Too Much Dependence Upon Technology Research Paper

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Does Technology Make Us More Alone?IntroductionWhile the new development technology is often celebrated as the turning point for progressive societies, there is sometimes the failure to consider the negative social repercussions that new technologies can have on the lives of people. It is the argument of this paper that one of these negative repercussions is the fact that technology can make people feel very much alone. Obviously technological advances like the computer, the Internet, and the cellular phone have allowed people to interact with others in ways never before imaginable: people can talk to or message others anywhere in the world, share information, and connect in virtual ways. And, yet, when people—especially young people today—go out into the real world, they are almost invariably focused on the screens of their smart phones, engaging only minimally with others in their proximity, preferring isolation to real world interaction. But this phenomenon is not restricted to the antisocial attitudes of young people in the real world. Vega and Brennan note, for instance, that “technology isolates workers” in the business world (468). Likewise, Whaite et al. have found that social media technology leads to a sense of social isolation among users, which is a surprise to theorists who believed that social media use would lead to a greater sense of social connectivity. The evidence thus suggests that technology, in spite of its ability to connect people and make lives easier, also tends to divide people and prevent social interactivity in other ways, leading to a high degree of social isolation among much of the population. In the end, people are social creatures, but technology runs the risk of making humans more alone.ChildrenChildren are perhaps the most vulnerable population when it comes to technology. This is because that as they age they go through the greatest number of psychosocial development conflicts, according to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development (Munley). Technology can interfere with their ability to resolve or address those conflicts in a meaningful way. Rosen et al. found that “total media consumption predicted ill-being while for pre-teens specific technology uses, including video gaming and electronic communication, predicted ill-being” (364). Children who spend too much time interacting with technological devices, spend less time interacting with others, learning from others, and developing social skills from others. They become “digital natives,” who cannot interact in any meaningful way without the aid of technology, as Prensky put it (1). They may not be aware of their isolation, because it is all they grow up knowing, but by any objective measure they can be viewed as isolated from others because they have little to no interaction with others and are, moreover, incapable of interacting with others except by way of a digital device. They are groomed to view social interaction as something that takes place virtually via some form of social media platform or through some form of gaming console. They are alone in the world in terms of having a real world social support network.

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As Nikken has shown, parents use technology as a babysitter “to sooth or calm their child, or to keep their child busy, for instance, because the parent cannot be physically present or has other chores to attend” (532). Instead of providing an immediate real world support for the child in the form of their own person, they use technology as a kind of magic wand; this magic wand transfixes the child and captures the child’s attention; the child becomes dependent upon it, and soon the child wants nothing other than to be entertained by the technological device. Years can pass and the child develops…

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…be hard pressed to know what to do with themselves. They would have to figure out how to live the way people did before the 21st century and the arrival of the Digital Age. After all, the digital natives that Prensky described two decades ago are now adults themselves. The only thing that has changed over that course of time is how much more pervasive technology has become in society.ConclusionTechnology has changed the way people interact, work, learn, recreate, and live their lives on a daily basis. Homes, transportation, places of learning, work places, entertainment venues—all of it is dominated by technology. One cannot even go to a ball game today without having a sense of the way technology controls everything. From the tall screens to the blaring music from the sound system to the kiosks and conveyor belts to the traffic of people in their individual cars outside, one sees nothing but the inescapable, crushing weight of technology on all aspects of modern life. Sitting next to strangers in the stands, people could interact with them or even just enjoy the game—but many choose instead to look at their phones, or view the screen, or get caught up some other technological distraction that separates and divides people from their own humanity. People grow up from the age of childhood feeling dependent upon technology. It governs, soothes, and protects them. Some say it makes them feel less lonely. Yet, they are lonely because of the dependence upon technology: all it does is distract them from their loneliness. In the end, they are more alone because of it than they would be without it. Without it, they might realize that they are in a world of other human beings like themselves. And they might for once realize what it means to meet….....

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