In our contemporary, scientifically-influenced world, technology is seen as being essentially good. Nevertheless, as “The Travel Habits” by Joseph P. Schwieterman points out, this has led to an exacerbation of individualism, where everybody is set into a trance by their own personal portable devices. The fact these artifacts allow you to access whatever you want, entails a rupture of communication with the outside world, leaving individuals to face their own, self-made reality. Another important component in this process is the modern push for everyone to strive for their own goals, which are always set farther, and thus alienate them even more from social interaction. The combination of these factors has even changed transportation, as people are more frequently using mass mediums of it, so that they may be using their electronic devices to do whatever they see fit, which also doubles as a status symbol. Nevertheless, this tendency is reaching its limit, and its push may be soon diminishing, because of overcrowding.
Portable technology has made it possible and easy for everyone to access whatever they want, leading to an interception of the communication with the outside world, which implies the manufacturing of a reality separate from the communal one. These portable devices allow direct access to the internet, which allows people to navigate on this medium however they see fit. “More and more young Americans are riding buses and trains—in part because the widespread use of personal-digital technology changed the way they experience the public realm” (Schwieterman 30). This means that direct social interaction is diminishing, as it is fit for easy, self-made entertainment, instead of commencing social conversation with those around you, which, in other times, were also idle. Therefore, as the construction of everybody’s own, individual reality becomes more frequent, social interaction diminishes. This has lead to a rise in individualism, and less thought about the environment.
At a greater scale, this individual focus weakens society as a whole. As humans generally are social beings, the fact that the contemporary push is to make everyone fend for themselves, with their own devices being used for their individual objectives, this has led to a detriment in human communities, which are bound by social ties. With everyone pulling in their own direction, what people do not usually realize is that this, while seeming to be an advantage for them, actually hurts the society that they form a part of and need; thus, it is damaging to him or her.
Inflating this is another social tendency: to reach ever farther. The discontent present in society leads the individuals that form a part of it, to always try to strive more, always setting their goals higher. Inconformity has become overvalued, and this has led everyone to pull even greater towards their own design: you have to be all you can be, at whatever cost. One of the most important aspects in choosing mass transportation is the fact that it allows people to keep on doing their own business; this would not be possible in automobiles, as one would have to be driving, and it is uncomfortable and hazardous to do this while performing most of these tasks. “Some of the most popular digital tasks, such as texting or video Skyping, are awkward or downright dangerous while driving” (Schwieterman 32). As one can see, cultural factors and tendencies have had a great role in revolutionizing the way people travel.
The fact that people can use portable electronic devices while moving themselves from one place to another, has led to a change with respect to older generations, while following the societal tendency. The efficiency of being able to work or do other cumbersome activities while you travel has become very appealing to many. People want to make the most of their time, and, being able to do so many tasks on their portable devices is a decisive factor at the moment of choosing how to travel.
While older generations, especially the baby boomers and generation X used to travel in automobiles, which were even a status symbol, generation Y and even younger, Millenial people, have opted for using mass transportation, which doesn’t represent such importance to them: cars have lost their symbolic power to portable electronic devices. “He [Jack Neff] noted that Millenials don’t view cars as status symbols, as their parents and grand-parents did. Their electronic toys serve that purpose instead, and car are seen as having utilitarian value rather than symbolic value” (Schwieterman 32). Thus, the ability to encapsulate themselves in their own world, as well as show off their symbolic prowess, has made alternative modes of transportation into the ideal manner of travel.
As this perception of reality poses a change in the paradigm, this framework is also reaching its limit. Due to the fact that individualism relies on the non-acceptance of others within a person’s social space, the amount of people that have been succumbing to this social tendency has been leading to mass transport’s saturation. “The system doesn’t always work perfectly, especially when crowding becomes a major problem. Our data show that technology use falls sharply on intercity trips when passengers are jammed in, nullifying one of the model’s major competitive advantages: elbow room” (Schwieterman 33). The quantity of people that have been utilizing mass transport has been increasing, which is interfering with the main purpose for using it that has been outlined in this essay and the reference one. This evidences that individualism is detrimental to society, as the fact that more people crowd into means of collective transportation looking to pursue their own means, they go against themselves, making it too crowded to work properly.
In conclusion, technology, in articulation with social tendencies, has led to a rise in individualism and the consequent usage of collective transportation; nevertheless, it is reaching its limit. Portable devices allow the creation of an individual reality, disavowing the common, shared one. Society’s tendency to make everyone go towards their own designs, which are infinitely far, tends towards the detriment of social bonds, harming the individual in the process. As collective modes of transport allow passengers to travel while using their portable electronic devices comfortably and also allow the showing-off of these, which have become status symbols, the new generations have preferred the usage of theses mediums instead of the traditional automobile. However, this mode of travel has been reaching its limit, as the accumulation of people that have been using it has been such that collective modes of transport are becoming crowded and are becoming invalid for their pretended use. Only time will tell what the future will bring for these problems that are so important for our society.
Reference List
Schwieterman, J. “The Travel Habits.” Planning May/June 2011: 30-33. Print.
