Is Technology Contributing to America's Laziness? Essays

Humans are naturally social beings. Jeremy Rifkin states, “We are, it appears, the most social of animals and seek intimate participation and companionship with our fellows (115).” The article continues to explain how humans seem to connect through emotions and that inner, neurological need for human interaction. When one person feels pain, joy, or sadness, they want to share their feelings with another person. Hence, the needing fulfillment of social interaction. However, the use of social media does not mean humans have become less social. Even though social media has introduced a new way of interacting and communicating, studies have shown that people are becoming more

These drawbacks include too many people being reliant to talking online rather than in person and not verbally communicating with friends even though they are in the same room. Jasmine Fowlkes shows the reality in how social media is affecting our new generation through her article, “Viewpoint: Why Social Media is Destroying our Social Skills.” After discussing the results conducted by several researchers, Fowlkes states,“As more generations are born into the social age, social media will continue to be the favored communication form among young people. However, this shift may begin to affect their ability to properly communicate in person with peers.” Many start to rely on applications on our devices to talk to people, but this results in less verbal communication. In addition, Kelly-Fay’s Talktrack research study showed that conversations held in person are much more impactful than on social media. Rather than making social media a huge part of your life, Fowlkes wishes that people would look up from their phones and engage more with others since that could change their lives.

I agree with William Deresiewicz, in the sense that we rely on technology and social media websites too much for our real social experience. Now days, it doesn’t take just a couple minutes to send out a mass social media post to let the world know what we have

However, like genetics, it also has many negatives. Technology does improve the world’s ability to communicate quickly and easily, but it also separates people socially. Social media and smartphones for example, have dramatically reduced human interaction. Everyone would rather communicate online than in the real world. According to Pew Research Center, “Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis” (Smith and Anderson 1). This a huge portion the the American population that is using Facebook alone. There are many other social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest that attract even more users. The more people use these services, the less they interact with others in person. Aldous Huxley once said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Huxley 1). Before the technology that exists today, people were unable to communicate with others that weren’t in their area. Now, people tend to communicate with those around them less. As technology continues to improve, this situation will only become worse. Preventative action must be taken to prevent this from destroying human

The most noticeable effect of technology usage is a shortage of memory; not as in computer memory, but human memory. With Google constantly at people’s fingertips, it’s easy to look up information rather than memorize it. Carr cites in his article that tech users "cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful," instead of relying on the internet to quickly search for facts without having to commit them to memory (7). He also states that humans are losing the capacity to ‘deep read’ and cannot unearth meaning in articles the way that they used to in the time of the printing press and less evolved pieces of technology (3). In Gigi and Small’s article, they mention that the prefrontal cortex, or the area in the brain that handles short-term memory, could be altered by technology usage (4). However, Kristina Konidaris, a student who uses multiple technological devices daily, states that the technology does not have a profound impact on her memory. Instead, she states that her memory is more affected by her interest in the subject and her feelings rather than the technology used, although sometimes it may be easier to remember things she has handwritten rather than typed. Also included in Gigi and Small’s

In this paper I will address why technology has a direct correlation with the soaring childhood obesity rate in our society. In the fast past sedentary lifestyles we live today make technology such an efficient way to get things done. Although technology has it perks and has made a remarkable contribution to our society, it is often overlooked that it is negatively affecting our health. For parents, it seems easiest to just give your child a phone or computer to play on to keep them occupied. What parents aren’t realizing by doing so is that that is a

Over the years, technology has become a great advancement that has led us towards a new way to live our life. We can see that the use of technology has increased as time has passed. Kids as young as 4 years old are exposed to technology such as tablets in order to entertain them. Not only has technology created a way to entertain people, but has also created a way to motivate others, become a convenient tool for those with a limited amount of time and a reliable source for other things. We have become more dependent on technology because of the different ways it can be used such as on the go or right at home. The truth is that technology has positively impacted the lifestyle of Americans.

In contrast, technology at times may be damaging. In the reading, “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of our Era” by Richard Restak, he says

In order for humans to be social, we must take action. Over the years, technology has been blamed for poor human interaction skills.My grandma is always bugging us about the technology that we use,she says that, “We hardly go outside.” This in fact is true, studies have proven how easily distracted we humans get with technology. Family gatherings have not been the same ever since mom bought you that new phone.Think about it, slowly but surely we are disconnecting ourselves from

But this has ceased to exist after the introduction of Smartphone 's and the internet. People prefer to chat in the many social media offered on the internet and accessed by their Smartphone 's, play games, listen to music and even blog than strike a conversation with a person sited next (Tuckle, 2011, 23). As much as people are communicating more, a threat of communication becoming more of quantity than quality is emerging. As much as the use of Smartphone 's and internet has expanded people socially and geographically, it drives people from authentic relations. Too much use of Smartphone 's and web results in declining people social circle. It is a fact that the more time people spend on their Smartphone 's and the internet the less time they has with their families, friends and other people in the society.

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.

Tracy Packiam Alloway, a psychology professor at the University of North Florida, presents an argument as to why she believes technology is not making us lazy, but is actually making us more efficient. Alloway speaks of a study she did on several hundred people where she analyzed how technology has altered the way those people “remember and process” information (Alloway 1). After a series of questions, Alloway identified which people were active users of technology and which ones were passive users. She determined technology does indeed have a significant effect on the operation of our brains; however, it is not a negative one. The study showed active users of technology were much better at focusing on multiple pieces of information at once, easily adapting to any sort of change in the information, while passive users “processed information successively and found it easier to focus on a single target at a time” (Alloway 1). Therefore, Alloway determined technology does the opposite of limiting our progress, for it gives a better opportunity to multitask. She argues new developments, such as Google, simply provided quicker access to new information, rather than wasting hours trying to find the information. Although, Alloway does admit we will still always need to know how to use the information. Knowing the information is simply not enough, so despite the emergence of technology, we will still have to know how to achieve certain tasks ourselves. In her concluding statements, Alloway says, “Instead of having to fill up our mental ‘space’ with lots of information, this space is now freed up to focus on other things” (Alloway 1). In short, Alloway believes technology does not diminish our level of efficiency but enhances

Technology is always being improved and developed to aide in the daily activities that people go through. Around the world people use computers and cell phones to contact friends and family; however, in the past people would have face to face interactions to talk. This dependency on technology rather than human contact has many benefits, such as, it puts less stress on consumers and can lead to more time for other activities. However, it has many very negative effects also, this development has led to a growth in obesity, less diversity, and today people are less appreciative and kind to others. This decrease in human contact has led to the degradation of human health, through a decrease in physical activity, this change can be observed in the

Ever wonder why you wake up grumpy in the morning and can’t remember that one thing? Take this into account: Technology is changing our brains. The loss of sleep and reduction of memory are all symptoms of technology transforming your brain.

In today’s society, technology has played a big role in everyone’s lives and has taken over. Kids today stay inside and play on the computer, watch TV, play video games, or mess with tablets and smartphones. Several people find other, more entertaining things to do than play outside and be active. Some of the times, physical education in schools is the only physical activity students have on a daily basis (“Obesity”). Kids and teenagers would much rather be wrapped up in a social network than going for a job or going to the gym. Back in the day, playing outside was one of the few entertainments. Parents have no discipline and let their children do what they want to their bodies. Technology has caused people to be less active and not as self-controlled causing them to be obese or overweight later in life.