Society's Changing Relationship with Technology
Technology is part of our everyday life. Whether it is in the morning when we wake up and retrieve our phones or how we communicate, work, and play, technology is everywhere. But is our relationship with technology healthy? Do we serve technology, or does technology serve us? The FUTURAMA pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair had shown us a utopian future of perfection where technology would be the cure, and disease would be eliminated from human beings. The show had presented us with such futuristic concepts as robot highways and high-tech skyscraper building plans, with technology redrawing the world. Technologically, in nearly every manner except a few, technology has already realized these dreams—unifying world citizens, improving medicine, and putting information at one's fingertips. The internet itself would be one of the greatest achievements of mankind, to be able to carry the whole compendium of all the knowledge in our pocket. Our "phones," if you can even call them that anymore, are advanced computers capable of doing tremendous things. (Wikipedia Article)
And with each advancement comes repercussions. It was with issues of cyberbullying, disinformation, and invasion of privacy as well. Social media, as lovely as it is to bring society together, has also been reported to be the cause of increased anxiety, depression, and even suicide in young people. Excessive use of social media has been reported to be bad for mental health since it has been shown that hours spent gazing at a computer screen by teens have higher subjective loneliness and lower self-esteem. (Yale Medicine Source) Looking back at my own technology experience, I would have to say that it is a demoralizing but fascinating experience. It makes me a part of everything and the world, and that is what it is supposed to do. But then sometimes I question whether I spend too much time on it. Am I addicted to the phone? Am I consuming too much information without questioning whether or not it is true? These are a few of the things that I believe everyone grapples with but learns to accept as a way of life in modern days. Looking at my friends and family, I see the advantages and disadvantages of technology. It keeps me accessible at a click's distance but generates distraction and isolation as well. Every conversation gets broken into pieces by messages, and genuine face-to-face talk takes a back seat sometimes. Other than this, stress caused by watching others post a new job or promotion on social networking platforms such as LinkedIn has also created a sense of inferiority among the youth, termed as "LinkedIn envy." (New York Post)
The second giant component of our relationship with technology is that we are online. An interview today doesn't begin when you enter a room—it begins when a potential employer Googles your name. What we have by way of online reputation is not disappearing, and it shapes people's attitudes toward us. There are more of us out there than we realize that can be accessed in the time it takes to find a Google search, so we need to keep an eye on control of our online life. As we all continue on with our evolving relationship with technology, the question remains: Is it enhancing our lives or controlling our lives? The answer is both and yes. Just like with any relationship, our relationship with technology must be one of openness, awareness, and balance between its benefits and its issues. Technology is neither good nor evil—it's an instrument. What we do with it will turn it into either our greatest feat or our largest issue
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