I was walking across campus and I heard a girl talking to her phone, telling the phone to send a text message to another person. I thought: Are you really incapable of sending that message yourself? Or better yet, are you physically unable to just call that person?

Many recent technological advances are wonderful and can truly benefit many people, such as e-book readers that are portable and easy on the eyes. But when is enough, enough? When will we as a society know that we’ve gone too far?

I would like to reserve the right to not listen to someone else’s telephone conversation unless I want to. This newfound way of annoying people wins the gold medal because it is not even another person on the phone. Thanks to applications like Apple’s Siri, it’s just you and the phone. It further restricts a person’s need for outside communication.

Who needs real people anymore? Technology can do everything for you. It even finds you friends.

The sound of someone chatting on a cellphone is pretty commonplace nowadays, and it has definitely become socially acceptable to talk on your phone, as long as you’re not on speakerphone and are generally quiet and considerate. But there is not yet an etiquette code on how to talk to a phone. There is just something unnatural about having a robotic conversation with a phone. And passers-by usually notice and many will even gawk.

Many of the devices are designed with a bit of personality, so it doesn’t seem like you’re talking to a machine. When asked what the meaning of life is, Apple’s Siri will wittily reply, ‘I find it odd you would ask this of an inanimate object.’ Others, like Droid’s virtual assistant, will say something like, ‘I am not well enough informed on that issue’ when it doesn’t know how to answer.

It’s also pretty awkward having to say all the punctuation when you send a message to another person. The applications cannot pick up on a speaker’s intonation, not like a real live person could. According to a Dec. 2 article published by The New York Times, studies show that people are beginning to speak with less inflection in their voices, even when talking to someone in person.

Maybe the world really is going to be run by robots, just not in the way commonly thought. Perhaps we’re the ones transforming into machines. It could be a little far-fetched, but it’s still scary.

Change is a good thing comma right question mark

Jessica Wiggs is a sophomore English and textual studies major. Her column appears every Monday, and she can be reached at jawiggs@syr.edu

Published on December 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm