Technology is big part of people’s everyday lives. Teenagers, in particular, rely on their phones for communication, homework help and entertainment. In the working atmosphere, people use computers for almost everything that they do– whether it is sending e-mails, writing memos or simply creating and checking their daily schedules.
Although technology has some positive uses, there are also a number of negatives. People become obsessed with technology.
Phones and computers seem to be the main problem.
Personally, I can attest to this problem. After getting an iPhone 4, I have been attached to it ever since. It seems like it can do everything–take pictures, text, call, tweet, listen to music and more.
However, technology also has a dangerous side — addiction. That’s right, people can actually become addicted to their phones. It may sound silly, but what people don’t realize is that it is just as harmful as, say, an addiction to smoking.
Because we can now be reached at all times of the day, the use of phones have grown to have no boundaries. Some people’s compulsion is so strong that, if they get a text message at 3 a.m. on a school night, they have to answer it right then.
Courtney Moore, a senior at Leesville, is an example of someone who uses their phone often. “I use my phone between classes, when I wake up, before I go to sleep, right when I get in the car… Basically anytime I get a chance to look at it.”
The fact that people become so attached can also, in some ways, make them anti-social. Social networks give people a false sense of friendship and security. They can say whatever they want behind a computer screen and sit there for hours; however, when it comes to interacting with people, they don’t know how to act.
“I had to stop using Twitter,” says Moore. “People get too wrapped up in it. My whole life started to revolve around Twitter and all my problems were related to it.”
Also, apps such as Instagram have both a positive and negative affect. The positive is that it provokes a sense of empathy, in a way– by clicking “like” on a photo, you are essentially being empathetic to that person.
The downside to this, however, is when people go overboard. Someone posting pictures of themselves multiple times a day can lead to narcissistic behavior.
The brain is shaped by everything that we do on a day-to-day basis. If all we do is sit in front of computer and phone screens, how will that affect us in the future?
“Electronic devices … have an impact on the micro-cellular structure and complex biochemistry of our brains,” says Proffessor Susan Greenfield (via dailymail.co.uk), neuroscientist at Oxford University. “The modern world could well be altering our human identity.”
This is a scary thought. The world is constantly changing and evolving, which is a good thing; however, I see it as incredibly dangerous to rely on technology for so much. What would happen if everything technological stopped working at one time?
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