Technology: An Oasis Or a Mirage?

 

Technology is the greatest human advancement ever documented. Its invention has allowed for the creation of automation, advances in communication, and an entire world of Intelligence beyond human capacity. Technology has an infinite number of possibilities, which open the door for vast benefits to the human race. 

However, the realm of technology has unforeseen consequences that are also fatal to our way of life as we know it. These detriments are closer than we realize and at the very least, need to be monitored for the future. 

With all the information in the world at our fingertips, we become reliant on our devices. This reliance quickly has shifted into Technological Addiction which creates a dependency on technology and devices. We spend more and more time buried in these devices, that we often lose sight of the world that is behind the screen. 

This lack of reality has created such a lack of human connection that we've lost the ability to communicate in meaningful conversation face-to-face. Difficult conversations have now been digitalized, which has an effect of misconstruing messages, overthinking, and constant states of anxiety. 

We're always waiting eagerly by our devices for the next text, or the next Tweet, constantly swarmed with notifications flashing across the screen. We're lost from reality because we are so attached to these screens that can give us anything we want in the press of a button. 

These devices we are so attached to are riddled with applications that also cause us to have a decreasing attention span. Apps like Tik Tok and Snapchat give us small glimpses into the most perfect versions of other people's lives, causing negative self-images and inner torment. These thirty second videos allow us to watch any content in a condensed video, which leads to a quick interaction before moving on to the next. 

The short attention spans that are being created from these apps has long term effects on the interactions between people face to face as well. Students can no longer sit in a lecture and be present, adults can no longer sit through meetings without zoning out, and simple activities like watching a movie in a theatre, have now become so difficult for people, theaters are filing for bankruptcy. 

We have become slaves to our technology, never able to unplug from the screen. Its become so disconnected that humans will watch as the world around them is burning and instead of putting out the fires, they pull out their phones and film it. They'll get a few likes and comments, talking about how sad it is that the world is slowly fading, and then they move on like it was just a blip in their day. 

We sit on the sidelines, filming police brutality and posting about children being murdered and then immediately switch to the newest dance trends without hesitation. We've become blind to the world around us, waiting for it to change on its own without ever taking the steps to change ourselves. 

COVID-19 and the pandemic allowed for the absolute switch into a completely virtual world. As we fell into the lockdown, everything became virtual interactions. Meetings were on Teams, School was online, Birthdays were celebrated on Zoom, even watching movies with friends shifted to Netflix Tele-party. In this isolating and new world, we were able to completely shift our world into being even more dependent on technology than ever before. 

Studies now show that this isolation from human connection has severely stunted the social advancements of students, especially Elementary schoolers who were unable to learn social skills in class. The detriments of COVID-19 started a wave of even less human interaction which all was compensated by the use of Technology Instead of Human Contact. 

On a personal perspective, my relationship with technology is far from healthy. When I'm bored, I will spend hours on Tik Tok or Instagram, filling my boredom with virtual content. I am consistently checking my phone for notifications and the second my phone buzzes, I will pick it up and check the alert. 

Technology takes up way too much of my life. I spend all day taking notes on my computer, to going home to doing homework electronically, and then I will text and communicate over the phone, and finish my downtime with looking through online content. I, like most people in the world, am consumed by the world of technology. 

In order to benefit from more face to face interactions, I will unplug during a meal with others, and I try my best to be present when I am home with family. Yet, even with those little steps, I am still entirely too dependent on my devices and I even resort to texting when I know I need to have a difficult conversation with someone. 

One benefit to technology is the fact that it does allow for the long term benefit of knowledge. With a quick question or word search, Google can tell me anything I could ever want to know. We no longer need to study and memorize hours and hours of information because it is at the touch of our fingertips at any point in time. I've learned so much information from people asking me a question and immediately asking Siri what the answer is. 

The world of technology truly is fascinating and it does have its benefits beyond the detriments. I can have conversations with people and see their faces even if they're miles and miles away from me via FaceTime, which is genuinely remarkable. The world of technology is beautiful and intricate and the creativity and intellect that it took to create it is mind-boggling, but it opens the door for unplanned disasters. 

Misinformation is a major problem in the world of virtual information. People unknowingly will distribute and re-purpose information that is untrue or misleading, stretching to more and more people until everyone is aware of this idea that is often untrue. This can even lead to major legal ramifications, if someone spreads an untrue story about any individual and it reaches a large enough audience, they could be subject to a defamation case, which clearly has its own consequences. 

We've become so dependent on our phones that we don't even realize how not normal it is to be eating a meal and staring at a screen instead of each other. We've glorified influencers and celebrities based on how they act on a platform and "Cancel" someone the second they aren't perfect. We think its normal to film others because we find their tendencies abnormal or different, and even worse, post it for millions of people to interact with and see. 

I look around and I see my friends who can't sit in a room for more than ten minutes without looking at the screen and I'm frightened for the future of our society. Notifications from BeReal, telling us to post whatever we are doing, take away from the connection and once again, we are blinded by this new sense of reality. My family sits around a television late at night while each of us are on our phones or our iPads doing a million other things. We are so lost we can't even watch a movie without separating from our screens. 

I am very careful to present my digital persona in a specific way. All of my socials are private so that my photos are not publicly shared on the internet. When looking up my name online, I cannot find any photos of myself and the only links I can find are for my Instagram Account and my Tik Tok which are both private. I can also find my LinkedIn, which is clearly the most professional representation of myself. 

All this genuinely goes to show that the world of social media, as a result of technology, is a filter. It is carefully constructed and edited pictures of ourselves to present to the world that we are the people that we want to be, not who we actually are. Technology is beautiful and intricate, it allows us to be more communicative than ever and more advanced than we could imagine. But it all comes as a cost. Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves where the line is and how far we are willing to go in blurring the line between reality and virtual reality.