Connectivity: Better Now, Worse Now

There's a simple difference between the youth of the sixties and the youth of today: One generation passed around the joint, the other, viral videos. While these two generations of youths connected with each other in their own way, one thing is certain, the youth of today, while they may socialize with friends over a joint like the youth of the sixties, they also have another, main way of connecting. Smartphones and social networks.

Socializing Nowadays

While comparing the sixties generation to the tech-savy generation of today may not be fair, there is a simple fact: today's youth are too connected to their phones. Of course, the sixties youth didn't have phones to use to socialize, but, as evidenced by Patti Smith in "Just Kids", she had an incredibly complex and satisfying social life back then; without the help of today's networks. She had strong, healthy relationships with interesting people and all through her own efforts to socialize.

As for today's youth, there are plenty of instances where we show how our "connectedness" is actually detrimental to our relationships. Though there aren't studies conducted recording sixties youth with smart phones, there have been plenty since they gained popularity a few decades ago. One such study showed the difference the increase in popularity of smart phones caused for a restaurant (source). While in 2004 patrons at a certain restaurant would go in, order, eat, and leave. Come 2014, since the people's need to connect through social networks has risen, the quality of their dining experience declined. Over the course of that decade, people would come to spend more time connecting through their phone than in the present moment.

Part of the issue of the connectivity of today's youth is that it can be superficial. So much social networking has become a simple bid for likes and attention, separated by an invisible wifi connection and handheld devices. In the sixties socializing was a meaningful intimate experience.

All this isn't to say that smart phones and our connectivity is all bad. As can be seen in any part of history, something must be sacrificed through any process of progress. Thankfully, our ability to reconnect with others on a deeper level is not something that disappears permanently.