f asked to define technocentrism, or a problem we don’t know the solution to, many of us would instantly turn to the interwebs in order to find our answer. If googled “technocentrism definition”, we would find that is the “value system that is centered on technology”, which is the world we live in today.
We have assimilated this technology into our culture and society impacting our psychology heavily. A study in Japan of 92 men and 54 women showed that addiction of internet use and texting was correlated with depression and anxiety(Lu, Xi, et al). In the study the lack of human emotion readily available and the potential for a message to be received instantly, was shown to leave feelings of neglect and isolation. An article from Mother Nature Network supports this data stating that, “ over text messages analyzing their inflection and meaning. (“What did he mean by ‘I’m OK’ — ‘I’m OK’ or ‘I’m OK’???)”. The populous article illustrates something many people can relate to with the over analyzing simple text messages and leading to confusion of what was meant. The article also brings up the overreliance further with the feeling of nakedness when without the phone. Claiming that people refer to their Blackberry as a “Crackberrys” due to them checking frequently for emails and text messaging. The claim from the populous is supported as one of the most addictive online activities from the article, Internet gratifications and internet addiction, due to the addictive behaviors such as withdrawals, and obsessive tolerance.
Other popular articles negate the claim of addiction as stating that the internet and social media act more as a tool due to the internet being a requirement of modern society. (Monica Bator, Whitney Young). They further state how teens spend 20 hours a week in front of a screen and that is simple dependence rather than over-depandance. Despite these claims, they refuse to acknowledge the major cons affecting the psychological impact of the services that they use.
The study of X, Lu et al, illustrates how the internet as well distances the user from a wider social circle, family, peers, and psychological well-being due to the dependency on the web. As well as proving that these effects are not
Kate Hafner’s article, “Texting May Be Taking a Toll” claims that texting is an issue to teenagers around the world. As an illustration, Hafner starts the article by identifying that teenagers send a drastic amount of texts in their everyday lives. according to the Nielsen Company, “American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008”(1). This is just one of the examples of many that portrays teenagers around the world send many text messages. Along with teenagers sending many texts a day, hafner also shows in this article that texting is affecting teenager's life in many different ways for example, preventing teenagers' way of becoming independent. Just as professor Turkle presented,
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.
Cell phones and the computers are similar to each other in many different ways. One of the most common similarities is the internet aspect. With everyone connected to the internet, the adverse effects can spread throughout like a virus. “A Nielsen study released in 2010 indicated that texting was the primary reason for purchasing mobile phones and that text communication had become a "’centerpiece of mobile teen behavior.’" The modern smartphone of the 2010s is a powerful computing device, and the rapid and ongoing development of new applications provides users with a growing number of ways to use mobile phones for recreation, productivity, and social communication” (Issitt 2016). In the following Issitt states, “however, as smartphones have become more common, concerns about the detrimental effects of smartphone use have also increased.” (Issitt 2016). Issitt expresses the large growth of people with smartphones has its positives and negatives. The positives being the ability to communicate, but the negative being the effects on relationships with one another. An example of the negative side of things is the lack of interaction with people. People are more likely to call or text instead of interacting with one another. The lack of interaction can ruin relationships, or make people feel unwanted. In the article “Eurasian Journal of Educational Research,” the writer states that the internet, “can transform into an addictive instrument in excessive usage situations.” (Gunduz 2017). The statement explains the issue of the unnecessary use of the internet as a growing addictive process that is taking over more and more
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,
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
In the article, “Caught in the Web: More People Say Heavy Internet Use is Disrupting Their Lives, and Medical Experts are Paying Attention” by January W. Payne argues that using technology too much, has consequences that can affect the people around, and the individual’s health as well. At the same time, many people use internet excessively, and do not realize that, they might get further from the outside world. According to a research by Stanford University, demonstrated, that people spend on the internet about 3 or more hours daily. Many people are getting addictive to the internet, because they see it as an escape from problems, while others use it as a way to relax themselves. As people addiction to the internet increase, people isolate
When people think of addictions, usually, drugs and chemical substances come to mind. A frequent trend observed in today’s age is not being able to go anywhere without one’s digital device and being addicted to that device, especially one’s cell phone. Adopting a cell phone separation anxiety, is a type of behavioral addiction that is seen more and more today. On average, people are spending about three hours on their phones each day. Alter states, “‘Behavioral addictions are really widespread now...risen with the adoption of newer more addictive social networking platforms, tablets and smartphones’” (Dreifus). As new technologies that cater to people’s wants increase, addiction to these technologies will increase as well. People become so attached to their phones that they will perhaps get distracted from their current situation. In the article “Hooked On Our Smartphones”, the author Jane E. Brody talked about how sometimes commuters or drivers put themselves in a dangerous position when they pay more attention to their phone instead of what surrounds them. The almost
