Negative Effect Of Technology

“THE MOST DISTURBING Stories about the future may be less about what could happen, …and more about what should happen given the way things are right now. The haunting visions of a sad tomorrow in Alexander Weinstein's excellent first collection, Children of the New World, fit that category. Inspired by the author's anxiety over our increasingly virtual lives, these 13 stories artfully slam an unchecked obsession with technology and affirm the beauty of reality's texture,” wrote John Wilwol in a book review published in the New York Times.

The effects of technology usage have long been a topic of debate, with the negative consequences often being brought up. Authors such as Robert Samuels, Alison Gopnik, Nicholas Carr, Gary Small and Vorgan Gigi have all addressed this topic in their own articles. In Samuels’ “Breaking Down Borders: How Technology Transforms the Private and Public Realms,” he discusses the creation of private bubbles in public spaces due to technology, and the consequent alienation of others. “Diagnosing the Digital Revolution” by Gopnik argues that the habits that tech users have today have always existed, while Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” states that technology is actively changing the way humans think. “Meet Your iBrain” by Gigi and Small covers how technology affects brains and alters them. This paper will use the articles and an interview with a peer to analyze the perceived negative effects of using technology, particularly worse memory, shorter attention span, exacerbation of bad habits, and shifting emotions.

Today, about 9 in 10 Americans use the Internet and 77% of Americans own a smartphone. Compare these statistics to the early 2000s when 5 in 10 Americans were online and in 2011, when only 35% of Americans owned a smartphone. Just a few decades ago, the technology we have today were merely ideas in science fiction novels or gadgets seen in a futuristic movie. There is no doubt that technology use has increased dramatically within this decade and these numbers may continue to rise as technology becomes more available to the public. Technology is slowly taking over our life and so many people have grown up surrounded by technology that a life without it is pretty much unimaginable. As technology becomes a bigger part of our daily lives, we

In recent years, technology has become a crucial aspect of society. You can use technology to do almost everything; order food, design homes, go to school, etc. Technology has many pros and cons, according to Karehka Ramey’s “Technology and Society – Impact of Technology On Society,” Manuel Castells’ “The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective,” Cerilyn Burgos’ “Effects of Technology on Self-Esteem,” Joel Stein’s “The New Greatest Generation,” and Lauren Slater’s “The Trouble with Self Esteem”, technology not only affects people as individuals but the world on a much larger scale. Technology has improved our society greatly and continues to prove increasingly beneficial every day.

Throughout the past couple decades, cell phones and laptops have become a large part of daily life for most human beings. In fact, in today’s society it is rare to find someone who does not own some sort of cellular device. Although technology has many useful perks, it is beginning to deteriorate our society’s social skills and social life. Teenagers in today’s world are too digitally connected, and this brings along the negative effects of a decrease in real-life conversation, increased laziness, and more distractions in a number of different environments.

Today’s modern life is surrounded with technology and it has been growing rapidly over time, becoming an important part of everyday life. It has become a major debate whether technology has a positive or negative impact on our youth. Technology has its impact on all ages such as adults, teens, and even our toddlers. Many companies are inventing tools for kids to help them learn in different ways which can make them more advanced than kids their age. As much as technology has changed the way our kids absorb information or entertain themselves, it has also affected their ability learn, their health, and also how they interact with others.  As children continue to become more occupied with technology, many adults have begun to wonder whether or not electronic devices is a good thing or not.

Nowadays it is almost impossible for many people to do their works and spend their days without using any kind of technology. According to Savanah Guthrie, an American journalist “ a recent survey found that people check their phones up to hundred fifty times a day. We talk, text, listen to music, surf the web, take pictures, oh, and then we share it all on social media.” Many people think of technology in a negative way. They think technology makes people create their own world and it make them alone. Even though technology has some negative effects on society, it has also a positive impact on the way people communicate. Technology makes it possible for people to enrich their relationships and for disabled people to overcome their disabilities.

Society could not function the way it does without technology. The way humans rely on technology is incredible and the worst part is most of us don’t even know it. Younger generations worry more on what someone said about them on social media or how many likes they got on their photo rather than how they are doing in school and getting themselves out there in the world. Most elementary schools have stopped teaching cursive and correct spelling because we have these fancy things called computers with spellcheck. Technology needs to be limited to the amount of success a human can perceive on their own without the aid from artificial intelligence.

Modern Technology has had a great deal of influence on how we process information in the twenty-first Century. Business flourishes with the use of e-mails to send for conferences or important information in seconds, while the use of Skype has vastly increased how they interact in conferences from all over the world. News was once posted once a day only through the papers and television, if the information was not seen then it was not known to have happen whereas today, anytime of the day, current or former information can be accessed. Children today will be interacting with their friends in seconds and do not have to make plans ahead of time. However, people have abused how the Internet was intended to be which has led to some undeniable, severe consequences. Technology has negatively impacted how humans communicate through replacing the human connection, making peoples attention span shorter than it used to be, and providing a need for people to receive shallow and instant gratification about how people view a topic.

