Blame it on technological advances if you must, but today’s youth is lazy.

Not only have we become lazy at everyday tasks, but with interacting with one another. Our generation has become relationshiply lazy.

My current revelation sparked on a single night when, to my panic, I accidentally deleted my AIM buddy list. Ninety six names vanished before my very eyes. Panic struck when I came to the realization I may actually have to call all my friends and carry on a single conversation at a time.

But it wasn’t until a friend of mine was dumped over Instant Messenger that my revelation hit.

Relationships are about communication and if a person cannot communicate without putting it in type, it’s a definite problem.

Many times, friends or couples find themselves arguing through email or AIM. Many people have become so dependent on the form of communication that it becomes hard to express feelings, concerns or angers any other way.

Don’t get me wrong, those technological tools also have had great benefits. Without it, I as well as many others would not be able to communicate so easily and frequently at such a low cost with friends far away.

But who wants to open up their e-mail to see their boyfriend or girlfriend has dumped them. Call me old fashion, but it’s just not civilized.

The phenomenon has gone above and beyond other media, exceeding the definition of lazy for the simple fact e-mailing has even been branded too time consuming and Instant Messaging has replaced it.

The time spent personalizing a letter to mail or talking on the telephone can be sped up by talking to multiple people at once on AIM.

There is a benefit to being able to communicate so quickly and have a group discussion, but in a way it can cheapen a friendship.

Relationships seem to be less valued and less real when dealt with solely online.

I do not find deep sentiment in proclaiming or professing one’s love for another person in an AIM profile. It’s just as bad as walking around with a T-shirt that has your crush’s face plastered across it. It’s something that shouldn’t be done.

Some people have actually given up on the real thing all together and purse Internet relationships.

These virtual behaviors have transformed dating behaviors and reduced the dating process. Relationship standards beyond a computer have lowered as conversations and arguments are carried out virtually.

For some reason, this sets date expectations low as well.

Has human interaction become that excruciating?

Granted, wining and dining at What’s Cooking is as high class as “a night on the town” can get in Chucktown on a college student’s budget, but drunken after-hours trysts do not constitute a date any more than meeting in a chat room.

One of my friends will be going on her first real “date” in college this weekend. She has seen other guys, but never been on a date. While we reminisced about dates, we anticipated whether or not hers would consist of intriguing conversation at Cody’s followed by star gazing or drunken blabber at Jimmy John’s.

To put it eloquently, our generation has somehow lowered the standard of relationships altogether.

People can argue until they are blue in the face about the down sides verses upsides to all the technological advances, and yes some benefits out weigh the disadvantages and vice versa.

But communication, as much as its means of deliverance can be improved, still requires human interaction. Technology can be taken to a point but a line needs to be drawn in order to avoid turning interaction into a heartless machine.