Whether it's fashion styles, workout fads, or the hottest new diet plan, our way of living is constantly evolving at a speed faster than some of us are even able to keep up with! One of the factors of our ever-changing society that has made the biggest impact on our lives is technology, and more importantly the way we use them in our every day relationships. In "Her," a film by Spike Jonez, the main character, Theodore, finds himself in a tough situation when he falls in love with his new operating system (OS), Samantha. This film as well as the book Ways of Seeing, by John Berger, supports the idea that although change is inevitable with our ever-growing society, there are some things that were made old-fashioned to stay old-fashioned. Theodore, Samantha, and the relationship they share is a perfect example of the fact that technology may be moving a little to fast for our own good, and that if we let it get too out of hand it may lead to the loss of one of the few things we haven't yet lost to the future: human interaction.
Due to the fact that Theodore earns a living writing a variety of personal letters to people around the globe, he is set up with a transmogrified version of what an ideal relationship should be. He puts his heart and soul into these letters with things such as "every day you make me feel like the girl I was when you first turned on the lights and woke me up and we started this adventure together" (Jonez). Although he may expel his emotions into these letters as if they were his own, his job is ultimately setting him up for failure and solidifying one of Berger and company's theories in Ways of Seeing in which you have to see something before you believe it. Theodore falls in love with the "perfect" relationships he believes his customers to have, but when said people would rather pay someone to write their "loved ones" an anniversary card than do it themselves, what really is "perfect"? .
