Is Technology Possible To Change An Individual's Identity?

Do people ever wonder what it was like back when there wasn’t technology? Do they wonder about how different it would be? Does it get annoying when parents and grandparents nag about how much people use the phone? Well, they are right in some ways, society relies on technology to survive. In “Growing up Digital: How the Internet Affects Teen Identity” Chandra Johnson talks about how easy it has become to bully kids over the internet it makes teens want to fake who they are just to be accepted.

Most children and parents are so-called “addicted” to their smartphones, tablets, and computers. Our world is constantly changing, by using less paper and more screens. Is this really such a bad thing? Children can learn from the internet and actually become smarter because of it. The internet has the ability to benefit all ages, but especially children. The world is transforming into a digital place, which allows children to grow and learn, find answers in seconds, and keep up with current events around the world.

Internet addiction has become a huge problem in today’s society. In Greg Beato’s article, he discusses the growing phenomena of internet addiction disorder. The writer explains that more and more people are becoming addicted to the internet. For example, he tells of a teenager in Ohio, who shot and killed his mom and injured his dad because they took away his Xbox. He tells how it is stated that five to ten percent of the 52 million internet users were addicted. The author is telling us that the internet has become very addictive in our everyday society.

Presently, the internet provides much of the world with endless games, chatting and many other sources of entertainment. This, in turn, is causing people to spend numerous hours per day talking with friends, posting pictures or video, discussing the latest trends or technologies, or playing online games and gambling. Society is beginning to disregard the world around them, and are now more focused on the digital lives they have formed around themselves. These numbers are very rapidly expanding since the earlier days of social media. According to Andrew Perrin of the Pew Research Center, statistics show that almost 90% of individuals ages 18-29 use at least one form of social media and spend at least 3-4 hours per day logged into some social media on their smartphones or computers. Research also shows that 80% of adults ages 30-49, and less than 35% of adults ages 65 and over are also using some method of online

Social Media Nowadays it is very unlikely to find a teenager that does not use social media. Social media is a way for young adults to keep in touch with their peers. Many teendagers do not use social media to harm their well-being, but some risky kids might.

The idea behind the internet was to revolutionize society and with over 3 billion individuals using it, it clearly succeeded (ITU, n.d.). However, individuals started coming online to check their email, watch a video, visit Facebook, or play an online game as a habit, may easily become addicted to these behaviors over time. According to the DSM-V, internet addiction applies to individuals who use the internet excessively, often without realizing how much time has passed, how much more they are using the internet and neglecting their basic needs, as well as, ignoring any negative impacts said internet use has caused (dsm). When not using the internet, the individual may feel withdrawal, angry, tense, and/or depressed; in addition, they may feel the need to have a better computer and more software, which is an internet-addicted individual’s form of tolerance (dsm). Time of use per day in those addicted to the internet is nearly double the time those who are not addicted spend online (Lee,

Turkle discusses the online personalities adolescents form to gain more confidence in who they are. These personalities’ form a constant need to stay connected and these teens have developed the willingness to put themselves in danger to do so. The new generation of adolescents feel a pull to be at a beckons call to every notification delivered to their cellular device. She argues these teens have been raised in a different manner compared to those of whom were teenagers twenty years ago. All of these factors lead into a war between technology and society of which hinders our young people’s development. Adolescents are bound to the constant desire to have a connection to technology and the luxuries the technology

The severity of smartphones impacting a child’s adolescence continues to increase each and every year. Forty years ago my parents were teenagers and none of them had a computer, let alone a smartphone. Flash forward to today and every single kid my age has a smartphone and some get one as young as ten years old! What will the next forty years entail? Vasts amounts of cyberbullying occurs online every day between high school students, so with time will this behavior continue into the workplace? Twenge shines a light on the fact that the more time spent on a social networking site, the unhappier the user felt. Not only does her article indicate we are on the brink of a mental health crisis, but we are also one the brink of a shift in basic human behavior. Before now, humans have never willingly spent such large amounts of time doing activities that leave them unhappy, unfulfilled, or worse off overall. Only time will tell, but time is not a luxury we possess, a response to this technology addiction needs to be formulated

