Imagine a world full of people who are glued to their technological devices and oblivious to the present life.Let's take a moment to stop and think about how many times we tend to check our smartphones, post a status or upload a photo. For me this would be roughly five hours a day which means that I unconsciously dedicate five hours of my present life to a screen when really those hours could be dedicated to spending time with family and friends or reading a book. Many people tend to claim that technology has benefitted our lives for the better however, what they don’t see is the fact that it has taken away the most valuable part of our lives which is human interaction. It seems as if we as millennials, are becoming more comfortable with being alone while being connected 24/7. The irony behind it is that technological platforms claim to have a social network that keeps us all connected but really we are more lonely than ever. This is because the constant need to compare our lifestyles online, the loss of basic communication skills and the dependance on technology to avoid connecting with our self is leading our generation to forget human interaction and accept loneliness. We’ve all heard of the phrase “keeping up with the Jones” right? Well this phrase which refers to the competitiveness between people, has morphed into something huge due to the rise of social media. The introduction of technology has opened up many doors and one of them is the idea of social comparisons.
Humans seem to no longer possess the ability to interact effectively with others in person and technician Ms. Gray’s anecdote about her daughter suggests the same predicament. I, myself, am a victim of technology, but I acknowledge the fact that I’ve allowed to overcome my life. Like Ms. Gray said, “[technology] is a double-edged sword.” (The New York Times) Technology can either help or hurt us, but again contingent upon our own actions. Richtel discusses how humans are losing the ability to acknowledge and identify social cues. Caciappo in “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” uses two situations to convey his point. People can use Facebook to organize social events or people can go on Facebook to escape social events. People blame technology for destroying people but it’s the same instance with guns and violence. Do guns kill people, or do people kill people? Does technology kill social interactions or do people’s lack of strong will kill social interactions? Indirectly, technology affects happiness because it slyly suppresses the one aspect that makes us human; free will. People surrender their free will to technology which gives it the infamous title of socializing
“...between 2005 and 2012, 35% of the couples marrying in the US had met online” (González). The internet is used in many ways such as, communicating, posting status updates, and discovering new information. People most commonly argue the internet to be the source of loneliness and depression, whereas others say that it generates more relationships and friends. Electronic devices, such as mobile phones and laptops are utilized in everyday life, whether it be for work, school, personal matters, and in many other ways. It helps promote interactivity and involvement in a community, where you are not alone. It also permits transparent discussions, between friends, family, and others, that are beneficial in everyday life worldwide. Technology does not make us more alone as it gives people the opportunity to meet new people, supplements communications, and aids those who are already lonely.
What will we be like if we continue to develop intimate relationships with our devices? Will we be more connected than ever, or more alienated? In “Can You Hear Me Now?”, by Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology, argues that technology has made people more connected, but has also made us more alienated from each other. How now, when in public people mostly want to be alone with their personal networks, or devices. People used to talk to one other as they waited in line, or rode on the bus or subway. Now we spend that downtime checking emails, responding to messages, or scrolling through our social media feed. Turkle says, “People become alienated from their own experience and anxious about watching a version of their lives scrolling along faster than they can handle” (p. 508). Our devices are increasingly becoming a part of us, an extension of our mind. Turkle does an amazing job at showing her case by stating evidence that is very relatable, along with real life examples, and feelings that her audience has felt while dealing with their devices.
Without our digital devices, do you think we would last a day without being bored to death? The answer would probably be a “No”. The reason being that we depend too much on our devices. Technologies is very seductive, especially when what it has to offer meets our human vulnerabilities. We, as human beings, are very lonely and network is very seductive. Our network life allows us to hide from those we do not wish to see. We are increasingly demanding and expecting more from technology while demanding less from those around us, like our family, friends, and colleagues. While technologies does help us explore who we are, the world around us and makes us more knowledgeable, it is taking away what we once called interaction. In the book, Alone
Ever since technology began so prominent in the modern world, can anyone remember going outside for more than 30 minutes and not see a cell phone or computer? Probably not, as these pieces of technology have become so ingrained in people’s lives, no one wants to leave their home without still being connected. And there is no reason to, as friends, family, and strangers share the same sentiments. Unplugging from technology is not only a decision people don’t make for personal reasons, it simply isn’t conducive to a productive life, as many people’s work and social lives wouldn’t be the same, if exist at all, without being connected to other people or the internet with just a single touch.
The Impact of Technology on Human Interaction Picture this: you are walking into a busy coffee shop, filled with the buzz of conversation and the scent of freshly brewed coffee. Everyone seems to be connected, but they are lost in their phones and laptops. But beneath the surface, there's a feeling of disconnection because people are not interacting or talking as much as people would be for the age of the iPhone. Sherry Turkle talks about this lack of belonging in her essay, “Connectivity and Its Discontents,” by looking at how our constant use of communicative technologies can actually make us feel more disconnected from others. She shows us how our use of technology might actually be making us feel more alone.
