Technology is the ultimate human feat accomplished in the world. Mass communication, globalization, efficient and resourceful outlet(s) of information, organization of data, and feasible ways of completing your homework are the fruitful and beneficial results of this dynamic phenomenon. This is probably the utmost contemporary kind of ‘Columbian Exchange’ the world has ever reached. I mean, we have created a cyberspace that’s flowing with endless data, which we have been able to sustain and condense into computer files and USBs. How can we ever look down upon it? Social media would probably help explain that.

Yeah, I get that phrase ‘everybody’s a critic,' and this would include me. Thus, I do think we have to look into and ponder about how certain products of the technological era that we’re living in can hinder how we communicate. Feel free to argue against my opinion(s) as I may be ‘old-school’, but also consider other perspectives as well.

Take social media and networking, for example. In fact, that’s the main, principle example that I’m going to address. Very nice, very cool, and very useful. This can most certainly help get in touch with distant relatives and other people living farther away from you, in a way, compressing that geographic gap. However, it’s also likely that we as people have become obsessed with this particular aspect of technology to the point that we have become rather too self-centered, materialistic, and even detached from our real surroundings. Everywhere you go, you may usually witness people always on their phones. Even while they’ve got company, are attending an event, or engaging in conversation. Even as a means to trigger and conjure up a conversation. They will be updating the other person about a certain status or what they just posted on Facebook, they will be taking selfies while the other person is talking, or they will be engaging in their own personal bubble by tweeting or chatting with someone else. Isolation is a negative effect, as we tend to lose contact with other people in our lives. We are sucked into our own little bubble, gazing at the screen of our devices that we may actually be losing our social skills.

Where is the real fellowship? What’s so social about being on your phones constantly, almost unhealthily always in fact, when you’re so engrossed into the virtual reality that you can’t even grasp what’s going in the actual reality?

Furthermore, how many of your friends do you actually talk to online? How many times do you actually check to make sure that next profile picture is being ‘liked’ by your friends? How many times do you take a selfie and post the best one on Facebook? How many times do you utilize Snapchat just to notify everyone of what’s happening every second/minute/hour of your life? Why do we keep doing this so repetitively? It may be out of hobby, habit, or hyperactivity. And by hyperactivity, I refer to how much is occurring, or the amount of activity that is supposedly overdone or overstated, in one’s everyday life in this context.Social networking can also cost you your privacy. It’s as if we’re continuously inclined to share details of our lives, even the personal ones. People are vulnerable to having their information exposed as it could easily be found, especially when they display their location and where they’ve been or traveled to on Facebook or Twitter.Additionally, taking pictures and selfies have become such an obsession and mania that we tend to forget to enjoy living in the moment, as opposed to excessively capturing those moments for memories. This is a distraction, a disruption from what’s really going on around us.

Let’s move onto another product of technology that have had a noticeable impact. For instance, playing a lot of video games might have caused kids to spend more time indoors than playing outdoors, which can decrease their exposure to sports and exercise. According to some studies, the more often kids played video games, the more aggressive they became, thus dwindling their empathy.

I’m not saying that technology bringing upon social media and networking is completely bad. It’s useful and helpful in numerous ways. It’s great to chat with friends and relatives, especially when you’re apart by so much distance. It’s nice that we can simultaneously take pictures, research and distribute information efficiently, etc.

But too much of one thing can be a bad thing. It’s how we’ve severely accustomed ourselves to this virtual reality that we don’t realize when the last time was that we’ve had a genuine conversation, face to face, in person or done something new for a hobby. We also might not realize the implications some of our pictures on Facebook might have on others. Although technology becomes more advanced, it shouldn’t control and consume us to the extent that we (actually) become cyborgs.

After all, Einstein did say that, “I fear the day that technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”