When was the last time your electricity went out for any length of time? Ours went out last night after the big storm, and it's 12:00 pm and still out. While I was annoyed at not having lights and sleeping in a hot room without my fan, this experience did provoke me to contemplate life before modern conveniences.
Here in the South, there has been a decline in interpersonal contact since the invention and adoption of air conditioning, which became standard in the 1970s. I'm not really referring to window units; rather, I'm specifically pinpointing central air.
Let me explain...
Before this modern convenience, we used fans and opened our windows. Houses were built to maximize airflow and channel excess heat upward. A consequence of living before air conditioning was that we were better adapted to heat and humidity. Most people spent more time outside in the shade or on a porch simply because it wasn't such a shock to the system. And because our yards didn't hum constantly running AC compressors, we were more in tune with the symphony of nature... the sounds of wind, water, and animals.
Since the advent of central air, we've become more tied to the world inside our houses and businesses. The invention and adoption of entertainment forms like radio and TV further amplified this trend. Television is an exclusively indoor activity, unlike reading, which can be done anywhere. Smartphones are portable as well, but, again, they don't foster connection with others in our physical spaces.
All of this is to say that since the 1950s and 60s, our world has transitioned from a largely outside existence to one that is mostly indoors. I believe this has resulted in fewer opportunities to interact with our neighbors. Out of sight, out of mind. Empathy is something we have to practice. Most of us require routine exposure and training in order to maintain and enhance our empathy skills. When we eliminate sources of possible connection and interaction with others, we are less likely to develop these crucial life skills to the fullest extent. Chronic isolation results in us being more susceptible to misinformation and propaganda. It is also associated with an increase in anger and violence.
You might ask, why is he attacking something that has so improved our quality of life? Air conditioning has become one of those fundamental luxuries that we can't even imagine life without.
My point in writing this is to highlight the negative consequences of modern technology on our lives. I believe there is a loss of collective empathy that we must be aware of and contemplate. Yet, if we are conscious of this tradeoff, we are more likely to seek out different ways to practice and increase our levels of empathy. When we start to view empathy as something that can be enhanced or lost, we will make more of an effort to integrate those kinds of opportunities into our daily routines.
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