Technology abolishes human interaction with one another. Human interaction becomes less frequent as technology advances. Many people have access to technology. For instance, walk into a diner, or a fast food restaurant, and then discover a group of people at a table all on their electronic devices. People need to be more aware of how technology is affecting the relationships among people. People are going to lose their friendships because they failed to separate their cyber life from their social life.Melissa Nilles describes her experience as a nightmare that was actually reality. In the “nightmare,” she lost many opportunities because of being attached to her cellular device.
Now day’s kids sit in front of a screen in their room for hours talking into a mic, talking to some random person they found online. Not only do we see this happen on TV with the main characters little brother, but also when we walk in the door of our own house. There was a TED talk that I recently watched where the speaker was a mom and her daughter had invited some friends over to hang out, but what she actually meant was turn and stare at a phone. As what Sherry Turkle said, “And what I've found is that our little devices, those little devices in our pockets, are so psychologically powerful that they don't only change what we do, they change who we are.” What she says is that we cannot survive without these little devices in our life. The ability of our social connection in real life is disappearing. For example, when they hang out with each other in person it’s not face to face anymore, it’s back to back, they text each other instead of talking. Some might say we are running from our problems with the help of technology. When you have an issue with someone you don’t want to come right out and confront them because you don’t know how they will react, so you text them. But when you do this you don’t put any emotions into it, maybe a few exclamation points and a sad face, then ending the heated text message with a heart, but in the end did you really get your point a crossed to them or did you just tell them that whatever they did make you a little sad and you won’t do anything about it, giving them the chance to do whatever they did again. Technology is breaking us down as people. (SO
With technology absorbing every moment of people’s lives and the utter rejection of social relationships, people become alienated. Although
In order for humans to be social, we must take action. Over the years, technology has been blamed for poor human interaction skills.My grandma is always bugging us about the technology that we use,she says that, “We hardly go outside.” This in fact is true, studies have proven how easily distracted we humans get with technology. Family gatherings have not been the same ever since mom bought you that new phone.Think about it, slowly but surely we are disconnecting ourselves from
In fact, she mentioned,it’s leaving us less human. Turkle has spent years researching the ways technology changes people, and has written a book entitled ‘’Alone Together,’’ in which she describes the disturbing trends.Technology appeals to us where we are most vulnerable.People are lonely but afraid of intimacy. And so from social networks to social robots, people are designing technologies that will give the illusion of companionship without demand of friendship.According to the a psychiatrist-Carl Jung, The founder of Analytical psychology,’’loneliness do not comes from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seemed important to
The focus of Byrne’s (2017) magazine article is how technology has influenced changes in social interaction with how much more isolated we have become because of it along with how technology may conflict with individual behavior in general. This article was written to inform readers interested in how our day-to-day use of apps and social media affects our behavior. Byrne shows this by giving examples of this through things like automated checkouts, social media, online ordering and home delivery, as well as others such as driverless cars (Byrne, 2017, p. 8-10). He also cites evidence from studies done by social sciences that show how extended amounts of time using social media can result in unhappiness and a reduced amount of time spent face-to-face.
Members of society understand, or at least have heard someone in their lives say, technology is becoming a distraction to the human population rather than an advancement. As technology has progressed, it has increasingly become a larger and more intergraded part of our everyday lives. Americans think that technology is huge today, but technology will be even more advanced in several decades. There are some clear positives to technology, such as the ease of long distances communication and the accessibility of entertainment. Despite those useful aspects and many others, there are many people that think technology has a negative effect on human interaction. The main concern many people are discussing is whether technology has negatively affected how humans socially interact. If those concerns are truly a problem, how can society fix them without stopping the advancement in technology.
“Little by little, Internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society.” (Melissa Nilles “Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction”) Because of technology, the interactions with other people have no meaning, and that we are no longer in touch with the world that we live in. Since technology makes it easier to connect and converse with friends, family, etc. it gives people the opportunity to avoid face to face interaction at all, which leads to isolation and loneliness. This is because as human beings, physical touch is something that we
Technology is there wherever you go in the world, whether it’d be the computer in your living room or the cell phone in your pocket. In fact, as of November 6 2016, it was estimated that 95% of all Americans have some kind of cellphone and 77% have a smartphone (pewinternet.org). But the real question is: does all this technology lead us to stray away from our friends and make us feel more lonely? Some might be led to believe so, with how many people are so dependant on technology, but the answer is no. In fact, technology actually helps us not feel lonely rather than doing so. Social media, the internet, and how we connect with each other is what makes technology helps us stay more connected with people rather than making us feel lonely.