Technology's Effects on Society

Technology's Effects on Society Everybody has seen the moody, ignorant kid with music blaring out of his headphones, or the girl rapidly texting on her phone. The youth of today are constantly immersed in technological advancements that promote non stop communication and help to “enhance” our lives, whether it be cellphones, gaming systems, laptops, or MP3 players. But does all of this new technology have a positive impact on society? I believe that the growth of technology has negatively impacted the social interactions of today’s youth because it isolates individuals from reality, hinders communication, and serves for the concept of immediate satisfaction.

Technology has a negative influence on us because it separates individuals from reality. A very popular example of this is simply plugging your headphones in when you’re in public, isolating yourself from the real world. For some people, this is the case because they feel that it preoccupies them from the uncomfortable factors of everyday life. We all have those days, however for many people this is an everyday reality.  Taking a look at this image, we see a woman being harassed out in an alleyway by a man holding a knife. The significance of this is that she’s shouting out for help, and nobody is coming to her aid. However, in the building next to her, everyone is tweeting hashtags such as #United4Her and #Dosomething. This is a clear example of how society works today, where instead of actually taking action and doing something to help, we find satisfaction in things such as tweeting or advertising the problem, hoping someone else will deal with it themselves. Because of this new technology, people feel that making others aware of these problems are actually helping to stop them, where in reality people simply aren't taking the serious action needed to stop these things from happening. By constantly being cut off from reality because of these technological devices, a generation with substandard social abilities is becoming more and more apparent. Overall, I believe that technology has a negative influence on youth as it separates individuals from reality, diminishing the full potential of a successful generation.   Furthermore, I believe that modern technology hinders personal communication, which negatively impacts our age-group. I guarantee that before I had actually met some of you in person, I had already been following you on something such as Twitter or Instagram. This is probably the same for most of this class, as new social medias on the internet are becoming more and more popular. But when we refer to it as a social media, are we really classifying it properly? I believe that although we have the chance to converse over the internet with our friends, these websites don’t really offer the social assistance that we believe, and negatively impact the way we interact will people in the real world. This image portrays the modern day relationships people have with their friends and loved ones, where instead of conversing with each other face to face they are more consumed by the technology that they feel offers the same opportunity. This is a problem in society as people are becoming less and less developed among their peers and are becoming unable to build stable relationships that don’t revolve around technology. For some people, technology creates an illusion or perception that they are very connected with their friends and family, when in reality they are anything but. The key to containing stable relationships with people is by balancing online AND offline connections. In conclusion, I believe that technology has a negative impact on our age-group, as it drastically changes the ways we communicate with each other.

Similarly to personal communication, technology negatively affects youth by constructing the mindset of immediate satisfaction. The creations of portable technological devices has slowly ingrained the idea of instant gratification into people's minds. For example, when an individual experiences something bad in their lives, they have the constant comfort that there is always someone to help whether it’s talking via text message or tweeting from our smart phones. However if they were put in the same situation without these devices, what would they do to cope? Although people don’t realize it, society is extremely dependant on new technology, and this is alarming because it isn’t always reliable. This is an image of what looks to be an iPhone, but when you look closely it is designed as a prison. The importance of this image is that prisons are meant to keep bad people locked up - essentially showing how people are almost "behind bars" when it comes to being on their phones. This shows how people are dependant on their devices, and are too attached to live without them. Since society is so obsessed with technology, people are unable to do things to help educate ourselves such as read and pay attention in class, because they are too preoccupied by the latest social media or app that was released. When it comes down to it, people are so attached to the feeling of satisfaction from their devices that they are unable to live their lives to the best of their abilities, which is why I feel that technology negatively affects society by adjusting everyone's minds to immediate satisfaction.

Lastly, I believe that technology acts as a barrier to success among the youth today. An example of this would be that kids spend loads of time on their new devices rather than actually living new experiences that the “outside” world has to offer. Rather than going out to have fun with their friends, youth stay at home on social medias and take comfort in getting the most “likes” on their latest Instagram picture. This image portrays someone struggling to balance out their time and technology, being clearly overpowered by the effects of social media. Also, on the right side where the kid is it is bright and sunny, where on the left side the background is dull and dark. I believe that this shows that society is being controlled by the social media and technology, and it has a negative impact on the way people live their lives. People constantly let technology take up their time, whether it’s on social media or useless apps, when they could be spending their time more usefully educating themselves or participating in new experiences. This leads people to believe that the amount of “likes” they get on a picture is more important than actually feeling confident in themselves without the assistance of social medias. I believe that this is a huge barrier to success for the youth in our society. Later on in life, the amount of “favourites” your tweet gets won’t matter, and we’ll need to overcome our obsession with technology in order to be happy and successful. This is why I believe that in order for technology to be useful, we must learn to balance out our online and offline time carefully. Overall, I believe that because of the newfound obsession with social medias and smartphones, technology acts as a barrier of success among youth in our society today.

Ultimately, I believe that the growth of technology has a negative impact on society because it isolates individuals from reality, hinders communication, serves for the concept of immediate gratification, and acts as a barrier to success among youth. However by balancing time wisely, I believe that people have the ability to use technology to their advantage, and will only then benefit from the advancements in this in the world today. Works Cited "#DoSomething." The YUNiversity. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. Banksy. "Modern Day Technology." 8Digital. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. "Technology Is A Prison." The Denver Egotist. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2015. Banksy. "Don't Let Them Take Too Much Of Your Time." Twitter. N.p., n.d. Web. 19     Jan. 2015.