Addiction online has become very common in this day and age. With 88.8% of Americans having access to a device with internet there are plenty of individuals who have started drifting away from from their friends and family because of internet addiction. Internet addiction can become very dangerous for youths who are beginning to develop core learning skills which become essential later on in their adult life. It can cause students grades to take a harsh dip. This type of addiction can even cause cause financial problems. It can cause financial problems because of online gambling where a person would end up losing their sense of time and continuously spend their hard earned money on a risky decision that can lead to depression and and has the potential to strain family

She writes, “They’re connected, they’re collaborative, they’re used to writing about themselves,” referring to the new culture created by teen internet users (Goldwasser 1). Goldwasser continues to argue teens to have an exponentially wider grasp on the world. She cites their ability to watch famous speeches, read award winning novels, share their opinions, and share their own stories as proof of the usefulness of the internet. Nevertheless, fear of the online world persists. Teenagers now have access

When it comes to teens using the Internet and social media applications, there are many opinions people have in regards to security, privacy, and addiction for these luxuries. It seems that every day, I see news articles, blogs, and other posts about teens and the way they use the Internet. Mainly, the concern that parents need to have in order to protect their children from being personally identified or having an addiction to apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When reading this book, I found that this whole concept of teens using this type of network goes deeper than people may think.

A new epidemic has fallen over America and is spreading like wild fire across the states as more and more fall victim to its claws. That epidemic is known as internet addiction which many of today’s youths are prone to due to the widespread usage of technology. Excessive use of the internet has proven hazardous to the generation because it decreases cognitive ability, impairs social development, and increases health problems. Since the current American society relies heavily on technology and web searches through google, the internet has become a necessary essential and making addiction almost inevitable.

A study has shown the teenage demographic is now addicted to a new narcotic: smartphones. In Kelly Wallace’s article, “Half of Teens Think They’re Addicted to Their Smartphones,” it is becoming a worry to some parents that their teen is heavily addicted to their cell phones. Parents across the United States have opinions about the addiction. About more than half of parents that were surveyed believed that their child was addicted to their phones. Even though some parents may see it as an addiction, it may be a little less severe. In the article it states, “A 2011 review of 18 research studies found that Internet addiction might affect between zero and 26% of adolescents and college students in the United States, according to Common Sense Media.”

Digital natives are going to be young people, multitaskers, and quick learners that have technological skills. Digital Natives are making this new generation very different from the prior generations. These changes are forcing sociologist, parents, students, teachers, and lawmakers to change the way they do things. In Born Digital, Jon Palfrey and Urs Gasser describe how in an emerging digital world, it is easy to create online identities. With these online identities, we control different stages with a front stage or back stage. Online, digital natives are leaving digital cues or claims of self that sometimes couldn’t be farther from reality. Since the emergence of social media there is a blur between what is private or what is public. What we may feel is a private space could be viewed under a large and unknown amount of people. The Digital Natives are finding themselves not doing a good job managing their web information about them or their “digital dossier”, that is, the sum total of personally identifiable information, much of which can turn up in browsers searches. The line between reality and online presence is becoming so thin that digital natives are by no means a generation but we see that they are in fact a population.

The inauguration of online social spaces has influenced adolescents’ identity formation and development. Surfing on social networks, teens tend to use three main kinds of online identifications; true identity that is the same offline identity, pseudonymity which refers to the use of fake names, and anonymity which means full obscurity. (Donath, 1999) online social networking sites used among adolescents include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs, interactive computer games, and chat rooms. Adolescents think that online integration and acceptance in the previously mentioned online setting to be a sign of socialization and well being. (Slagter Van Tryon & Bishop, 2009) In a study conducted by Reich’s (2010) suggests that 25% of high school students and 21% of college students have experienced problems with friendships due to activity on social networking sites. The main