Topic > Technology has taken over society

Technology has made progress over the years. So much so that today's society has started using it on a daily basis. Technology is the use of techniques, skills; it is a higher system for solving problems. We depended on it to a point in life where we became lazy. If you asked someone if they could live without technology, they would probably say no. I believe that society depends on technology because people, like me, use technology for simple tasks that can be done simply by using the human mind. Society's reliance on technology can cause mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, lack of communication skills and memory problems. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Society has been negatively affected by technology from the time it first advanced to the present day. In the past, people didn't have technology on a bright screen or social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The only way to communicate with others was to write letters and mail them or drive to see each other, but in the present you can contact your loved ones through emails or texts. At the time it was only used to solve problems like building the light bulb. Some of the Internet's intentions are good, but some are not. Nowadays technology has transformed from being useful to something we cannot fully explain or power ourselves. Today's technology has consumed our lives. Society has become heavily dependent on its devices to make life simple and easy. This is seen, for example, by teenagers who become addicted to their phones. They purchase products from Amazon and the websites that deliver them, including food. Families would not be the same if technology advanced to a higher level in the future; jobs will be lost and more families will have to fend for themselves. As a teenager, you get to that stage where nothing seems to matter except technology like a phone or a computer. Some of my friends are told by their family members that they use technology all the time and can't do without it; some denied using the phone too much. In fact, the average American spends five hours a day using devices like computers and phones, and another four and a half hours watching television. The average person checks their phone approximately 150 times a day. We were born into a generation where everything we were taught came from the TV, computer and phone. We don't know any better, so we depend on or become attached to technology. According to the source Emerging Trends in Psychology: Tech Dependency, "Symptoms of attachment always include the need to sleep with a device or have it more within reach." The Internet is one of the most powerful technological tools the world has ever had. With the Internet people can communicate at a much faster speed than with mail. The world has become so accustomed to being on the phone that if the technology somehow stops working, we will have to deal with the sensation of communicating face-to-face with others. The article on how technology can affect social skills states that technology “can make us less aware of the actual physical world around us.” Having the ability to communicate with others is an important aspect of our lives. The Classical Academy website states that “lack of basic telephone skills contributes to an inability to articulate or explain anything with depth of thought and feeling and requires a back-and-forth connection.” [Like technology] Communications ofbasic include eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, posture and space between individuals. It seems like the more you use technology the more impatient you become. As the article How Technology Affects Your Social Skills states, “human attention span shrinks from 12 seconds to eight seconds over more than a decade.” Communication helps build friendships and find jobs. Technology can create social isolation. For some people, online communication replaces face-to-face communication, reducing the time they spend in the presence of other humans. Social media replaces strong social connections with others with boring social connections, which leads to situations where a person may initially have a large number of “friends,” later leading to having fewer “friends.” A student at Huntington University, Lucas Lengacher, conducted a study to see how many times people pick up their phone every day; when people use their device most often and which applications the user used most often during the day by making them download this app called RescueTimes. Lengacher's findings state that "nearly 60% of people felt disconnected from others when on the phone, and 88% of people felt disconnected at dinner because of who they were eating with while using their phone." When you use technology so much and start to depend on it, it can cause a mental disorder called depression. Depression and feelings of loneliness can occur when there is a lack of communication. Signs of depression can occur when a person doesn't get "likes" on a photo or doesn't respond to text messages. When this happens, a person may feel like they are unloved or too repulsive to look at. People tend to lean on technology and take it wherever they go to avoid embarrassing situations. Anxiety or stress can occur in situations where you cannot access your phone. You start to sweat excessively; you feel like your heart is beating out of your chest, everything seems to shut down, you feel like you're going to cry because you have no control of what's to come. Society is not only attached to technology; they also appear to have symptoms of a neurological problem known as digital dementia. As in Jessica Gwinn's article, Overuse of Technology Can Lead to "Digital Dementia," "Digital dementia is a term used to describe how excessive use of digital technology results in the breakdown of cognitive abilities." Some symptoms include anxiety, lack of movement, depression, balance disorders, anger and uncoordinated movement patterns. This can be reversed by simply using your brain and doing activities that don't involve technology. My mother always said, “Teenagers are always on their phones. When I was young, we didn't have to worry about any of that social media stuff. Gwinn also states in his article that teenagers are not the only ones who use too much technology. “A good number of adults are capable of using technology; constant connection and excessive use of technology which can lead to lateralization of brain functions, meaning the brain suffers from imbalance. One could argue that the technology has had good results and that the effects flow from it. It can help people educate themselves. Mickeel Allen, author of Technological Influence on Society, said how the Internet can help people engage with the material they are learning and what they are struggling with by giving them access to other resources. The article also states that since information can be retrieved at a rate of twenty-four hours, this simplifies students' schoolwork..