People spend more time with technology than they spend time with their own families. Technology helps us in our daily activities. However, some teenagers overuse technology. Some stay on the computer longer than needed. Others may talk on the telephone for long periods. While we might not be fully aware of it, technology greatly impacts our daily life. Modern technology has had positive effects on the social abilities of today’s youth. However, when teens use it to block out the normal events of daily life, technology becomes a negative influence upon them.
The social impacts of technology help people be whom they want on the Internet, so they can just be themselves without being judged face-to-face. The Internet can help online relationships that form between people who are too self-conscious to interact socially outside of technology. Even though online relationships might take longer to form, over time they can become as strong as those face-to-face relationships. For example, “The Internet can create openness, self-confidence, and a greater sense of ease and comfort in dealing with others” (Coget and Yutaka 1).
I agree that people probably do use technology more than spending time with their families. But, sometimes using technology instead of spending time with the people you love causes stress and depression. For it states, “Data showed that as people in this sample used the Internet more, they reported keeping up with fewer friends. They also reported spending less time talking with their families and experiencing more daily stress, and feeling more lonely and depressed” (Affonso 1).
Music is just a harmless vibe, right? Wrong! Music is starting to have damaging effects on our world today. Music is very appealing to one’s ears, but it shouldn’t take over your social life. When you’re listening to an iPod, some people see that as a major turnoff. You are pretty much saying, “Don’t talk to me.” In Song’s article, she proposed that “Visible from a good distance away, white earphones signal one thing to most people: don’t bother trying to talk to me” (Song 1).
The Internet is an amazing advantage in life because it helps us so very much! But, is it really all that great when spending time with you family and friends can be threatened? Non-Internet users spend more time with their families and friends because they don’t get engulfed in the love of technology, like those who are Internet lovers and are on there 24/7. In comparison of Non-Internet and reoccurring Internet users “Non-Internet spend 287.4 minutes per day with their families and 94.2 minutes per day with their friends. Internet users spend 185.0 minutes per day with their families and 59.8 minutes per day with their friends. The difference in time spent with their families and friends between Non-internet and Internet users is -102.4 and -34.3” (Nie and Hillygus 1).
Postman states, “…technologies…work against the learning of what are called “social values…” (Postman 1). The use of technology has changed people’s awareness of their surroundings. Personal greetings and conversations between friends are being thrown to the side as the use of technology increases.
According to Affonso’s reasoning “…Internet use leads to small but statistically significant increases in misery and loneliness and a decline in overall psychological well being” (Affonso 1). This excessive use of technology leads to the exclusion of others in your life and can ultimately lead psychological imbalance.
On the other hand, one person states in Harris’ article “‘some people talk about iPods being an is an isolated thing…here you’ve got a setup where individuals use a personal technology and make it a social event,’ Johnny said” (Harris 1). Even though some people use technology to encourage social events, people of diverse tastes come and attend them.
The difference in Non-Internet users and Internet users during social activities is that “Non-Internet users spend an average of 49.5 minutes per day in social activities as compared to 36.9 minutes per day for Internet users” (Nie and Hillygus 1). Non-Internet users have more time to have a social life or go to social activities than Internet users.
Modern technology has positive and negative effects on the social abilities of our youth today. Everyone in the world should care about this topic about the use of technology today because it is here to stay. The use of technology is affecting the lives of our youth and can start to change them in ways that we can’t even imagine. As technology increases in popularity, our dependence upon it grows.