The Effect Of Technology In Promoting Loneliness
Before technology, face to face communication was a normal everyday thing and loneliness was a problem that was rarely talked about or experienced. People went about their day without checking their phone every five minutes or so to see if anyone liked the status they posted or feeling lonely when nobody new liked it. In new studies more and more people have feelings of loneliness and depression. However, more people now use social Medias such as Facebook, twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. While it is true that technology mainly sites such as Facebook, Instagram can lead to a person feeling alone, it is also true that it depends on how you use the technology, either to your advantage or as a depressant.
Is the use of technology starting to take away from our person-to-person interaction? Think about how often you grab your smartphone or tablet and text your friends instead of picking up the phone to call them or, better yet, making plans to hang out in person. Technology is supposed to make us feel more connected by allowing us to stay in touch with our friends by using social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter and of course, texting. But are our smartphones getting in the way of socializing? Does technology make us feel more alone? There is a term that is commonly used, "FOMO" –– short for "fear of missing out. " Yes, this is a real thing. If for some crazy reason you don't check your Twitter or Facebook news feed every 10 minutes are you really missing out? When technology such as the computer was invented it was meant more for the use of making everyday tasks at work or home easier. The original inventors had no idea that one day there would be sites like Facebook with over a million users. Now when people are at work most of the time they do not pick up the phone and call down to another office or business. They sit on the computer and either send an email or instant message; this does not lead to a very strong and healthy relationship. Talking on the phone and listening to a person and getting to know them, that is what keeps you from feeling isolated or alone.
The fact that we have become so dependent on knowing exactly what is going on in other people's lives is sad. We should be focusing on our own lives and our own interactions and relationships with people. Technology is making us more alone because instead of interacting with our friends in person, we are dependent on using our phones or tablets. We start to compare ourselves and our lives to others because of how many likes we get on our Instagram photos. We are forgetting how to use our basic communication skills because we aren't interacting with each other, anymore. We are too busy with our noses in our phones. Young kids are dependent on a tablet to keep them entertained rather than playing with toys. That is not how I want my children to grow up.
As a society, we will start to become very lonely people if we don't start making changes. We are ruining personal relationships because of the addiction to our smartphones and checking our social media sites every five minutes. It's time for us to own our mistakes and start to change. Our generation is overdosing on digital media. Members of the community are lacking from everything that makes them human – weaknesses, imperfections, fragility… all that we see are the manipulated, faultless versions of people online. I can’t help but think that, in this new technologically advanced era, we are more alone than ever. Technology is a great thing, but it is also going to be the thing that tears us apart as a society if we don't make changes on how dependent we are on it.