“How many teens are truly addicted to their devices and the internet? It is difficult to say,” says CNN’s recent article, “Half of Teens Think They’re Addicted to Their Cellphones”. Filled with absurdly ambiguous claims, the article gives a terminal diagnosis for the nation’s youth, painting satires of teens who are unable to walk from class to class without maintaining constant eye contact with their phones. At the same time, however, the author, Kelly Wallace, gives herself plenty of breathing room with statements similar to the above quote. Thus, the matter of tech addiction stands relatively untouched; the article did nothing to truly refute or support its own title claim. Such a statement cannot be truly supported because, like a multitude
The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks. Today, it is a public, cooperative and self-sustaining facility accessible to millions of people. This global access to a new world has its shortcomings. One of many that might be considered the most important is addiction; I can easily confess that I see myself as a cell phone addicted person. After reading the article “Half of Teens Think They” by Kelly Wallace, I came to a conclusion that I am not the only one who faces this impasse. However, the article also says that it is difficult to say how many teens are truly addicted to their devices and the Internet. Also it is found a problem, because parents feel their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices. Trying to solve this difficulty, some parents came up with solutions.
Technology separates people because it nurtures addictions. For example, in her CNN article, Sandee LaMotte says that the overuse of cell phones has made people addicted to them, and as a result, has negatively affected people’s relationships with friends and family. Specifically, she says that people can get ‘nomophobia’ characterized by anxiety when they don’t have their phone on them. This can cause depression, which in turn distracts people, and affects relationships, because no one wants to have face-to-face conversations. LaMotte quotes Caglar Yildirim, who created a scale to test addiction ‘ “[Overuse of phones] might negatively affect your social life and relationships with friends and family," [...] those who score high on the test tend to avoid face-to-face interactions, have high levels of social anxiety and maybe even depression” ’ LaMotte believes that addiction to phones can reduce physical time with other people, to an extent at which it can harm relationships, and slowly tear people apart. In another example, in her 2011 social media article, Deborah Mackey that addiction to phones and social media can limit the amount of time people spend with each other. Mackey states that a large percent of people use their phones while with friends or family, and many even use their phones at meal times.
In the article, “The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good of kids Use of Social Media,” Jim Taylor gives us a definition of the phrase internet addiction. He states, “Internet addiction is commonly characterized as excessive use of internet that interferes with daily functioning and that can lead to distress or harm,”. The addiction from the internet surely has a price to pay. Internet addiction is harmful psychologically, addictions to the internet shouldn’t be our only concern when it comes to social media, and internet addiction has no age limit.
This addictive way to communicate has many problems. For example, the possibility that in a near future people won’t be able to communicate face-to-face, like now is done. This is because young people don’t call each other anymore. Instead they write a message on Facebook, or send a text message via their cell phone (Stout, 2010). A big worry
Technology has become a great benefit to us but many people have taken it too far. According to researcher and surveys taken all over the world shows that a large number of people may have become addicted to their technological devices and are not able to make it through a day without their cell phones or other technological devices. Many have concerns that people would rather use these devices than to have a face to face conversation. The addictions of technological devices are on the rise. Although these devices were meant to make our lives easier there have been many problems to arise ranging from health risk, relationship problems, classroom, church, and work interferences. Statistics show that cell
In today’s society almost every individual has some type of social media, whether it is Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter, People have accustomed to utilizing these types of social media and it has become part of their life and daily use. According to the essay “Students Addicted to Social Media” by the International Center for Media and Public Agenda, the study from the University of Maryland claims “American college students today are addicted to media” (Signs of Life in the USA 403). The university discovered that when these students are restricted from using media it is similar in terms of drug and alcohol addictions. During the study that the university conducted, students discuss how boring it is without media and how it gives them anxiety about not receiving information through social media. Other students claimed that texting and IM'ing gives them comfort and if they do not have these items then they feel alone and isolated from the world ( Signs of Life in the USA 404). Students are not the only ones who have an addiction of media but also parents and non-students. However, the International Center is accurate in some aspects and the responses students gave are very relatable which some people can agree with.
The first effect of using the internet is social isolation. Ordinarily, we have lost our face to face communication with people by social isolation. The outcome shows that people nowadays prefer utilizing the