Effects of Technological Advancement

In today's society everyone has some sort of mobile device, electronic, or piece of technology that helps them in today's world. Did you know that in the last decade science has come up with a law that states every eighteen months (previously was one year) humans double the storage size of microchips. This is insane! The amount of data we can hold in are pockets gets doubled every one and a half year thanks to the advances of technology. Not only that, but, technology has certainly changed how we do almost all of our everyday activities. This can be seen in the way we acquire food, pay our rent, listen to music and most commonly, communicate with each other. The list goes on. Technology has made significant strides in the way that it can help us.

                 

  But what about the ways technology hurts us? Technology definitely helps us for the most part, however this can sometimes be a double edged sword. We can see that some people would rather be on their phones rather than talk to the person in front of them. Some people insist on waiting in lines for 4-8 hours to but the latest phones. People have monetized simply giving opinions on technological advancements. Author Judy Wajcman stated "technologies can be designed, consciously or unconsciously, to open certain social options and close others" (2010). The fact that technology has made leaps and bound for social media to flourish is great. But it also hinders us to be more social without a computer or a phone. Today there are so many stories and videos of people neglecting either the person they are physically with or just being a shut in at home only being on the computer.

Average screen time in America 

• U.S. adults spent 11 hours a day on computers, tablets and smartphones.(marketwatch.com)
•  4.5 hours tweens spend on screen media on average every day. (marketwatch.com)
• 6.5 hours spent by teenagers every day. (marketwatch.com)

Personal impaction

Being born in the 1990's I grew up with pretty much with each different gaming console out there. I also had a pretty big family and if i didn't have the newest thing one of my cousins did. I grew up playing these games form sun up to sun down. Looking back at it sometimes I didn't want to play with my cousins outside cause I just wanted to play video games inside. Today I wanna say that I've learned from this, but there are times where I don't realize that I'm on my phone way too much when around my girlfriend, parents, or friends. I personally see it in a lot of my nieces and nephews. They have hand held gaming devices, laptops and iphones.

On the flip side of things, technology can also bring people together. I personally have made a lot of friends through online gaming and communities revolving around them. I think that Technology is a double edged sword. It can do so much good while also being a distraction that people get lost in. 

Voice of the community

Waree Ekchanakul (no image)

"There's good and bad to everything. Our generation grew up with minimal technology, while at the same time we still know what it was like to run around and play outside as opposed to the newer kids who are glued to technology. We grew up without it but when it came into play we learned it easily. I guess you can say we got the best of both worlds. Sure we can go to the library but we don't cause we have phones. The older generation knows how to go to the library only and the newer generation only knows how to use a phone. I'm happy we grew up in the time that we did''

Laura Huang (no image)

"I personally love the advance in technology since it makes life a lot more convenient. I use it to buy groceries and get food delivered. I do think that younger people look to social media as an answer to a lot of their problems. People search for validation through likes and follows and how many people comment. I personally watch beauty blogs and think that it has made my opinion bias on what beauty is. I do however love the community I've met through beauty con and other make up related stuff."

Isaiah Nakama (no image)

"I use a computer for my job so I can't really say i can live without it. I believe that Technology has given me a lot of options with how I do business. I can communicate with people with a simple phone call and even order pretty much anything with amazon. I guess that with every thing pretty much being only a button click away, I've sorta gotten lazy and taken it for granted. Technology has definitely made my life easier, but some times too easy"

References

Fottrell, Q. (2019). People spend most of their waking hours staring at screens. [online] MarketWatch. Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-are-spending-most-of-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens-2018-08-01 [Accessed 8 Jul. 2019].

Roser, M. and Ritchie, H. (2019). Technological Progress. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/technological-progress [Accessed 7 Jul. 2019].

Rupp, K. (2019). 40 Years of Microprocessor Trend Data | Karl Rupp. [online] Karlrupp.net. Available at: https://www.karlrupp.net/2015/06/40-years-of-microprocessor-trend-data/ [Accessed 7 Jul. 2019].

Wajcman, J. (2010). The social shaping of technology - LSE Research Online. [online] Eprints.lse.ac.uk. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28638/ [Accessed 7 Jul. 2019].