Psychological and Emotional Effects of Technology

From these articles, I think that the basic argument that is being debated is psychologists Lauren Donchi and Susan Moore argued that online friendships hurt adolescent development. "It's a Boy Thing: The Role of the Internet in Young People's Psychological Wellbeing,” indicates the side effects to adolescents’ use of Internet. They conclude that "all well-being measures were negatively related to Internet focus." The article points out that time spent with online friends displaces offline relationships and time online negatively affected both emotional and social factors. However, Professors of Communication Patti M. Valkenburg and Jochen Peter affirms that online friends do no damage psychological wellbeing in the article"Online Communication and Adolescent Well-being: Testing the Stimulation Versus the Displacement Hypothesis." They even point out that online friendships can enhance offline relationships.

There have been many studies done on the negative psychological and sociological effects of technology while some may be true technology has its share of positive effects on society. The advances of technology have aided in the access to information from relatively anywhere. According to Hepburn (2013) “By the end of 2014, the number of Internet users was expected to be almost 3 billion, two-thirds of whom live in the developing world, and the number of mobile broadband subscriptions was expected to reach 2.3 billion globally” (as cited in Yáñez, Okada, & Palau2015, p.89). It has become easier to stay connected to family, friends, access personal information, and has improved educational opportunities. Technology is always evolving and changing for the better. “Mobile technologies and networks are increasingly expanding in their sophistication and capacity, and new applications (software programs) are enhancing the ways in which individuals interact” (Giota, 2014).

Nowadays, there are many people who are addictive to technology very much, especially some social networks, like Facebook. An article from World Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology shows that, “Facebook has become an essential part of many people’s lives. Surveys have shown that 71.2% of Internet users in the U.S. are also Facebook users, and that almost adolescents check Facebook first thing in the morning. Facebook ranked first in a survey of the 100 most popular websites in Taiwan. Nearly 90% of the Facebook population is made up of students, particularly university students”. At the same time, we have to notice that technology brings us a lot of fun. For example, communication has been made easier and the Internet has brought email and chatting facilities. Instead of sending letters to respective destinations, it is very easy to send an e-mail, which will be received instantly. New technology makes people to contact each other easily. If you are very busy and have no time to see your parents, you can call them or text them anytime, even during the 10 minutes break of the meeting. If you go to other country to study or work, and get far from your friends, you can have Internet video with them, in this way you can see them easily. All of those I said are the benefits and convenience that new technology bring us. In this way, technology makes people get closer, but not be alone. Without new technology, people have to see each other face to face or

Recent developments in technology like the internet lead to the decrease in “normal” social behavior, and a trend of disconnect between individuals due to an obsession with technology. In the past, you could walk around your town for a whole day without seeing every single person that you know. But with the usage of technology, they are just an arm’s reach away. With this change in the way people communicate, social habits become lazy. You no longer have to put in the effort to communicate with the people you care about, which may lead to a feeling of isolation and loneliness. It has become easier to just text someone, rather to call them or even see them in person. With this comes possible breaches in communication, and an overall disconnect between individuals and their loved ones. The disconnect between people due to technology is harmful and may lead to many consequences.

Today’s young adults have a lack of communication with friends and family because of technology such as social media, video games or television. In our society, parlor walls can be seen as those commodities. The large flat screen tv’s or IPads are today’s enthusiast. “Social media in our country and the globalizing world has become the voice, eye, ear, heart, and memory of the individuals. It has aspects which strengthen, weaken and include communication between the individuals and also it provides convenience for time and place.” This, according to TNS Digital Life Research that carried out a study in 2011 and held 1.938.059.098 people that were online. Researchers were able to test how many people prefer to communicate through social media or rather be involved in some sort of social media instead of actually going out and interacting. These studies show and give a glimpse of how many people are more interested to spend time on social media instead of building new relationships. Bradbury’s society and our society and similar because of the lack of communication we have because of some aspects of technology that are similar, which are the parlor walls and social media, television and video games.

As technological advances are being made every day, the average adult has begun to increase their screen time daily. More people are spending time on their devices, than going out and interacting with others and their community. People also tend According to a study by David Greenfield, this addiction occurs to individuals who are unable to interact with others in real life and tend to be “socially reclusive” (Greenfield 1). This highlights how some individuals feel uncomfortable connecting in person, so they go to social media to assist them in mingling with other people who share similar problems. Unlike past generations, millenials have been using the internet much more as a platform to interact and this has caused several individuals to become addicted to their personal devices. This real life fear also causes many who attempt to withdraw from this addiction to have long term side effects. Some of these effects consist of “experience withdrawal including: anger, depression, relief, mood swings, anxiety, fear, irritability, sadness, loneliness, boredom, and restlessness” (Greenfield 1). As shown by the symptoms, internet addiction is a growing problem that current adolescents face. This fear is far more than justified as hundreds of studies have sampled and diagnosed individuals combatting this addiction. Another negative impact of internet addiction is that it can isolate one from the rest of the world and cause them to neglect things that are happening around them. Although everything may seem normal at first, as one grows older this can have long term effects on their social life. Internet addiction is one of many technological fears faced by the world

