Ya Heard: Busta asks: Is social networking dehumanizing us?

"When in doubt, do without…and always put the wind in your sail."

Hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes recently said the digital age is "dehumanizing" us as a people and I agree.

Social networking on the Internet through Web sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc., is suddenly the prefered means of communication. Web interaction in itself is not a surprise given the seemingly unlimited possibilities the World Wide Web has presented. The surprise is how dependent we've become on this form of communication in our daily lives.

If you really stop to think about, aside from the people you are forced to verbally interact with (i.e. co-workers and maybe family), it has become very easy to physically avoid seeing someone and still "keep in touch." The question is how far will this go?

E-mail began this revolution, It was followed by an overflow of cellular phones. Does anyone else find it odd to stand in line at the post office or what have you and literally see everyone else in line on a phone or another handheld device? In public we have found ways to bring our individual worlds along with us. It's like we're all in our own little bubble and are startled if any-one dares to intrude. Yeah, we put on a friendly smile and act polite, but in the back of our mind we are silently thinking "when will this person leave me alone!?!"

Nowadays we have what I think we can call the luxury of being able to sit back and make meas-ured responses when dealing with one another.

In all of its greatness, text messaging severely widened the gap in speaking to people. Gone are the genuine split-second responses and emotions which has propelled humans throughout the years. Times are indeed changing, it's as if we are programming ourselves to disassociate with others. OK, maybe it's not that extreme right now, but it sure seems as if we're headed down that road.

As I heard somewhere before, nowadays you can start, somewhat maintain, and end a romantic relationship without barely looking into the other person's eyes. For those of us who shunned Internet dating services in the past, I'm sorry to tell you, but these social Web sites are the newer versions of what we call Internet dating.

We "flirt," "poke" and "IM" our crushes these days. Can anyone out there remember the last time they received a love note? Love notes are romantic these days due to the fact they are rare, and if you have received one recently then are one of the lucky few. Lord forbid we come up with a way to reproduce without physically interacting with one another…

The truth is we all sit behind our keyboards and log onto these sites in hopes of gaining attention as opposed to actually sitting down and talking to one another. "LOLs" and "OMGs" have replaced the natural laughs and gasps for breath. Do not get me wrong, I think the ease of communication that technology has made possible is great. Yet, all great things come with a price tag. The question is: are we really willing to pay the cost? 'Til next week, Peace!!!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or YaHeard40@gmail.com.