Many of us take part in social networking on the Internet as there is no time to visit friends or take a trip with our family. We simply like to view what activities others are partaking in and wish we could be there to join them. Sadly, we are so busy working trying to stay above the water, that we have no time for normal activities. Does texting, instant messaging, email writing and so forth count as real socializing? Some may agree or disagree.

If our "so called" social life evolves around the computer, what does this mean for our health? They say the average man walks 3000-5000 steps per day or 5-6 miles per day. If compared to the past, that number is relatively low. Walking in the past was a part of life to reach a destination, buy groceries, catch a bus, or simply meet up with your friends at the local diner. I'm sure everyone's grandmother has this story: "We walked 3 miles to school in the rain and snow."

Walking less means less movement in the body and more risk of injury. Just like a car left alone, it starts to build rust around the engine. Many people would agree that low impact exercises can help us attain a longer healthier life.

Technology is great and without it most of us would not be able to survive. Take for instance, spell check. Spell check is a great tool for a writer but in order to advance your level in vocabulary, you must study and rely not on the computer to fix your mistakes. How many of us use the internet more than we use books? Internet is a wonderful tool as anyone can add content to it. Personal added content comes in handy especially when wanting to know about remedies, cooking recipes, experiences or examples. The downside, internet has a lot of false information along with political misinformation, personal rants and raves, even plain out brainlessness information. The cons, internet can influence a sedentary lifestyle for anyone. A time limit for young ones should be exercised as they should be doing something constructive with their past time i.e building, art projects, or outdoor activities. In the habit of being a regular user of the internet we might not notice the lack of physical activity in our lives. For some of us, internet has become a form of entertainment. Internet has true and false information making books a better option as real literature is mostly written by respected authors.

How many of us still use books? Also how many of us still visit libraries?

What will the future be like in the next 30 years if we do not partake in real socializing? I assume we will all be stuck in one chair with a device holding the tv remote, laptop, cellphone, landline telephone, video game systems or virtual reality system. We'll even have a remote to a machine which pours our beverages for us. Is this what we really want? No more physical human contact with each-other?

What will the future be like in the next 30 years if we do not partake in real socializing? I assume we will all be stuck in one chair with a device holding the tv remote, laptop, cellphone, landline telephone, video game systems or virtual reality system. We'll even have a remote to a machine which pours our beverages for us. Is this what we really want? No more physical human contact with each-other?

I believe technology has the ability to make us lazy. It also makes us more distant to one-another. For example, if you need to research for a school paper, you would normally attend the library. Attending the library would encounter many meetings e.g. walking, riding the bus, talking to people on the way to the library, asking the librarian where a certain section is located in the library, reading a or multiple books, checking your books out, and returning your books so the following meetings would take place again. In these steps you could have easily made a friend or two during the way and learned something new by encountering different situations. Now that the technology has come into place, most of us have a computer at home so we do not have to leave the comfort of our home. It shows you how lazy technology has made us as many newspapers are or have been struggling to stay in business. Why read the paper when you can get your news online for free?

Why make friends in person when you can have a cyber life? If you do not need your friends anymore you can delete them or de-friend them. It sounds so simple. What does social networking mean? The term can have a broad definition. It's helping people to connect to other people with the same interests, activities, and so on. Or some definitions list it as building an online community. Many people use social networking websites and it involves collecting buddies, adding friends to your list who have similar interest, and so-called staying in touch with people around the globe. Many people never see or communicate in person with the friends they have collected and often people are creating a social life that does not exist. This sets up our society for a problem. A problem with in person communication or face-to-face communication.

Why have a live person when you can speak to a robot? I like to speak with real people when calling any company. It's just not considered customer service if you are speaking to a robot to help you check your balance or ask a question. Instead, why aren't their real people answering the phones when you call a particular company? Is it taking too much of the budget to have real people? Are they worrying about how to maximize profit and cut back on hiring qualified employees? It's becoming bigger around the world, automated phone systems. "Welcome to Buyland, if you would like to check the status of your Buyland card, press three". Another example of technology replacing jobs and us accepting more automated services.

BRB. TTYL. IDK. This is what I would expect for a monkey to say if he or she could talk. In 30 years from now I only see humans grunting at each-other in different tones. Shortcutting the language is lazy and its birth took place on the Internet. I'm not perfect with writing but that doesn't encourage me to shortcut what I would like to say. Advancing as a race and economy in the USA is teaching everyone to speak fluent English. There are some writers that shortcut their words to save time. Not much time is saved by doing this, it's the same if you maneuver in and out of traffic, the same cars behind you manage to catch up with you at every stop light.

We have good technology too! Without technology we would not able to to visit the moon or discover new species in the depths of the ocean.

How do you feel about technology and socializing? Do you think technology has made us lazy? Do you consider on the internet as real socializing? Feel free to leave your comments below. We would love to hear from our fellow readers and customers.