Technology Effects On Society

Before the invention of the computer and the internet, face to face communication was a normal everyday thing and loneliness and isolation was a problem that was rarely talked about or experienced. People went about their day looking up and speaking to each other as they passed by at the store. Currently, technology is an essential part of many people’s lives, allowing them to use their devices and communicate with others in diverse ways and places. Technology has helped define society and determined how one interacts with others daily by the way they communicate, learn, and think. There are both positive and negative effects of technology and the social individual. Due to increasing over-dependence on technology, many people struggle with

Sociologist Keith Hampton believes technology and social networking affect our lives in positive ways. “There has been a great deal of speculation about the impact of social networking site use on people’s social lives and much of it has centered on the possibility that sites are hurting users’ relationships and pushing them away from participating in the world,” said Hampton. Pew Research Center found the opposite of what Turkle is suggesting. Their survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously thought, “Some have worried that internet use limits peoples’ participation in their local community, but we find that most internet activities have little or a positive relationship to local activity. For instance, internet users are as likely as anyone else to visit with their neighbors in person” (3). People have made more close relationships with individuals and have become more involved in civic and political activities all because of technology. People have found that using medias, like skype, keep them in touch with their friends and loved ones. It’s different from being there in person, being able to touch one another, but people are still able to have that connection of being together and communicating when using technology. Hampton’s study shows how the internet and social media have good addicting qualities by keeping

Today’s technology makes communication faster and easier, but it should not be the only way we communicate. Hampton noted that mobile phone use was the number one-way people were staying in touch with friends, family, and coworkers but face-to-face contact still surpasses all other methods. “On average in a typical year, people have in-person contact with their core network ties on about 210 days; they have mobile-phone contact on 195 days of the year, and texting contact on mobile phone 125 days” (4). Nothing quite replaces the impact of face-to-face communication. Another concern Turkle refers to is online social networks and how privacy has become a non-personal entity in society. The argument that she is trying to build is how people are unintentionally building relationships machines and not humans. One argument she states that “we have become virtuosos of self-presentation, accustomed to living our lives in public” (509). We like the fact that we share our personal information to strangers, exploiting ourselves. People are willingly giving away their private