Technology Argument Development Technologies

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity,” stated Albert Einstein. The German mathematician and physicist believed that, though he encouraged the development of technology, it was beginning to consume those addicted to using it as a whole along with their humanity. This in a sense would mean that people were beginning growing into the habit of always relying on such advances. All around the world the use of technology is known to have a significant effect on time and its people who are exposed to the use of it. Technological advances have benefited the society by making laborious tasks inadequately facil. Not only has it revolutionized aspects of society, but it also has become to be apart of people's souls. Technology created a sense of dependence to the point where people were isolated from their peers and more focused on the screen in front of them.

Although technology is known for connecting people with one another through a device, it limits face-to-face interaction in which people fail to understand true emotion through. As technology has become apart of daily lives, many people forget the world around them and rather focus on the one in their hands. This asset has become natural in society to the point that it's something that people react to as an instinct and don’t even realize they’re doing it. It is instances like these that would lead to the loss of interaction, in turn leading to depression, anxiety, and other mental discrepancies. Statistics show that in 2017, more than half a million of eighth graders around the age of 12 were showing high levels of depression and anxiety due to different situations and addictions to social media (Miller Caroline).

Technology is known to be an addiction tool to the point where people don’t pay attention to those right in front of them. This loss of communication not only prohibits social connections, but it also increases the negativity that the person addicted to the device is facing. Along with this, those dependent on a cellular device face a short term problem within the device which would affect them long term as most internet relationships and friendships fade away. Technology has shown significant discrepancies in society in which everyone is affected whether it be a positive or negative effect. Susan Tardanico of Forbes published a article entitled “Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication?” in which she expresses the concerns of how technology fails to demonstrate any emotion when people are using it as a means to communicate, for example, text messaging. What many people do not understand is that even though the use of social media and technology in general allows us to make a connection from great distances with the outside world, it does not express the true affection and sentiment as compared to a physical interaction.

One of the mothers that Tarandico was speaking to about the usage of technology tells her story to exemplify the truth of how technology does not, and never will, express true emotion no matter how many emoticons are used. Sharon Seline (the mother) was having a conversation with her daughter over text messages, in which Seline thought that her daughter was normal and happy as she was using general content emoticons. This is was proved wrong when the same night her daughter attempted suicide from spending all day in her room crying. Prior to her suicide attempt she was demonstrating signs of depression which was something that Seline did not catch from her texts. This shows that even though Seline’s daughter sounded perfectly content over a few text messages, in reality she was feeling the exact opposite. Not only is there living proof of how technology does not convey the reality of sentimentality, but there is also a statistical study showing that little to no aspects of technological communication demonstrates some medium of emotion.

Likewise, due to communication over a cellular device being used more frequently, people are losing their vocabulary along with the potential loss of expression.  Maura Keller, author of “Social Media and Interpersonal Communication,” holds her position of technology having pessimistic effects as she described how interactions over a cellular device on social media are not as strong as connections made in real life. Keller uses Paul Booth, a holder of a PhD and an assistant professor of human communication studies at their local University to create a stem for her argument about technology about how the use of technology not only changed the way people communicate, but also changed the amount of times people communicate and whether or not there is any true sentimental meaning to doing so over a device. Keller speaks about how observations and the studies that Booth and her conducted on students at their local University react to such situations, where they noticed that the majority of the students would rather text and email than meet face to face.

Another common response they noticed was when students were together with one another, they didn’t seem to acknowledge anything other than the device in their hands, ultimately preventing them from any interaction with their peers. This would make people lack the ability to actually practice communication skills in society. According to scientific studies done by Melissa Nilles, the author of “Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction,” shows that people are so self involved with their technological devices, that they fail to discern the reality around them. As they ignore reality they do not realize that majority of online relationships do not last. Nilles writes about psychologist-anthropologist Robin Dunbar who conducted a study on about 150 people showing that the majority of them (about a 100) are limited to a certain number of stable, supportive connections with others in their social network which didn’t last long. In the end of this study those who did depend on networks and the internet to keep their friendships alive, lost almost all except maybe one or two who they still would barely speak to.

This study showed that those people who depended on social media and online networks to keep them connected did not last very long. The study conducted exemplifies that more than 50% of those who had online friends, had fallen apart with them through communication with a cellular device. Although the internet can still connect with others like never before, it is not meant to keep a friendship or any other humane aspect alive for long before allowing it to fade away. This is because due to interactions over the internet real emotion is not clearly resembled to actually understand what the other person is trying to vocalize. There are those who believe that the use of technology actually does resemble positive effects on a person as it connects them in some way, if not at all, but there are others who believe that technology disconnects people from physical reality.

Though technology has many negative effects, Janelle Cox, the author of “Benefits of Technology in the Classroom” argues that the use of technology has influenced and created a positive impact on children regarding education. In statistics that she includes with her writing it states, '74 percent of educators surveyed said technology is key to helping them expand on classroom content; the same percentage said technology is a motivational tool.” Cox proves her point that not only does technology help children and students feel more engaged, but it also increases their capability of remembering information and understanding it better. Furthermore, it is known that students would be more intrigued in the learning content being displayed and they would also be able to connect to whatever they’re learning to assimilate it at a more comfortable pace as the screen is right in front of them. With these claims she was able to prove how technology is a helpful asset to students inside and outside of the classroom.

Overall, it may be said that technology as a whole may have somewhat of a positive effect on society, but the negative effects outweigh them. This is because even though technology does connect people from different places and areas, it still does not hold the same value as a face-to-face interaction would. Technology, although useful when in need of communication, lacks the ability to convey emotion through words on a screen. With this advance in society, it is said to create several side effects of addiction, depression, and anxiety. Not only are these side effects from the excessive use of technology, but it also prevents people from actually connecting with the environment around them. Without people actually making a effort to interact with those around them, they would be unable to communicate in the future and ultimately feel a lack of the social stature that humans are based upon.

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