Negative Effects Of Technology On Human Relationships

As much as I regret to admit it, I’m attached to my phone. I’m constantly reaching into my pocket to check the time, make sure I haven’t gotten a new update, or to send a message. I do this even when I’m not talking to anyone! It’s become an addiction, having to make sure I’m not missing anything, and I'm not the only one who has this problem. Seventy-five percent of the world population has a cell phone, and that number will only increase. With the creation of new technology portions of life have become easier. Technology has changed the way we go through life. It’s made talking to people easier, as well as keeping up with the lives of others. However, the effects have affected the aspects of our lives that don’t include technology.

Before, people used to leave their homes to communicate with friends through places such as the bar, café, or even going for a walk. Now, technology has made communication so much easier. With applications such as Skype, Facebook and iMessage, we are able to instantly message our friends without spending money, time or energy to commute. Overall, messaging applications have made communication easier, quicker, cheaper and more efficient – all four are demands of which most humans look for when performing tasks. However, there are times when technology usage is more than we should take. Television for example can easily prevent a family from communicating. With 24 hours of nonstop broadcasting news and entertainment, some families can sit through these programs for hours without saying a single word to each other. According to a survey conducted by the Mirror, the average parent spends only 34 minutes with their children a day (Maughan, 2015). Over 2,000 parents surveyed had admitted to being too tired or busy to spend time with their children. With 24 hours in a day, if the average human spends 8 hours a day sleeping (Bjarki, 2015), 7-12 hours a day working or going to school (Ferro, 2015), and 8.4 hours on media devices (Chang, 2015), communication among friends, family members and the outside world in general is expected to be at its concerning lowest. According to research by the telegraph, 65.8% of children under 10 years old own smartphones

“In less than the span of a single childhood, Americans have merged with their machines, staring at a screen for at least eight hours a day, more time than we spend on any other activity including sleeping. Teens fit some seven hours of screen time into the average school day; 11, if you count time spent multitasking on several devices. When President Obama last ran for office, the iPhone had yet to be launched. Now smartphones outnumber the old models in America, and more than a third of users get online before getting out of bed.”

Chatfield (2015) expressed that, “We began to weave constant availability into our conception of public and private space; into our body language and everyday etiquette (“I’ll get there for midday and give you a ring”)” (para.8); such statement made me agree with the author. We are constantly using devices to be up to date with the latest happenings anywhere, anytime, in which persons have become emotionally attached to their devices. It is important to be aware of current events and so it makes it convenient to always be connected. Also, another point made by the author was that, “…digital technologies mean my relationships with others and the world are extended and amplified beyond anything even my grandparents knew” (Chatfield, 2015, para.14). Although digital technology was invented for a faster and more efficient ways to communicate, it has made our lives less physically connected with others due to the lack of physical interaction. In the past, our grandparents had the pleasure of having verbal communication through physical connections, in which they were able to pick up on social cues, for example: facial features, gestures, body language and proximity; however, at present communication takes place with the connection of the internet with little to no social cues (Stewart, 2013). Digital technology is currently and

The article entitled, “Can You Hear Me Now?” by Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote an article on the negative effects that technology has on people. In the article, her main argument is the technology of today, which connects people, is making them estranged not only to others but to themselves. Turkle explains many problems she has encountered with this new technology and discusses the problems that people have with the dependency on technology. The devices that people are using, for instance, cell phones, BlackBerry’s, and the internet to keep them connected have the opposite effect. They are keeping people attached to text messages, emails, social

Today, socialization that involves real interaction is very rare because people have been reduced to interaction on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Though there is nothing expressly wrong with technological communication, but over-relying on it can be a problem when it is seen as a substitute for face-to-face interaction. It takes away real life activities and can cause a breakdown in relationships. Constantly connecting through mobile devices is prone to disconnecting people from those physically around us.

