The 21st century has led to technology becoming the dominant form of interaction, communication, and entertainment for people all over the world. Growing up in this era, technology has always been a big part of my life. I have to watch old films or read books written in the past to truly understand a world that was not dominated by machines. It has become almost impossible to avoid technology. If you do not use it, you are missing out on so much society has to offer. According to Datareportal, 4.88 billion people around the world use the internet. That means 62% of the world is online, a number that would have seemed crazy twenty years ago. However, it has to be asked if this is good how much we are using technology? Are we becoming too dependent on technology to the point where if we were to lose it for a week we would cease to exist as a society? Yes and no. Technology has opened up communication between people all over the world, forming friendships and bringing people together. It has also emboldened an online toxic culture where we can say whatever we want to people behind a keyboard and face no consequences for it.
My relationship with technology is a complicated one. I love it, but I also hate it. I love being able to take my phone, which serves as a telephone, camera, and computer all at once everywhere I go. It is awesome to be able to do school work and look up any information I need on a computer. I can watch a football game on a massive-sized television, giving me the illusion I am actually at the stadium. According to techjury, people check their phones around 63 times a day. On average we spend 5.4 hours on our phones daily. This is just our phones. If we include other technologies, such as computers and television, the time we spend with technology is much worse. I am not going to lie and say I am not like this. I am on my phone a lot throughout the day. I use the computer several times a day. To be honest, as I am writing this blog, I am watching football. There is no way this is healthy. The CDC says that only 23 percent of Americans are exercising enough. If we did not have all of this really cool technology right at our fingertips, that number would be much lower. I do not exercise enough and technology has a lot to do with that. Technology also affects my relationship with school. I get my work done and turned in on time. However, I would get it done much quicker if I was not distracted by my phone. Phones affecting how school work is done do not just impact me. Earlier this year I worked at a community center with students learning online because of Covid. I tutored students from first grade through eighth grade. All of them, except for the first graders, had phones and would use them while listening to their teachers. Technology has created a world where it is ok for second graders to be on their phones when they should really be developing as students.
It is hard to know what the balance should be for the amount of time we use technology. If I were to make a pact to stop using technology so much it would be hard for me to function. I cannot leave my phone at home when I go out. It serves as my map for getting around. If there were an emergency that needed to be taken care of, I would not know about it if I left my phone at home. Technology is also how we stay informed about what is going on in the country and around the world. We do not have to wait for a newspaper or watch tv to hear the news. Our phones give us access to news quickly. A study from Pew revealed that eight out of ten Americans get news from digital devices. This gives power to social media apps and news sources to present the news in a way that benefits the people they want it to benefit. Google and Facebook have been known to manipulate the algorithms to highlight stories to readers that support their causes. Technology becomes another way for the people in control to manipulate us. I do not think there is a way to stop this problem. Some people do not care that they are being manipulated by technology. Other people support what these companies are doing and hope they do it even more aggressively than they are now. Unless people stop using these social media apps or websites and it begins to hurt these companies’ bottom lines, nothing will change.
Technology does not just affect the individual, it affects our family and friends. The smartphone has given us a tool to communicate with people we care about wherever they are in the world. We can see what they post on Facebook or Instagram and feel like we were there with them. I am able to stay in touch with people I went to high school with through what they are posting online. Skype, FaceTime, and Zoom let us have face-to-face interaction with individuals or groups of people anywhere at any time. Technology has allowed some of my family members to work from home. They can do everything they need to do on the computer or on the phone. Unfortunately, the same issues that apply to me happen with friends and family. They to can become addicted to technology. Some of my friends seem like they are always online. That is not good for either their physical or mental health. Technology can divide us. The country is more politically divided than at any other time before. I have gotten into arguments with people over different political opinions. This is caused by who we follow and what websites we get our information from. In my opinion, the divide is going to become even greater. Social media is only going to make us more steadfast in our views, to the point where there could be no room for civil discussion in the future.
While I use technology as a tool for communication and entertainment, I limit what and how often I post online. The internet is not going anywhere. Everything we say will be documented in history. We can try to delete something, but it will never truly go away. I do not want to say something that will get me in trouble so I try not to say anything at all. I also like to keep my opinions to myself. I do not really care what other people my age have to say about issues happening in the world and I am sure they do not care what I have to say either. If I were to say something stupid, it could have disastrous consequences. Over the years there have been countless examples of people getting in trouble for what they said on social media in the past. An example of this is Josh Hader. He is a baseball pitcher who got in trouble for things he said in high school ten years earlier. What he said was terrible and he should have to answer for what he said. I am using this story to show how people will find what you said in the past and make you answer for it. I have and will continue to be careful with what I post online as I do not want what I say online to negatively affect me or my family.
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