Our Relationship with Technology

    Attempting to look at technology objectively feels difficult for me to do because of the relationship I’ve built with it over the last ten years. It was so beneficial and made every portion of life both easier and wildly different from how it used to be. The most difficult part of technology to understand is how it makes it feel like my life has two separate stages, separated by the times I never had technology in my everyday life, and the modern era where I rely on it for almost every task I need to complete. Every time I look back on my childhood, I see a life where I was able to complete tasks and fill my time through less technological means, like reading and going outside to play with my brothers. This doesn’t mean I don’t do similar things nowadays, but it was never a decision to go outside and do things without technology, it was the normal. 

    My life now is definitely structured around tech and the benefits it gives, but there are always ways to get away from it when necessary. It’s impossible to look at technology and not bring up the ways it’s made everyone’s lives easier. Take this blog post for example, we are now able to write down our thoughts and feelings electronically and share them with anyone that will read them. That’s something people 40 years ago never would have conceived. Technology has made schooling easier and more accessible for everyone. Like during quarantine when schools needed to be all online, apps like Zoom and Webex were able to allow people to still connect without being in person.

  There will always be tradeoffs with technology, however, like the impact it’s had on the mental and physical health of younger generations. Mental health has become one of the most talked about issues because of technology because of the way everyone, including young children, are constantly comparing themselves to others on social media. I’ve been told my whole life from my parents that comparison is the thief of joy and seeing how everyone lives the “ideal lifestyle” online makes it hard to enjoy one’s own life. It’s becoming more and more common to hear about teenagers that are starving and hurting themselves because they don’t feel they are enough compared to those they see on social media. This is reflected in the Mad World Remix we watched in class. People are constantly faking it online and attempting to only show the parts of their lives they think are worth sharing. Or these people will fabricate portions of their lives so they can look even better on social media. 

    Since the internet allows for people to share their thoughts and opinions whenever and wherever, people are having more discussions with others than ever before. One of these discussions is about how we are treating the planet while attempting to produce more goods than ever. We see a representation of this in the “Man” video we looked at in class. We believe we are in the final moments of being able to reverse the damage that has been done to Earth and if we don’t do something now, nothing will be able to be stopped. Being critical of the issues of humanity is not uncommon when looking at discussions being had on the internet.