Technology and Us

Technology is starting to consume our daily lives. We all use some form of technology constantly throughout the day, whether it is making a call on a cell phone or popping some food in the microwave. There is strong debate on whether this technological boom in today’s society has actually been beneficial or problematic to interactions and community. Many aspects of our lives have changed in even the past decade and overall I believe that technology as a whole has improved communication and community. However, I am not saying that all uses of technology have been improvements.

Community has drastically changed in the past several years thanks to technological advances. People can now connect with friends and family virtually anywhere on the planet. This allows people to keep friendships and keep family members informed on family matters even from long distances. Social wellbeing of individuals has been improved by this advancement. Thanks to cellular phones people can now be contacted wherever they are throughout the day. This is beneficial especially in case of emergencies and other less dire circumstances. People can also now interact with and meet way more people with social networking sites like facebook, myspace, and even youtube. These sites can help join people with common interest together no matter how far away they may be. Information is also so easily accessible in today’s society. It is much easier to search for specific information to improve learning.

Technology also has some down sides to counter the up sides. Cell phones are helpful in many ways; however being able to be reached at any time can be a problem. Cell phones have made life, for some, more hectic, stressful, and at a faster pace. Everyone knows a person who seems to have a cell phone glued to their ear at all times. These people may be making business calls or doing something else that may be important, but it is also important to be able to relax everyday and enjoy life. I believe that there are families that have suffered from the over use of technology. Kids constantly on the computer or playing video games and parents making important phone calls, decreases the amount of time spent together as a family and that can be extremely harmful to that family. I also mentioned earlier that people can now interact with much more people and make new friends thanks to technology. It can also be argued that technology has decreased the quality of friendships and that when it comes to friendship, quality is more important than quantity.

I believe technology has improved our ways of life greatly. I also believe that there are many people in this world that abuse technology and therefore turn it into something harmful. Those who use technology way too much and at inappropriate times can experience the downsides of technology. Just because we can chat online or on a cell phone, make friends online from different countries, and buy products online does not mean that we always should do that. It is usually better to interact with people face to face in a personal manner and have friends that you can see in person and interact with. It is also important to slow down every day and not let technology and this high speed life we live in be stressful. Technology can be very beneficial in helping build and create community between people when it is used in the right way.