Technology Reshaping Humanity

     Gary Shteyngart's fiction novel, Super Sad True Love Story, is a very odd and interesting piece of literature. There are a myriad of themes expressed throughout the chapters uniquely displayed in the format of a diary. There is one that I feel has arisen quite a few times through the past dozen pages or so that I have read and it's impact on the characters and plot in question as a whole is becoming more and more apparent. The theme that I focused on is the social media reshaping what it means to be human in this futuristic world.
     Three passages in particular that have supported this certain theme are found within close proximity of one another. The first is a letter to Eunice from her mother and an instant messaging conversation between Sally and Eunice found on pages 72-73. These relate to the theme by allowing technology to modify the interactions between humans in such a way that conversations are done over the internet, rather than in person. This not only makes something that was originally intimate, into something that is impersonal, but it also allows humans to mask their feelings from one another; avoiding conflict altogether by keeping it buried within the recesses of one's heart. such is the case when eunice questions sister about her fathers abuse towards her mother and herself and she either does not respond, or changes the subject.
     Another passage that relates to this theme are the F.A.C applications found on the apparati (pg 88). Meant to "Form A Community", this is a resource used to judge a stranger and determine if they carry the possibility of being a compatible mate. This has totally obliterated the dating scenario by discouraging the pursuit of quality conversations meant to introduce one person to another, by encouraging the browsing of one's profile to produce a set of three scores that ultimately decide whether or not a person is right for you. This not only destroy one's self esteem, but it also takes way from the value of knowing who that person truly is as a person, and not a statistic due to the fact that technology has a difficult time reading emotion and feeling, over numbers and other forms of data.
     One last passage that relates to this particular theme is the fact that an individual's profile is available for viewing on the web. Such is Lenny's case when he is scoped out by women while meeting with Noah and Vishnu. His profile is read by the women in the bar and they feel that through these facts, they gain an entire idea of who he(Lenny) is as a man. This is not only inaccurate, but preposterous, because there is no way to take into account the means as to how those facts came to be, nor can he be accurately portrayed as a individual due to the lack of tone, emotion and justification in the profiles. They are merely numeric figures, that is all.
     These three passages tie into the them that the social media is reshaping what it means to be human because they promote conventional modes of communication, or lack thereof. Humans no longer value quality time with one another without agendas due to the increasing influence of technology and the inflation of the importance of one's social status.