Conclusion

In conclusion of my research of, “Does technology make more alone?”, I found out that technology has a lot of benefits, like communication with family and friends that are not close to us, meeting people from other countries, working or taking classes from your home. Having the personal experience of meeting people online, I thought a lot about if technology makes us alone. I met my husband online and I remember my friends asking me to go out with them but I always had an excuse. I was so into the internet that I did not want to spend any time with my friends. I spent hours chatting with my future husband (although he did visit me many times) and after months of ignoring my friends for the sake of communicating with my boyfriend, we got married. I did not see anything wrong with that at the time, and even though I meet a great guy, I know that I was ignoring my friends and isolating myself.

 With my research I learned that technology has a bad side too. We need to learn how to control technology for our benefit and be careful to not become addicted to it. It’s good to used technology as a part of communication with friends and family but not as the only way to communicate. I learned as well, that we need to make boundaries to help us and our family to control the uses of our phone. For my family I will use some of the rules that I summarized from Dr. Choopra, because I do not want my kids to suffer the consequences of technology abuse.

For my initial questions it was a little difficult to find concrete answer. I found a few psychologists’ studies that did many years of analysis to prove and back up their opinion, which it make their points very creditable. I do not think those are enough though. There should be more information for parents about how to prevent your children from becoming isolated by their phone, or any other type of technology. The affect that technology has on our memory is so important that I think people are taking it for granted. Moreover, I do not think we yet know the real consequence of e-mail and texting abuse in our new generation. At a minimum we are already noticing that youth are having more difficulty communicating face to face with other people or in some cases verbally when it’s a difficult situation. While some people are better at this than others, technology definitely doesn’t help them learn this skill. The obsession that we have with social media on our phones is relatively new and normally those studies take years. So because of this we will not know some the real consequences for quite some time and it will already be too late for some people.    

                       

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In what other ways can technology affect us?

During my latest research from the database at Front Range Community College, I wanted to find out what other affects the abuse of technology can have. Pat Galagan a very well-known writer, explains in his article titled “Technology and the Interrupted Brain” that technology is affecting our memory. We are putting so much garbage in our brains that in the end it will affect our brain function, in particular our short memory term.  Mrs. Galagan believes that because of technology we do not have the desire to learn anymore. People prefer to go to google and find some information rather than retain the information in their brains for future recall. Mrs. Galagan said that technology is a distraction affecting our ability to focus which means that this will affect us in our career. She said: “We need to unplug, take time to calm down, and focus on one thing at a time”.

What we can do so technology does not control our lives?

                                                     "Has technology taken over your life?"

Dr. Deepika Chopra, a health & wellness expert, has a doctorate in clinical Health Psychology. She gives us some tips on her article titled “10 Tips to Spend Less Time on Social Media & More Time with Humans”.  Here is a summary; see how many could apply to your life. Maybe technology has a bigger grip on you than you first thought:

1. Reduced the time you spend on you cell phone or social media to 90 minutes a day. Sometimes people spend up to 3 hours a day on technology.
2. Try to seek help from a person and not “Siri”. 
3. Adopt a “No phones at the Table” rule.
4. If somebody texts you call them instead.
5. Use an old-school alarm, for me this will helpful. That way my phone will not be next to me when I wake up and would not be the first thing I wake up to.
6. Do not depend on your phone to remember special dates. Do not text your friends or family to wish them a Happy Birthday but call them instead.
7. Try to do physical activities with your friends, it’s more likely you will not use your phone if you remain busy.
8. Encourage yourself or a friend when you find an activity that is not related to technology. 
9. Try to remove your Facebook app from your phone if you feel brave.
10. Try and accomplish these goals with friends and families.

How many of these 10 suggestions would you be nervous about committing to?

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Pro and cons about of technology in ours relationships.

After my research, I found the article from Alex Lickerman MD interesting. He is not totally opposed to technology, but he has some good insight about how technology can affect us. His article is for a general reader, and he is using a passive tone. Creditability of the author; he's a general internist, former director of primary care, and current assistant vice president for Student Health and Counseling Services at the University of Chicago.  He is author of The Undefeated Mind and "Happiness in the World" . Dr. Lickerman in his article “The Effect of Technology on Relationships” explains that technology has been wonderful for us. We are able to connect with the rest of the world with no rules, but it can cost us isolation. Dr. Lickerman mentions that technology keeps us addicted to the internet, and keeps us separated from the real world. We are substituting electronic relationships for physical ones.

Katherine M. Hertlein and Katrina Ancheta wrote the article “Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Relationships”. They are from the University of Nevada and cited many different sources which insure their credibility. Even though their article is an 11 page study with many reliable sources, I find it weak because the title leads you to believe that they are going to give some disadvantages of technology in relationships. They give some but I think their reasoning was not convincing because they talk about how technology allows people to cheat on their spouse. While technology might facilitate cheating, it does not cause cheating. Cheating would still happen without technology. Some advantages they claim are that we are connected with our spouse when we are in different places, and that communications are instantaneous.

In my research I found both these articles to have similarities about the advantages of technology. We can communicate with people in different countries and we do not have to worry about if we are working because texting or e-mail is a discrete form of communication.

