch with loved ones overseas or kids in college, said Tara Williams, executive director of Family Service Association Counseling and Behavioral Health in Terre Haute. But those communication methods also can delude users, or complicate their lives, she added.
A long Internet relationship may seem more real than it is, Williams explained. People also can control a conversation with a slow response to texts or e-mails. They think out answers more carefully than they do while talking, and “thus present yourself in a more favorable light,” she said. Also, Williams has seen existing relationships and marriages destroyed after online conversations with outsiders turn sexual. The bottom line, in her view, “is motive — why are you electing to text or e-mail or Tweet or whatever? Is it for the good of a relationship, or for your own comfort level of ease?”
With those cautions to users about increased tech communications this winter, Williams remains concerned about the trend.
“The dearth of ‘old-fashioned’ socializing worries me a bit, because we all seem to be more isolated as it is,” she said. “I think isolation ultimately erodes our society, because it’s hard to get away with crap when you’re face to face with a person.”
That’s one symptom the H1N1 vaccine won’t address.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett Opinion
MARK BENNETT: Fear of flu may have Americans tech-talking more than ever
- Mark Bennett Opinion
-
-
MARK BENNETT: Stuck in the middle with you
Thank goodness, members of Congress do not drive in the Indianapolis 500.
-
MARK BENNETT: Roadway Role Models: Adults need to remember habits often rub off on teens
Plenty of dads connected with a car ad that first aired on TV two years ago.
-
MARK BENNETT: Farmers using no-till and cover crops doing their part to keep soil healthy
Earth Day typically features community cleanups, and discussions of air and water pollution. All deserve the attention.
-
MARK BENNETT: Lyrical legacy
Traditions begin, end, revive and evolve.
-
MARK BENNETT: GOP campaign fireworks could fizzle for Hoosiers once again
Of all the United States, Indiana deserves to experience Republican-on-Republican presidential attack-ad mania.
-
MARK BENNETT: Hard hit: Cash rewards for game-ending hits on NFL players are not a part of the game
The moaning and whining miss the point.
-
MARK BENNETT: Vigo County native helping relief agency provide physical, spiritual aid to Japan in wake of last year’s devastation
Help can be harder to receive than give.
-
MARK BENNETT: Perception of Wabash River’s water quality doesn’t always match reality
People like chocolate milk. In a glass. Fresh from the fridge.
-
MARK BENNETT: Filling a Need: Vigo County YMCA expected to open this spring
Comebacks inspire hope. They also require lots of work.
-
MARK BENNETT: Favorable images
Movie critics take a lot of criticism.
-
MARK BENNETT: Toxic victories
When the Super Bowl ends tonight in Indianapolis, most of the Giants and Patriots will shake hands, despite their competitive fire, win or lose.
-
MARK BENNETT: Indianapolis will be on display for the nation with the Super Bowl coming to town
Someone immersed in a crash diet to make a smashing impression at a class reunion may get the desired effect.
-
MARK BENNETT: Patiently waiting for Indiana's primary
While standing in a check-in line at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome a few years ago, I watched an Italian woman walk past dozens of more patient travelers to grab a spot up front.
-
MARK BENNETT: Processing postal change
You probably know one of those 10,026.
-
MARK BENNETT: Multiple choice question: Voters must choose which direction they want the future of education to go
There was a time when few Hoosiers outside of education circles could name the state superintendent of public instruction.
-
MARK BENNETT: With an historic election behind Terre Haute, it’s time to look at the future’s possibilities
Everybody knows their “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments.
-
MARK BENNETT: Economic forecast: Things looking up but don’t expect ‘much of a dent in unemployment’
Outside the Columbia Club, the atmosphere matched the picture of 2012 painted by a panel of economists for an audience of business people gathered inside that ritzy building on Monument Circle in Indianapolis.
-
MARK BENNETT: Students who reach for a college education too often are buried under a pile of debt
Right now, millions of college graduates are wondering whether their education was worth the effort.
That doubt hurts the country. -
MARK BENNETT: Tangier’s festival volunteers keep past alive for future
Traditions stay alive only as long as the people who hold them dear.
Small towns have that same life expectancy. -
MARK BENNETT: Made in the USA? A political T-shirt faux pas
The most rational statement about a small furor in the U.S. Senate campaign was uttered by a tea party organizer.
-
MARK BENNETT: Daniels goes where a candidate probably won’t in new book
Some things simply won’t get said on the political campaign trail.
-
MARK BENNETT: Time waits for no Manning
Sad, disappointed and uncertain. Colts fans feel all of those.
-
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
MARK BENNETT: As school begins, carve out daily time
By now, most back-to-school checklists are tattered and creased.
-
MARK BENNETT: Movie scene shows Terre Haute accepting Debs' role in its history
You stay classy, Terre Haute.
-
MARK BENNETT: Community outpouring represents collective sympathy for fallen officer
Every Terre Haute resident has probably been asked the same question.
“Why do you live there?” -
MARK BENNETT: Declaration of cursive’s death reminiscent of ’70s metric-conversion mania
When the state of Indiana announced it would no longer require schools to teach cursive handwriting, I was LOL.
-
MARK BENNETT: On Fourth of July, remember, too, those we depend on
A spatula in one hand, a cool beverage in the other, and a stash of bottle rockets in a plastic sack in the garage.
-
MARK BENNETT: Get out and see what the Valley has to offer
Maybe you drive the same route to work every day. Shortest route. Saves time and a few dimes worth of gas.
-
MARK BENNETT: Walking the fine bipartisan line
Lugar’s occasional departures from hard-line conservatism have put his six-term Senate position in jeopardy.
- More Mark Bennett Opinion Headlines
-
MARK BENNETT: Stuck in the middle with you
Obama Honors Fallen Troops at Arlington Cemetery
Man in Crane at Texas College Says He's Armed
Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill
Raw Video: 19 Dead in Qatar Shopping Mall Fire
Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
Romney Promises World's Strongest Military
Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks
Beryl Knocks Out Power in Florida
Obama Pays Tribute to Vietnam Veterans
Beryl Makes Landfall on Florida Coast
Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
Raw Video: Memorial Day Aboard Intrepid
Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108
Raw Video: Heckler Bursts in on Blair Testimony
Japan Farmers Plant, Seek Radiation-free Rice
UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla
Raw Video: Earthquake Shakes Evacuees in Italy
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Man Dies Getting Lap Dance
Gordon Ramsay Carried Off Field
Justin Bieber Wanted for Questioning for L.A. Scuffle
Bear cools off in Calif. family's pool
Ep. 3: Chopped Desserts
Air Force dad surprises family at baseball game
J.Lo and Marc's Friendly Reunion
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Jet makes emergency landing after debris falls off
Cynthia Nixon Ties the Knot
Woman, 80, Falls Out of Skydive Harness Mid-Jump
Keira Reveals Engagement Ring
Dog runs alonside cyclists for 1,100 miles
Lady Gaga Cancels Indonesian Show After Threats
Long Story Short: Beyonce back on stage
Raw Video: Man Rescued From River in China
