FINAL BLOG POST

   Our Society's Relationship with Technology: 

    Technology has consumed so many people's lives; in positive and negative ways. Technology teaches each individual who has access to it about an abundance of information that we may have never been able to have access to without the power of technology. Technology has altered how we entertain ourselves, interact with one another, and consume various forms of media. It has made amusing advances, but it has also made significant safety advances in home security and medical devices. Almost every element of modern life is impacted by technology, including productivity, socializing, food and healthcare access, and transportation efficiency and safety. The power of the internet has facilitated the emergence of international communities and made it easier to exchange information and resources.

In my personal life, I can say that I am thankful and grateful for technology. Being a student, I have found that technology helps with convenient communication, the healthcare sector improved its efficiency and still is, information is easier to access, progress in medicine, and better learning opportunities. However, being a student also comes with negative impacts to technology. Social media and mobile gadgets may cause psychological problems as well as physical problems including eyestrain and trouble focusing on crucial tasks. Although we use technology to advance our studies and utilize it to our benefit, it becomes a distraction just as well as it helps us. Additionally, they might exacerbate more severe medical issues like depression. Children and teenagers who are still developing may be more negatively impacted by excessive usage of technology. As we saw in the video titled, Mad World Remix of Moby Video (Are You Lost In The World Like Me), we see firsthand how Moby reacts to technology and more specifically social media. We see his mental health completely deteriorate as he gets more consumed in the world of technology. 

Although I am grateful for what technology has brought me, I feel as though I do not have a great relationship with technology. I rely on technology for all of my studies, I am distracted by technology when I shouldn’t be, and I can’t create real and authentic ideas without backing up my findings with technology. In an article named, Four Ways Technology has Negatively Changed Education, it is proven that “68% of surveyed teachers admit that digital tools make students take shortcuts, instead of investing any effort in writing, 67 % report students have difficulty reading and comprehending complicated texts, and 46 % say digital tools make students write fast and carelessly.” This quote helps me better understand the numbers of how I feel about my relationship with technology. 

Along with this, I believe that I spend too much time on technology, specifically my cellular device. We have become equipped to check our phones so consistently and can even wire our computers with the notifications we get on our phones for when we don’t have our phones in hand. For example, in class, I can’t say it isn’t tempting to look at when we have it at our fingertips. Technology leads me to not retain information in class and hurts my education. When asked if I think technology is making me smarter, I would say no due to the fact that it disconnects us from the real world. On top of this, we can never guarantee that the information we see and gain from technology is real. We all see, read, and watch what we want to and what we believe in. The information we see is most definitely misleading and gives us unreliable information. I am not oblivious, however, to what technology has given us. We now have access to a far greater range of knowledge because of technological improvements. Knowledge has also, in some ways, "democratized." Online information is accessible to almost everyone and can even be shared. We also know that since anyone can post anything online, there is no way to guarantee the quality of the information. Most of the time, the accuracy of material found online has not been verified. Not every website is made equally. They differ in terms of prejudice, intent, and quality. 

In saying this, we can assume that it has become a part of our society to believe what we see online. We have begun to accept what we see and find through technology. Everything we read, view, or share online is a fabrication. This is among the most significant justifications for not believing everything you read or see online. What you want to see is what the internet and social media are displaying to society. It presents information to you in a way that may cause us to become fixated on our screens.

It is more than just me who is affected by technology. Between friends and family, we have all become fixated and reliant on technology and what we gain or lose from it. As mentioned before, there are studies that have made us realize that all of society accepts the fake news we get from our advertisements, the internet, and social media. We all have a major online presence that affects so many others to join the unfortunate path that we have fallen victim to. This relates to data protection, terrorism, crime, complexity, privacy issues, social isolation, workload excess, manipulating digital media, and unstable employment.

Mentioning unstable employment, we all can agree we have googled ourselves at least once in our lifetime. It makes you think about what employers may think to look for when hiring you. Luckily, I have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to what I put on the internet. However, I know that not everyone is as lucky and there are some who have made mistakes in what they post on social media. Not only would they post themselves, but also what others post of them for the world to see. In college students, specifically, we find that underage drinking and profanity are posted on social media, and with one click of a finger, employers can see these faults and struggle to hire that student. Personally, I use Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Facebook. All of these social media programs promote my lifestyle and I am not afraid to say that I love that aspect of social media applications. For the friends and family that live across the country, or who I don’t see as often as I would like, I love knowing that they can see what I am up to and I love being able to see that from their posts as well. However, I have given these social media applications so much information that I am not proud of. Each of these applications has my email and phone number which other people on these programs can find. So much of my information and internal life can be seen by people who are also a part of the social media community who I don’t know. This aspect of social media will always be unsettling.

        In conclusion, the technological advancements that we have made have brought our society so much. Technology teaches each individual who has access to it about an abundance of information that we may have never been able to have access to without the power of technology. Technology has altered how we entertain ourselves, interact with one another, and consume various forms of media. As we have also seen, technology can become so consuming to the average person that it can negatively impact us as well.  For example, it can be a distraction, we have become reliant on technology, mental health deterioration, and unstable employment due to what we post and it has taught our society to believe what we see online regardless of the reliability of it. Technology is not at all a bad thing, but what society needs to realize is that our relationship needs to change to lessen these negative impacts on such a powerful thing in our lives; technology.