The article “Social Media as Community” “We no longer lose social ties over our lives; we have Facebook friends forever.” (Keith Hampton) Social media has created amazing apps that let us meet people that are exactly how we are ourselves. They have helped many students get relationships that they thought would never happen. “There is little evidence that social media is responsible for a trend of isolation, or a loss of intimacy and social support.” “Social Networking Sites and Our lives.” On the internet there is little evidence that social media has caused an isolation. The internet has made it where we can talk to people far from here that are just like us and usually people don’t lose friends that are exactly like

Social media is in it 's prime. It is how everyone connects with their friends, family and anyone around the world. Facebook has become hugely popular especially with adolescents. In the article, Loneliness and Facebook Motives in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Inquiry into Directionality of Effect, research has investigated the relationship between Facebook use and adolescent loneliness. They researched 256 adolescents with the median age of 15 were examined to see how Facebook motives and two relationship-specific forms of adolescent loneliness were associated longitudinally. (Luyckx, Teppers, Goossens, Klimstra, 2014). Results reveal that peer-related loneliness relates over time to using Facebook, compensating their social skills, reduces isolation feeling, and engaging in interpersonal contact. While Facebook allows them to make new friends online, it is diminishing their actual social skills when it comes to real life contact.

The first prediction was that based off of the concluding data, there would be a correlation between the use of the internet, and loneliness and dating anxiety. The second, was that there would be no clear association with the idea of the length one spends online with their feelings when they are not participating in online activities. Another prediction was that there is a correlation between gender and problematic internet usage. The authors also predicted that there would be significantly different evidence that students who have developed dating relationships over the internet while also developing problematic internet use. One of the last predictions that were clearly stated hypothesized the idea that there would be a difference between the levels of problematic internet use and the length that students are occupied by the internet. This infatuation could lead to the students developing psychological problems, such as isolation, and other social

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.

that it became a platform for the creation of insincere relationships that lacked personal connection. When discussing the harmful effects of the Internet on the actions of those who participate in online relations, Merkle and Richardson state, “For example, the global presence of the Internet diminishes the need for spatial proximity . . . Internet communication allows for anonymity; and candid self-disclosure becomes significant as the only means for two users to know one another.” The introduction of the Internet in American society eliminated the need for people to directly engage in discussions with their peers, which took away the emotional value in their relationships

Young adults’ reliance on the internet has developed into an addiction, resulting in teenagers to feel isolated and disconnected from their peers. In an experiment conducted in “The Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’ Social and Academic Development: Current Theories and Controversies” June Ahn “found that longer use of the Internet was related to increased depression, loneliness, and smaller social circles.” The younger generation lacks genuine socialization because of the extensive amount of time teenagers spend isolated in their own virtual world. The lack of physical interaction has taken a toll on youths’ ability to develop social skills and friendships. With a lack of these social skills, today’s youth will experience trouble socializing, affecting their ability to create and maintain friendships. Furthermore, in Keith Hampton’s article “Is Technology Making People Less Sociable?” he reveals today’s youth, “spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online

Social media improves the way people communicate with others. It allows them to meet new people. At the click of a button, millions of strangers all over the world who would have never met otherwise are able to connect with each other. Many people believe that internet friends are not as valuable as real life friendships. However with websites like “skype” and instant messaging sites, long distance friendships can be as intimate as real life friendships because social media allows friends to see each other face to face and spend quality time together whenever they want to. Because of this, internet friendships should no longer be considered taboo and should be seen as normal human relationships, “It’s entirely possible to have hundreds of

Numerous uses of the internet involve connecting. Facebook, Twitter and other social media all revolve around connecting with companions. Nonetheless, these mediums for connectivity could likewise be channels for internet disorders. Researchers have found that internet disorder such as is a real and ever increasing problem. Though the internet social disorder is a well-known problem, research is still discovering the reasons for internet’s effects of social disorder. Most of the research on internet disorder points to the connectivity aspect of the internet entrapping the user in a false reality. While the internet offers many good opportunities to engage with others, such as social media and online chat rooms, increased technological connectivity can deliver a

Technology has changed so many of the ways in which we live our lives, from the invention of the wheel to the advanced systems we use and take for granted everyday. Technology was once taboo in most house holds while people still clung to the idea that life was built on life experiences. Nicholas Carr stated in, Is Goggle making us stupid? "Back in the fourth century, BCE, Plato complained that writing (then a fairly new technology) was destroying peoples memory, yet he wrote dozens of books. For half a century, television has been accused of rotting our brains and making us fat and lazy, but most people depend on it for info, news and entertainment." Technology has changed our understanding of the way things work and