The difference between my sources are that for people that use social media, Dr. Lickerman thinks it’s easier for them to confront others because they can send an e-mail, text, or post something vs. talking face to face. Confrontation face to face is a vital life skill that people need to develop. He also believes that messages transmitted by social media are poorly communicated compared to face to face conversations. This results in easily finding others receiving a message that we did not intend to communicate. On the other hand, Katherine M. Hertlein and Katrina Ancheta believe that maintaining communications throughout the day with significant others increase intimacy in the relationship between the two people.  This could be via text, Facebook, or twitter for example. They also promote this form of communication during times of emergency or stress for emotional soothing when face to face contact is not possible.  They maintain as well that these forms of communication promote healthy communication that would otherwise not take place in a face to face conversation. This is almost the exact opposite of Dr. Lickerman’s point.

I think that if these two points of view got together they would actually agree on the process of what’s happening regarding communications via technology and social media. What I think they would disagree on is if the benefits outweigh the negative consequences. I believe Dr. Lickerman would say that the negative consequence of not learning the essential skill of confrontation by always “hiding” behind a computer or phone will end up leaving an individual lacking that skill when it’s really needed in life; like a tough situation in work with a boss or co-worker. I believe Dr. Lickerman would agree with Katherine and Katrina regarding maintaining communications throughout the day with significant others; I bet Dr. Lickerman still texts his wife during the day, for example. I doubt that he depends or relies on that being the “main” form of communication in his relationships however.

In the end, I found the arguments in Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Relationships to be weak and impractical. They are taking the exceptions and making them the rule. For example, cheating, or the advantages of communications during emergencies. As explained before, technology isn’t the root cause of cheating and when was the last time you texted your loved ones in a natural disaster? Doesn’t happen too often, does it? I think Dr. Lickerman had a much more balanced approach of using technology to supplement relationships but not become a main form of communications in them. I 100% agree that people need to learn to deal with others face to face and not hide behind technology in difficult situations. 

Is the internet making us smarter?

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Are we growing closer or further apart?

     One article I found called "Alone in the Crowd" by Michael Price, had some interesting things to say regarding the question at hand.  Michael interviews Sherry Turkle PhD. who wrote a book based on meta-analyses of individual and family studies as well as her own research through interviewing 300 kids and 150 adults. Two particular points: first, “How has social networking through technology changed society the most?” and second, “Does social technology isolate people from the real world, or augment our personal relationships?” I found of high interest.

     In her take on the first question she believes that the most dramatic change that technology has had on the society is the ability it gives individuals to “exit” reality vs. learning how to deal with awkward situations; it provides a retreat. One example would be people retreating to facebook when things get uncomfortable or another example is youth’s preference to text vs. having a conversation. She found that youth liked the “control” of texting vs. having a “live” conversation.

     In her response to the second question, she believes that social technology both isolate people from the real world and augments our personal relationships. She claims that while some people use social networks to keep real friends up-to-date, she also found that people are more likely to engage others via social media that they would have otherwise never interacted with. Sounds like a good thing, right? But what she points out is that these social media interactions never go beyond that. These people stay as followers, fans, or friends and while giving the feeling of companionship it never turns into anything that would result in companionship of a true friendship.

     I agree with Mrs. Turkle even though I did not grow up in a time where cell phones and computers were so popular like nowadays. For example, one of the reasons I took this class online was because I knew it would be easier for me because I would not have to deal with embarrassing times like speaking in front of the class or people listening to my accent. I’m sure technology is “convenient” but at what point is this no longer a good thing for me?   Likewise, my husband notices this at his work. He is a manager and deals with young employees that almost refuse to call customers and prefer to send them e-mails. They lack the ability to think on their feet and deal with people in conversations and prefer to write things out. This is hard is his line of work because the person responding can choose when they’d like to respond, vs. getting an answer right away in person or over the phone.

     This is not a problem that only some people should be concerned about, but this is a problem that many Americans are facing. The Pew Research Center posted statistics for 2014 that show:

• 64% of American adults own a smart phone
• 90% of American adults own a cell phone
• 32% of American adults own an e-reader
• 42% of American adults own a tablet computer

After discovering this information I asked myself: What are the consequences for ourselves and our kids if we continue with this behavior? How do we live with technology wisely? and What do we need to know as parents regarding all of this?

                                                                             Texting


Since the internet was invented we were able to find out what was happening on the other side of the world in a matter of minutes. We are able to talk with our family located in different states or countries for free, and sometimes not only talk, but see them as well! Children have cell phones because nowadays cellphones are so cheap and accessible that just about anybody can afford to buy one for their nine year old. Businessmen use skype to communicate with their employees in India. Technology has become like a super power that we have at our finger tips. It seems as though the world is shrinking, but are we growing closer or further apart?

While technology is supposed to allow us to better connected to one another, at the same time it appears that it can also separate us from those who are right by our side.  Does technology make us more alone? Because technology is such a major part of everyone’s life in today’s world, this is an important question for everyone to consider. Are our personal relationships affected by our smart phones? Does Facebook replace actually getting together with your friends, or do you “catch up” with them on their wall? A deeper question still is, is our younger generation lacking in critical inter-personal communication skills because they have become over dependent on texts and emails?

I personally notice this in my family: my husband working from home, I’m taking online classes, and my son texting with his friends. We spend our free time playing games on our cellphones, or even when we go to a restaurant we see people on their phones instead of interacting with the people they are there to eat with. Are trying to avoid each other? What are the consequences for our closest relationships if we continue to focus more on stuff, or distractions vs. people?