The age of technology has affected the lives of every single person on the planet, whether they use technology and whether they are aware of it or not. Since the beginning of civilization humans have always tried to create easier and better ways to survive and communicate, and these past 50 years have been revolutionary for communicative technology. From Myspace and Facebook to Twitter and Snapchat, all these applications help inform and educate people, and force us to keep communicating in our own circles and constantly reach out to new circles. But, smart phones, apps and the technological revolution have also created a social revolution - a world where it’s acceptable to ignore people virtually and physically. Technology has made us more vocal, yet silences us at the same time.
The average American high school or college student probably has a smart phone that is attached to their hand. From the second they wake up their day revolves around their phone. From checking their text messages and emails, to notifications from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Snapchat and Groupme, it never stops. Because social media is a platform for constant and immediate communication, you can check it one minute but the next minute is almost guaranteed to be different and something new will pop up on your screen. If you don’t have social media in some circles, you don’t exist. It reinforces the “fomo” (or “fear of missing out”) culture, because there is almost no possibility of seeing everything, you would have to be on your phone 24/7, 365. This creates an addiction, to your phone and social media, and even though it’s only human to want to know what other people are up to, technology has made it an unhealthy obsession.
I believe that the two worst addictions in modern America are sugar and technology. Most people wouldn’t even consider these things something that people can be addicted to, but in my opinion these two addictions determine modern American reality. Unfortunately, most young people are addicted to their phones, just like a drug addict is addicted to a drug. Even the thought of losing our phone, makes us go into a panic attack. We resort to extreme emotional and physical reactions that have become part of our nature, we don’t even seem to be able to control ourselves.
Just like a movie might give the audience an escape from their lives, social media is a distraction from reality by the constant bombardment of other people’s reality. People turn to their phones for comfort. When they want to be entrained, when they care about someone or something, when they are frustrated or bored and especially when they feel uncomfortable. Being on your phone symbolizes that you have things to do and people to talk to; that you’re popular and busy. It also feeds our own laziness, which ironically makes us more antisocial. Talking requires a lot of energy and to some might seem stressful. You need to think of what you want to say, have the courage to say it, know who to say it to and respond to the way they reply. It’s a never ending circle of effort and judgment, and it seems like most youngsters just prefer not to raise their hand in class or make small talk with acquaintances. People tend to limit their quality conversations to the people they know very well and everyone else is simply off limits - too much effort goes into it, so they rather not.
But technology has positively affected the field of education and knowledge distribution. Now teachers can send emails to students updating them with information. Classes can have conversations and discussions on blogs, and virtual classrooms exist with debates through video chat and online seminars. The Internet gives students and individuals unlimited access to all the information that's ever existed. It’s hard to believe that my parents used to go to the library and sort through encyclopedias and dictionaries, when all I have to do is pull out my phone and ask it a question. I would hope that these opportunities would create a more informed society. But sometimes that doesn’t seem like the case, because a lot of social media is constructed by marketing teams and wealthy companies.
I have no doubt that the technological revolution has reinforced consumerism. Every marketing and advertising team of any product, service or company is having a good time pushing their products into popular social media platforms - really brainwashing people that they need to have certain products or associating products with a certain ideal lifestyle. Wealthy powerful people and companies are taking advantage of social media for pushing their own agendas. Even though social media was and is still giving power to the average everyday people, it also gives a lot of power to the already very powerful.
As we begin to realize that social media has some pretty bad consequences, hopefully they will be addressed. We can’t stop the technological revolution from happening and continuing to happen, because it is saving lives and helping people. But we need to start to reform it, because it’s causing a culture of quantity over quality, and depriving us of basic necessary social and important cognitive functions.
