How Does Technology Negatively Affect Daily Lives?

In the last ten to fifteen years accompanying the dawn of social media, means of communication among friends and strangers have been easier than ever. Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has grown into the largest social media site on the Internet with 30 million users and counting. The ability to catch up with former high school friends who are now across the country or see how an aunt in Pittsburgh has been doing since the birth of her son are now as simple as the click of a mouse. However, the amount of “friends” acquired on social media may not be an accurate reflection of how many close relationships one truly shares. In an article from Bigthink.com titled “Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?”, Steven Mazie gathers research from Pew Research Center about statistics surrounding Facebook

Technology is always improving. But with improvement brings problems we have to face. This Problem affects our entire society today. Technology is taking over our lives by lessoning human Interaction, Ruining our health, and blocking out our surroundings.

In “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova, social media has significantly changed the way we interact with friends and family. Everybody thinks that using social media is the best way to talk to friends and family, however, in my opinion, they are wrong because it doesn’t give you the face-to-face connections we need as humans for social interaction. On the other hand, the great thing about using social media is you can connect with more people, but in a superficial kind of way. Therefore, we do not get the face-to-face interactions with our friends and family. We, the people that are addicted to social media, learn that without face-to-face conversations we wouldn’t have a normal “social” life outside of social media. The question

Humans are social creatures who need and want to communicate with one another, and technology helps fulfill that need. Although technology, specifically texting and social media, has risen question to whether technology is killing our friendships. Though many believe that technology is tearing our friendships apart, it is actually strengthening them and keeping us closer together than ever before. Through technology, people have the power to stay in touch with friends all over the world, create new friendships with people who share similar interests, and feel closer to the friends we already have.

The idea of how technology is affecting us as human beings is a largely argued topic nowadays. For example, a professor of science, technology, and society at MIT University named Sherry Turkle seems to claim that all this digital communication we have access to now is not such a good thing. Turkle has a sample of an essay of hers in the book, They Say, I Say. The name of the essay is “No Need to Call,” and Sherry Turkle 's claims could be implied by this quote from her essay, “subscribing to a new etiquette, claiming the need for efficiency in a realm where efficiency is costly.” Turkle believes that us using digital communication has costly repercussions to our humanity and our ability to have empathy to one another. However, this quote and essay has much more depth to it.

The “nightmare” she had included her texting a friend for 30 minutes instead of meeting for a cup of coffee and socializing. She also emailed her professor instead of walking into his office and having a conversation to get to know her as a person. She lost the opportunity for having another credible source for a letter of recommendation. She claimed to have ignored a cute guy when he asked for the time because she was responding to a text message. Nilles also stated, “I spent far too much time on Facebook trying to catch up with my 1,000 plus “friends.” “This technological detachment is becoming today’s reality” (Nilles). Nilles believes that technology is destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we share with one another, which disconnects us from the world we live in, therefore leads to an imminent sense of isolation from today’s society. She also points out that instead of having physical interactions with our friends, we tend to call, text or instant message because it is simpler, but we do not see our friends as much as we use to. Twenty messages do not compare to how many words that can be spoken within an hour spend talking with a friend. “There’s something intangibly real and valuable about talking with someone face to face” (Nilles). She believes it is significant for partners, friends, employers, and people in

With the power of social media and the internet, we can connect globally in a way that was not possible before. Unfortunately, I do have to admit that it does take away a more personable interaction. Most people will connect with Facebook versus taking the time to see the person. For example, in the reading, “I’m Still Here: Back Online after a Year without the Internet” by Paul Miller, he said “It is the boredom and lack of stimulation that drives me to do things I really care about, like writing and spending time with others” (4). When we get bored, we want to do things we have never done before. The downside is, that there is people that rather kill that time on their devices. Rather than, cleaning their room or explore the world for those valuable 20 minutes they will text their life away. If everyone, was to go a month without the internet, the world would probably end. Everyone is so addicted to this new era of devices.

1. What role does technology play in US society in relation to bias, discrimination, and power? What specific examples of discrimination related to race, ethnicity, gender, and disability can you see in our society that has been enabled or exacerbated by technology?

Social networking has become an unquestionable part of our everyday lives. Little by little, internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society. Instead of spending time in person with friends, people just call, text or instant message them. It may seem simpler, but people ultimately end up seeing friends face to face a lot less. Ten texts can’t even begin to equal an hour spent chatting with a friend over lunch. A smiley-face emoticon is cute, but it could never replace the ear-splitting grin and smiling eyes of a friend. People need to see each other. While technology has allowed us some means of social connection that would have never been possible before, and has allowed us to maintain long-distance friendships that would have otherwise probably fallen by the wayside, the fact remains that it is causing ourselves to spread ourselves too thin, as well as slowly ruining the quality of social interaction that everyone need as human beings.

Most people in the world today are distracted by cell phones, tablets, and computers. Without any of those items there wouldn't be much connection going on. Technology hinders personal communication, which negatively impacts our age- group. Data shows that those who use the internet frequently spend over 100 minutes less time with friends and family than non-internet users, according to Norman H. Nie and D, Sunshine Hillygus in their paper “ The Impact of Internet use on Sociability.” The internet actually distracts from the communication skills are gradually lessened. Technology negatively affects us by perpetuating the mindset of immediate satisfaction. We as people will not be positively impacted by communicating through a computer screen, if we already do not have the self-confidence to socially interact in reality. I believe the advancement of technology has negatively impacted our social interactions because it detaches us from what is happening around us. The world must learn to embrace technology without allowing it to negatively impact the creation of functional adults in

I believe all aspects of life have their pros and cons. While technology has advanced our society in ways we thought impossible thirty years ago, it may have also been detrimental to ourselves in ways we never even imagined. In today's world, we face a huge lack of privacy. Surely, the technological impacts have exponentially changed society.

At our house, currently we have the main hub of electronics in the living area that did not exist 100 years ago. From a flat screen television, a laptop, printer, desktop computer, Wi-Fi, iPhone, cable boxes and to run all this electricity.

In the 21st century, distance is no longer a limitation of communication with family or friends. Social media can turn a thousand miles into a single click. In fact, today “the lines are clearly blurred” because “our online worlds [have become] an extension of our offline lives”(Pell). It is now possible to speak with “entire networks of close friends much faster than we've ever been able to before” (Brandzel). Sharing pictures of a vacation in the Bahamas, speaking with potential business partners in China, or meeting a new date in town, it’s all possible now with social media. People’s words and thoughts are limited only to the speed of light traveling around Earth.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, and Flicker was invented to keep us in touch and keep us closer to our family and friends. But according to How Facebook ruins Friendships “we took our friendship online” (Bernstein). First we began communicating more by email than by phone and then switched to instant messaging or texting. By joining social Medias online

People of an older generation have the idea that because of the advancements made in cell phone and Internet technology in the past decade or so, people today are completely antisocial and that human interaction is no more. This idea is blatantly false. People aren't just staring at their phones doing nothing, the vast majority of people are using their phones for interaction. Human interaction has not been limited because of technology. Because of Technology interaction is easier and able to connect more people, and most interaction that has been lost was not meaningful. The ways in which technology has made communication easier are immeasurable. Prior to the Internet time and distance factored in to your ability to communicate