Negative Effects Of People’S Dependence On Technology

Are you over dependent on technology? From the moment you wake up you are plugged into the virtual world. Technology has been evolving at an outstanding rate ever since it was made. Think about it. Twenty years ago what was the latest smartphone called? Nothing, because there weren’t any smartphones back then. The best item for communication you could get was a phone the size of a brick that could do nothing but call people. Nowadays you have phones that do everything for you. Tell you when to get up, when to sleep, when to eat, when to exercise and the list goes on.

The addiction to mobile phones is becoming a problem everywhere especially focusing on young people. There are multiple other problems inside of this one. We’ll start with obesity. If children and teenagers are glued to their screen all the time whether it is a PS4 or an iPhone then where does the physical aspect of this “Screen Time” come in? The realisation is, it doesn’t. It’s been stated that at present around 67% of all adults in the US alone are obese and the future generations aren’t taking this statistic very seriously. However, it is actually a myth that obesity only happens when consuming junk food but over usage of technology and the laziness that comes with it does have a lot to do with obesity.

Social media has played an absolutely massive part in the over dependence of technology with the fact that less children and teenagers go outside every day. Teenagers like to gauge their popularity with the amount of “Virtual” friends he/she has. Some people have hundreds, thousands, millions of followers with these people not knowing who 3 out of 4 of their followers are. “Social” media has actually made us less social in terms of meeting people. Yes however there are also amazing opportunities on offer with social media with people being found out of their amazing talents such as singing, dancing, and even gaming but this is a rare case. Real life social abilities as a whole have taken a bad hit.

Of course with the uprising in technology comes the use of communication with anyone else who’s using technology which leads to problems such as cyberbullying. Loneliness and depression can both become greater problems when introduced to the internet. Offending peers, family, friends, and co-workers has become several times easier to do without being caught but some people can actually benefit by going online. Talking to different people can help work out their problems but not everyone is the same. Not all people are nice. Technology in this day and age is almost inescapable. There aren’t many job opportunities that come without the use of a computer. Using technology for an extended use of time can lead to stress, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Did you know that 30% of 18-24 year olds say social media is driving them to feel socially isolated? Loneliness among adults is well documented compared to kids/teenagers who are actually undocumented. Social media overall doesn’t seem like the best place to go when you’re feeling down in the dumps.

As technology evolves at rapid rates so does the gaming culture. With kids as young as 9 years old becoming “Twitch Streamers” and gaining a lot of popularity. Technology certainly made this possible. How would you feel as a parent (if you are one) if your child was stuck looking at a 24” widescreen TV for 4-6 hours every day? Making money or not, a child’s health is more important than his/her income. Gaming in general has become a staple in children’s, teenager’s and even some adult’s lives. It has been proven that video games can speed up reaction time because it trains people to make the right decision faster. Scientists from the University of Rochester researched this and did a simple question test. The action game players were up to 25% faster at coming to a conclusion.

In conclusion I believe that the rapid advance of technology is leading to children and adults becoming unhealthy and lazy. Our overdependence is becoming larger and larger with every day that goes by and we need to work on fixing this. We, as a world are slowly digging our own grave.