The personal relationships we have with technology affects our communication with those around us. According to Dr Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, technology deeply affects the way we connect and interact with people (Krolo, 2011). For most Americans, their phone is the first thing they look at when they wake up, and it is the last thing they put down as they go to sleep. In a book “How to break up with your phone”, the author Catherine Price identifies the social ill the smartphones which are the most used technological devices have on people. She provides a 30-day plan for people to practically improve their relationships with their smartphones and overcome the addiction they have with their smartphones.
According to Nicholas Carr, it is human nature to want to know everything and take in every bit of information since at one point in life the survival of the human race depended on how much they knew (Huth, 2016). The constant connection of individuals to the internet through laptops and, smartphones have changed the interactions people used to have in the past when they depended on learning from each other. Through a smartphone and internet, one can always be heard and does not need to worry about being alone or bored. The brain is always working on processing the information we constantly take in through the phones, and as Carr explains, these distractions distort deep thinking in people. The distractions also prevent us from emotionally connecting with others. Fewer interactions with smartphones and technology as a whole help us focus on the interactions and conversations we hold with others instead of fulfilling the urge for finding new ideas and information through technology.
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Human behavior is learned through conditioning and as a result of the environmental factors surrounding us (Storm, Storm & Benjamin, 2016). The environment we are in changes the way we think and perceive things. Dr Benjamin Storm, an associate professor at the University of California, explains that in the same way technology is enhancing our understanding, it is also enhancing our relationships and behaviors. Smartphones have become our memory partners, and as Storm puts it, information stored digitally helps create more space in the brain for new information. This digital offloading of information from the brain to the smartphones and other technological tools makes one miss mental connections that otherwise make us intelligent and creative. Today, people do not struggle to store up information in their minds since they know that their smartphones which are always with them serve as a backup for whichever information they need at any time. In a study published by Nature Communications, it was established that some parts of the brain become inactive when a person uses the GPS to navigate the streets compared to when they would rely on their memory.
In her book, Catherine Price focuses on helping people break the addiction they have with their smartphones. She says that, smartphones and applications are designed to create addiction and that using them damages our abilities to think deeply and focus on creating new memories. She suggests that an individual should place limits and enable mindsets that will help one to take back control of their lives. To her, the smartphones lure people into thinking that they are multitasking when in the real sense their productivity is being affected (Price, 2013). Studies show that the brain cannot perform two cognitively demanding tasks like replying to a message and working on a project at the same time. The brain keeps switching from one task to another which is less efficient than when the brain is focused on accomplishing one task at a time.
While the society is focused on establishing the negative effects of technology and especially smartphones, a study carried out by Kate Magasamen shows that internet addiction positively contributes to the wellbeing of those who are prone to self-concealment. Online communication develops social interactions and helps build relationships. Individuals prone to self-concealment prefer interacting online because it makes them feel safer than a face to face conversation. This enables them to control their self-presentation and information sharing. Other chat options that do not allow face to face communication provided by applications on the smartphones allow anonymity and allows the individuals to feel comfortable disclosing information. Social networking sites are used at large by most internet users. They provide a forum for people to extend their participation in social groups that exist beyond family, and other community organizations(Krolo, 2011). Individuals use this sites also to maintain already established relationships within their social networks. Individuals who are prone to self-concealment use this social networking sites to construct safe communication environments which to them are less threatening. Individuals who use the internet have been found to be the most involved in community activities in real life. The self-concealers feel motivated to foster interactions on social networks since they can monitor the information that is shared. The expression of private information through written and verbal means is beneficial to an individual since it provides an escape from depression and stress. People belonging to a virtual community develop feelings of belonging to groups and this results in bridging social capita that brings together individuals from different backgrounds (Price, 2013).
People areasingly moving from the traditional family where everyone in a family stays together and therefore do not need any technological device to communicate with one another. However, today we have families that only meet together during occasions and holidays. They have been conditioned either by their nature of work or studies to stay away from the rest of the family. The only way to keep in touch with the family is through the phone and the applications on it. For such individuals, the addiction to their phones will positively impact them since they will spend more time communicating with the family back at home. Addiction to technology is often analyzed through its negative impacts on individual’s career, marriage and academic-related problems but it has been noted that an increase of time spent on the internet results in an increase of integration and social interactions (Huth, 2016). Egan and Larson in their study established that one’s access to their smartphone causes one’s psychological power to increase.
Technology is advancing, and people are moving along with it. The behavior of people in society is also being impacted by the technology. Smartphones bring to our attention many things which we need to focus on, and this can be interpreted differently by different people. To some people, it is a nuisance while to others it is an advantage. Scientists have attributed the changes in behavioral patterns to the distractions that smartphones provide. Throughout human history, human beings have always depended on tools to make their life easier and at this moment of technological advancement, smartphones come in handy. Other than studies focusing more on the negative effects of technological advancement, the positive contributions should also be talked about.
References
Croom, C., Gross, B., Rosen, L., & Rosen, B. (2016). What's Her Face(book)? How many of their Facebook “friends” can college students actually identify?. Computers In Human Behavior , 56 , 135-141.
Huth, J. (2016). The Glass Cage: How Our Computers are Changing UsThe Glass Cage: How Our Computers are Changing Us. Nicholas Carr 282 pp. W. W. Norton, New York, 2014. Price: $15.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-393-35163-7. American Journal Of Physics , 84 (7), 565-566.
Krolo, K. (2011). Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Revija Za Sociologiju , 41 (3).
Price, C. 2013. How to break up with your phone . Oxford University Press. Oxford.
Storm, B., Stone, S., & Benjamin, A. (2016). Using the Internet to access information inflates future use of the Internet to access other information. Memory , 25 (6), 717-723.