Technology is a vital part of today’s society. People use everyday talking to friends, communicating for others, and more. Technology is mostly a negative influence on people’s identities because it grants power without responsibilities, promotes narcissism, and can be dangerous to others (misuse).

88 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17 have a smartphone, or have access to a smartphone. (www.growingwireless.com) Due to the fact that people are exposed to technology at a young age, they become very reliant on technology for the remainder of their lives. Throughout the years technology has evolved to make people’s lives easier, possibly too easy. As the generations evolve, people are forgetting how to live their lives without a cell phone, iPad, or laptop, which is causing people’s social skills and independence to become much worse than those of people’s just a decade ago. Millennials have the reputation of constantly being glued to their cell phones and are seen as being addicted to their devices twenty four seven. Technology is detrimental to today’s society and has negative long-term effects, because it causes people to become lazy, it is a distraction, and people are being cyberbullied.

Whether you are a geek buying the latest smartphone, game console, and latest apple products or you are just the minimalist who only has the necessary smart devices like your phone and maybe a laptop it is undeniable that technology is making it’s way into every nook and cranny of modern society. Owning your own car was treated as a freedom back in the eighties but now owning a car is starting to become a thing of the past as companies such as UBER and Lyft are replacing taxies but making a new form of public transportation constantly available almost everywhere around the world. Even though technology has basically taken over every aspect of our lives does not mean that every person has embraced it with open arms. These days we still have an ongoing debate about whether smart devices and the internet are helping or hurting society as a whole or not. Enthusiasts on this topic tend to look at a more optimistic view on this new technological age expressing how they think that robots and artificial intelligence will change our world for the better both Kevin Kelly’s “Better than Human”, Clive Thompson’s “Smarter than You Think”, as well as Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld’s “The Influencing Machines” explore. On the other hand, skeptics tend to write about how these new technologies are tainting our own capabilities and making us more dependent rather than relying on our own skills says Nicholas Carr in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. Although technology has

Mr. Ray Kurzweil, renowned inventor and author of The Singularity is Near, wrote in 2001 that technological progress was increasing twofold every decade, “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century-it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate)” (qtd. in Berman and Dorrier). We are only in the beginning of the 21st century and yet technology is advancing faster than our ability to adapt! Technology has given society convenience and a higher standard of living with the creation of the internet, smartphones, increasingly useful robots, and artificial intelligence that learns (Rosoff). In the past couple of decades, continued integration of technology in society has dramatically increased, resulting in significant problems with respect to invasion of privacy and loss of basic freedoms. Technology has enabled governments and large corporations to collect personal data. Facial recognition and surveillance technology are being used for more than just “security.” Although this rise in technology has provided society with many different freedoms and benefits, technology will eventually lead to a society with little or no freedom.

Throughout all of its years, this world has become a birthplace to numerous technological breakthroughs. From the invention of the very first wheel to today’s quantum supercomputers, it’s obvious that this world has always been technology driven. These advances have aided in areas such as agriculture, communication, travel, and leisure. Leisure is defined as “time free from the demands of work or duty, when one can rest.” People go about various ways of filling their spare time, whether it be spending time with family or playing video games with friends. Handheld digital devices, like the Nintendo DS, have been around for years but the use of technology did not seem to present a problem until smartphones and tablets became popular in the early 2000’s. It is very likely that a teenager will come in contact with one, two, or maybe even three digital screens throughout the course of his or her day. Just like gamblers, users of this technology are on the search for instant gratification and immediate responses. Teens utilize computers to search for information and complete schoolwork, cell phones to communicate and engage in social media, and televisions to binge watch episodes of their favorite show on Netflix. While many argue that teens are not negatively impacted by the constant use of technology, detrimental effects of screen obsessiveness have become a concern in a teenager’s ability to focus as well as maintain social interactions.

With human’s creating high technology we have forever transformed the way we live, even the way we feel. Technology has changed the way we think without us ever even realizing it. We have information at our fingertips making the way we receive information forever. No longer do we have to search the library's for our papers. Even the way we socialize has changed. We simply go on an app to look at others across the world or to communicate. But this doesn't mean it’s not having a negative effect on us. T.M Luhrmann states “Nobody thinks for themselves anymore.” We simply just take what other’s say and believe it’s real. In T.M Luhrmann article “ Is The World More Depressed” explains that it has been recently learned that Facebook leads people to feel less about themselves in a single moment with their lives. One of those reasons being because they see others post these most flattering, beautiful photo’s and funny comments when their lives feels so gray and dull. This leading to sadness which soon could lead to depression. With social media increasing we have become to have a greater awareness of other people and where we stand in social space.