Americans are lazy

In Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital mentions how Americans are retreating within themselves due to the advances in technology, “There is reason to believe that deep-seated technological trends are radically ‘privatizing’ or ‘individualizing’ our use of leisure time and thus disrupting many opportunities for social-capital formation.” Robert Putnam gives the example of the television, but I think the cell phone is a better example. I think the increase in Americans who use texting to communicate is causing Americans to forget how to communicate with each other. Americans will most likely grow to fear face-to-face conversation because they are shielded by the distance texting gives. Also with the shear amount of Americans who use texting causes one to fall into the trend of social conformity. I mean who wants to look like the loser who still calls/emails people. As humans, we want social approval and if we see everyone else texting, we want to become apart of the “in crowd”. Even more, with the growing number of texters, I think there is an increase in the laziness of Americans to go out and find people to converse with. Why go to the person you wan to talk with when you can text them from the comforts of your home? Not that I hate cell phones or anything, but I think advances in technology sometimes go to far.