Through surveys with students at my school I was able to find that 26.15% of people surveyed spend more than 7 hours on a computer a day, however 9.38% of people stated they are not addicted to internet in any form. Statistics from survey sources indicate that although a considerable amount more screen time is spent using computers and internet than past generations, the youth of today still claim to spend reasonable amounts of time on devices with access to the internet. 70 years ago, in the 1960’s there was social media was simply a vison for the future for some with no real equivalent. However since introduction of websites and applications such as Facebook, My Space, Instagram and Snapchat, most

We used to connect face-to-face, and talk to people that we in seeing bars and cafes, and it would not seem uncanny, but now since we have the technology it made communication differences. Friends from far away are now connected with the use of the internet, the internet is a wonderful place to stay connected with family and friends, I use it to stay in contact with my friend Ray that’s going to Cal Poly. Nevertheless, sometimes it can be distracting while I’m hanging out with my cousins. Now we communicate through screens and it’s like a norm and we use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and messaging to do all our “communicating”, but communicating from technology doesn’t show the person 's emotions “Studies show that only 7% of communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language.” (Tardanico). Susan Tardanico experiences that when her daughter attempted suicide. She talked to her before the incident and to Susan she seemed happy but she couldn’t notice her body language and realize that she had depression. Communicating with, a person can only be from one way and that’s from face to face, talking because you can notice what’s happening with them when you 're using technology to talk to the person.

My brother’s anecdote proves that social media does not contain a sense of closeness. If anything, social media causes a decline in physical interpersonal interaction. In public settings people may become socially awkward. The sad fact is that society accepts this practice, and new forms of social media are constantly

Social networking and other social technology allows for interactions to occur between friends and family regardless of their location. While people remain social through communicating at a constant rate, the essence of face-to-face interactions is in part affected. In romantic relationships, open and honest communication with one’s partner is critical to the trust and development of the relationship. Young adults use social technology such as the Internet and mobile phones on a daily basis to maintain their relationships. Due to the miscommunication that often occurs from not a lack of face-to-face interactions, social technology shapes the way romantic relationships function. Therefore, social technology impacts romantic relationships

It’s hard not to see or use a technology tool in our daily life, if we live in a modern world. The bombardment starts early in the morning and it will be manifested through our day in several ways, the regular person will wake up and check the apps on the cellphone while drinking a coffee, it can be for example to read news on the web, daily market numbers or for social interaction with others. The expansion to advanced options of communications like smartphones and tablets are great examples of the accelerated transition to a mass online communication. The social use of technology is influencing adult population in our present. According to Pew Research Center (n.d) data collected up to September 2014 in the online environment:

In what circumstances do technology have an effect on relationships. A relationship is where two or more concepts or people are connected. Most people in relationship notice to get distracted and intimacy by their technology. Why did the lover resist his technology because he never had one. Almost all would rather chat with their love, while others choose to see theirs in person. There are many ways that technology can affect relationships.

Face to face relationships are very important because through contact we are getting live interaction, trust, honesty, and integrity. Face to face conversations are more positive and more reliable than friendships online. In cyber space you convers ate with friends but some will not acknowledge the friendship in public. Social media is slowly taking away from face to face relationships, because we contact our family and friends on the computer screen. We are typing while looking at the screen instead of seeing facial expressions. Therefore, we aren’t sure if they are interpreting what we are saying in a negative or positive way.

The urge to be connected has become more of an addiction than a form of convenient communication; due to the amount of time people spend on technology. This causes a severe disconnection with others around them. People spend more time looking at the “perfect” lives of other celebrities, that they forget to enjoy what is around them. If people spend more time looking up from their screens, they could make more friendships or companionships with other people. Imagine all the possible conversations you missed because you were too busy talking to people through a screen, instead of those around you. People often use their means of technology as a way to distract them or avoid talking to others. Perhaps this is due to the social disconnect they have with others around them. If people spend less time on technology, more connections with people would form. You would have more time to do things you want to do, such as reading, exercise, or more. Instead of connecting with people through technology, we should make connections with people close to us the top priority.

ii. However, for many of us, face-to-face communication seems to be a dying art – replaced by text messaging, e-mails, and social media. Human communication and interactions are shaped by available technologies