Society is now bustling with technology, and so many individuals are now lost within technology. 50 years ago there was just paper and ink and face to face for communication, however, that has been fast replaced by messaging applications on mobile phones and computers (Dewan & Ramaprasad, 2014). Such innovations have broken the physical connection between individuals that were there before. The English language has also not been spared by technology. Text messages have become shorter and shorter every day. Abbreviations have become the order of the day. With the rate at which people are relying on technology, if one-day technology failed to work, the world would be plunged into chaos. So how then do we human beings interact with technology and what are the possibilities of the future?
Life today is not as it used to be three to four decades ago. In the life we live in, it is no longer easy to experience the comfort of a private life. Especially with the onset of the digital error, social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapshot, Sound Cloud, and Instagram makes individuals to barely do anything or say anything without visiting those sites (Greenfield, 2014). There is always someone somewhere watching waiting for you to slip deliberately or not, for them to tell the whole story to the world by posting it on these social media sites where such stories live with the world forever and could greatly affect an individual’s current and future life endeavors.
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The exposure to technology and especially the internet today have both is just so overwhelming. The internet which almost all everyone gets access to every day contains a lot of age unrestricted information some of which could cause damage to an individual. Take for instance pornography. There are so many pornography websites online that are free and easy to access just by a click of a few buttons. Access to these sites by individuals has led to many getting addicted to pornography which is a serious problem that affects an individual's health and social life once the addiction catches up with you (Gerardi, 2017). Cyberbullying is another common problem many people have to silently live with, with others even committing suicide as an easy way out of it.
According to Fardouly, Diedrichs, Vartanian, and Halliwell (2015), the unreasonable and high lifestyle standards the internet and especially social media has set for people, and especially our young adults and teenagers who are the people who get to access these sites put a lot of pressure on them. The kind of life "lived" by people on social media is just too much and too fast to keep up with. The kind of perfection in life, career, and image the internet portrays is just not realistic. For example, most teenagers find themselves trying to live the life of all the celebrities they get to see online all at the same time. They want to get Kim Kardashian's body, dance like Beyonce, run like Usain Bolt, and own a private jet, drive a Lamborghini and their world as well; which is social media, does not expect anything short of this.
Most of them despair and feel out of place when they fail to achieve some of these standards which result in depression and isolation. Their "expected" keeps changing so fast. Thus, it becomes too exhausting to keep up with. According to a survey by Kids Help Phone on Canadian teenagers between the ages of 13-18 years, 42 percent of the teenagers confessed to being stressed out, and no longer optimistic about their future due to this life, relationships, and career standards they see on the internet. The issues, especially social pressure we face today are so different from the challenges faced in the past decades faced all because of technology. Bullying, cyberbullying, screen addiction, negative body image, and unrealistic expectations are some of these challenges technology has presented us.
The artificial intelligence of the computers might be the demise of the human race creativity. Humans had developed computers that can contemplate and react to shifting atmosphere (Gerardi, 2017). When the computers became self-aware, they confined the human beings to deliver for their energy requirements, as biological arrays. Practically, individuals have started developing computers with thinking abilities. For instance, the chess-playing computer Deep Blue by IBM has become a narrative in the media recently for beating the world leading chess player. More intelligent computers are being created each day. It will not be long before they become more powerful than humans.
Regardless of the danger of intelligent computers controlling our lives, humanity has a robust enslavement on computers. We devote limitless time sitting in our home or our office surfing the internet or socializing with another individual of our humanity through the internet. Interaction online has become more typical than socializing via the postal system. Human communication has become depersonalized; communication made by using computers does not include the body gestures and facial expressions that are the elementary features of human forms of communication. Currently, individuals are mingling on the grounds of; words that are displayed on the monitor of their computers. Individuals are undecided about their true identities or what impression they give (Greenfield, 2014). This pointless communication through technology may perhaps steer to the weakening of individual associations.
Shopping has also been made an online affair, unlike years ago where one had to get to a store physically to buy goods or services, nowadays all that is done through just a few dials on a few buttons on the computer or mobile phone (Dorn & Hanson, 2015). The negative bit about this is that people no longer have the thrill to walk around and connect with their surroundings and nature. People are becoming comfortable living in isolation, having lost touch and connection with what is around them (Frennert & Östlund, 2014). People are living their whole lives inside a computer program. Most of the human race never perceive or encounter the universe, as we know it. Every sound, sight, and the feeling of an electrical signal transferred straight into the brain; technology has taken over all that. Most recently, robots have been invented to take over human duties including emotional roles; a good example being the robot that can respond to emotionally and intimately to human beings. Sooner than later, emotional and intimate relationships between human beings may be replaced by such robots.
Conclusion
The era we live in is one dominated by technological advancement happening at such a fast rate. All these abrupt changes are overwhelming to the human race, and we are somehow losing control over it. If technology is to be a success, we must learn to appreciate our past way of life and guard it rather than focus entirely on wiping it out altogether. We must also accept the responsibility that comes with technological power.
References
Dewan, S., & Ramaprasad, J. (2014). Social media, traditional media, and music sales. Mis Quarterly , 38 (1).
Dorn, D., & Hanson, G. H. (2015). Untangling trade and technology: Evidence from local labour markets. Economic Journal , 125 (584), 621-46.
Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image , 13 , 38-45.
Frennert, S., & Östlund, B. (2014). seven matters of concern of social robots and older people. International Journal of Social Robotics , 6 (2), 299-310.
Gerardi, S. (2017). Use of Computers/Apps and the Negative Effects on Children’s Intellectual Outcomes. Sociology , 7 , 128-132.
Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers . Psychology Press.
Reinecke, L., & Trepte, S. (2014). Authenticity and well-being on social network sites: A two wave longitudinal study on the effects of online authenticity and the positivity bias in SNS communication. Computers in Human Behavior , 30 , 95-102.
