Sometimes I wish I was born in the days when there was no internet and mobile phones. I wonder what life is like without needing to depend so much on technology and just being able to do things on your own capacity. Because as we can see with our generation now, almost everyone is holding their phones 24/7. According to Emarsys (2019), there are 3.5 billion social media users around the world that is continuously growing and it is about 45% of the current world population. People spending most of the time scrolling without realizing that the time that they should be spending with their family and friends and their life in general, is being taken away by their addiction to technology. Though, I myself can’t deny that I’m part of that generation. I only wish to not depend on technology but in reality, I know I can’t, especially in today’s modern world where almost everything can be seen and done using technology just like how I am writing this blog now.
Have we realize how being connected to technology 24/7 is affecting our ability to connect with our lives and the people around us? Modern technology enables us to connect to anyone in the world whenever we want. A film called “Disconnect” challenges us to think about whether or not we are really more connected to each other or more alone since human interaction decreases the more technology increases (Rogette Harris, 2013). Technology makes everything so easy that instead of going outside to meet new people, there are now plenty of dating apps where you can find thousands of people with the click of a finger. We spend too much time isolating ourselves and disconnecting from the real world in order to maintain the perception of being connected.
Can you imagine that this would be a thing now? (refer to the photo below)
This just means that even we are out with our friends or family, our eyes and hands are still glued on our phones, not wanting to let it go without a specific reason. I have a sister that has a lot of followers on Instagram and whenever I am with her, inside or outside of the house, she’s always scrolling through her phone and always out of this world. Whenever I am speaking to her, she’s not focused and always tend to ask to repeat what I said because she is too preoccupied with her phone. Also, whenever she will post something on her social media, she would first ask me if it looks good, does people will like it, or sometimes she would tell me to like it as well. And when she’s not on her phone, she’s just in bed, watching Netflix all day. It’s sad to admit but I can see that she has a lethargic lifestyle. In result, she’s diagnosed with depression. According to Zaheer Hussain and Mark Griffiths (2018), young people can develop an addiction to social media through poor sleep, poor self-esteem and potentially poor mental health. It worries me that she might be depending her value and worth with the feedback that she’s getting from the people on social media that it affected her mental health.
It is scary how technology can also affect us mentally and it is scarier that it is affecting us negatively without even realizing it. The question that is going around my mind right now is that how many times do we have to talk about the negative effects of new media but still doesn’t change our habits about it? Who is really the one responsible for this? Is it the technology’s fault or its users? When will we find the answer? When will the problem be solved? Does anyone know?
COMM2B 