How Technology Negatively Changed Our Approach to Life - Essay Sample

Introduction

Technology advancement has assisted our way of life, making the approach of doing things to become more accessible and faster. However, there are some aspects of technology that have damaged our society regarding our lifestyles. The work by Paul Goldberger on Our Cell Phones, Our Disconnected Selves, "The Flight From Conversation," authored by Sherry Turkle and Christine Rosen's "The Myth of Multi-Tasking" all agree that technology has negatively impacted the society. Therefore, this work explains how technology advancement, especially in the electronic media, has negatively changed our lifestyles. Although the electronic media has improved, the effectiveness of relaying information in a quick manner technology has also, continued to become damage to society.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The first point to note is that the advancement in technology, for instance, social media has pushed us away from each other and the personal connections have been lost. The link is lost because social media can be used by other individuals to hurt the feelings of others. Sherry offers an example of a family having a family dinner and each of the family members concentrated in their phone. Dinner time is a time where all the family members should hang out and have a personalized communication with one another. A real verbal conversation offers a practical aspect and gives a family a great relationship. Using an internet provides a good way of communication but cannot offer real human relationships over the internet. Also, Paul Goldberger explains that there is a minimal encouragement relating to having a connection with a place and the reality of a situation when using a mobile phone. A relationship happens when you are in a particular place; for instance, if you are in a beach one feels the desire to connect with the sand and beach water. Therefore, a cell phone cannot offer a connection or personal experience of a place or a person (Goldberger).

Another negative point to note is that the advancement in technology has facilitated is that real-time conversations are more likely to diminish. Every individual during this period lives in their bubble less likely to begin a conversation using eye contact, meaning that the society is losing. Also, children nowadays can't communicate effectively with one another. The guardians are concentrating more on their internet conversations and end up forgetting they should teach their children how to start a discussion. A way of acquiring great friendships or relationships over recent years has come to an end since humans lost their social aspect of communication. People got too much attached to the internet and its way of communication. Every person is afraid of being alone, and the internet offered the confinement if feeling that you are in a group but you are alone. Therefore, even though people are living in the same space, no one truly cares about the other person real welfare (Turkle). Our current lifestyle allows us to fight the non-verbal conversations it the social media.

Consequently, technology advancements have posed a dangerous threat when driving or when operating machinery. Rosen's "The Myth of Multi-Tasking explains that various studies done have indicated that there are cases of fatalities associated with individuals multitasking accessing the internet or using their cell phones. The situation has become severe that some states have made it illegal for multitasking while driving. In the work areas, the concerns about time management are numerous resulting from the cases of distractions arising from social media. The social media actions which result in multi-tasking might take a negative impact on the economy. A study done by the University of California as explained by Rosen shows that the employees used around 25 minutes to adapt after taking or responding to a call, email or even a text. They take time before returning to performing the initial task (Rosen). Therefore, the impact is negative relating to the worker's input in their work and their effectiveness at the workplaces.

Conclusion

In conclusion, technological advancements have facilitated a change in the way people communicated plus also the relationships and friendships we have. Although people can maintain a long distance relationship using a social media communication system, it is not a real relationship and would not last long. Links that are through the internet which are non-verbal are not really due to the invisibility factor and the distance level having a short term impact. Consequently, negative technological impacts include the loss of the ability of young people to communicate in a public place. Multitasking when handling machinery or driving has proven to cause fatalities, since, most people when driving are likely to cause an accident. The multitasking arises with the desire of a person to receive a call, respond to an email or a chat. We should look for better methods of ensuring we come up with a personalized communication since we might lose our values to social media access and connection means we currently have.

Works Cited

Goldberger, Paul. "Paul Goldberger: Our Cell Phones, Our Disconnected Selves". Metropolis,2016, https://www.metropolismag.com/ideas/paul-goldberger-cell-phones-disconnectedselves/.

Rosen, Christine. "The myth of multitasking." The New Atlantis 20 (2008): 105-110.

Turkle, Sherry. "The flight from conversation." The New York Times 22 (2012).