Different generations have had different relationships with technology. I look at my granda, who today I had to help her download something as a PDF, and then I look at my 5 year old sister, who has to watch videos on her phone to eat dinner. It's interesting to see how technology progressed through each generation. As time goes on, I think people will be completely dependent on technology, if they aren't already.
My generation uses technology regularly. Millennials have the second largest presence on social media, after generation Z. We use snapchat, instagram, twitter and tiktok like it's part of our religion. It passes the time, entertains us, and gives us something to look forward to. We also use technology in our classrooms, having online textbooks, homework, and tests, using the internet for researching things, and writing blogs for classes. Technology use has become essential, not a choice.
Personally, my relationship with technology is very wishy-washy. I love the internet, my laptop, my phone, and my tv. I love being able to research different topics and find different recipes at the tips of my fingers. I love listening to music, being able to control what comes next and the list of movies I’ll be watching. I love reading funny tweets, watching stupid videos, and listening to interesting podcasts. I love being able to facetime my friends all over the country. Technology can be a great friend, but it isn't.
When it glitches, messes up, is slow, or unresponsive, I tend to get super frustrated. It's like having a friend you're supposed to always count on, and they let you down. It gets so frustrating to the point where sometimes, I get mad. How can I get mad at something that can't even talk back to me, and isn't making the conscious decision to glitch? I realized that it's unhealthy to depend on something so much that isn't even a being in itself. Not to mention, the internet knows more about me than I’ll probably ever know about it.
When I think about how much time I spend on technology, I laugh. Technology is being used when we aren’t even aware of it. My phone tracks the amount of time I use it and I don't use it, my apple watch tracks every step I make, and I rely on my phone alarm to wake up everyday. Sometimes, using technology isn't a choice, it's a given.
When it is a choice, I find myself definitely choosing it. I can sit on tik tok and not even realize that 30 minutes has gone by, or push off my homework until after just one more youtube video. Sometimes I do it without even realizing it, but I think that's because of how normalized technology is in today's society. When I get lunch with my friends, I put my phone away to be present in the conversation. Sometimes, I find my mind wondering who has texted me and what notifications I have. How crazy is that!
Technology is also necessary in some aspects, making the time well spent. Writing this blog takes up some time, but for a good reason. School and online classes count on technology, having us spend out time looking at a computer screen.
Because of this, the internet can be very useful. Using the right websites, you can learn to cook, organize, and pick up a new hobby. Quarantine has me taking online workout classes and trying new recipes. Without technology, especially during a pandemic, we would all be bored out of our minds. We have a whole world of new hobbies and online classes and informational sites at our fingertips, ready for us to take advantage of it.
With every positive, there's almost ALWAYS a negative. If people are only using twitter and facebook as their source of news, they're bound to receive false information. This causes online fights, bullying, disagreements, and public shaming. It's also so much easier to do all that over the internet instead of face to face. There's so many rumors out in the world, and they can blow up and trend on twitter like nobody's business.
It is also ridiculously easy to believe fake news, especially on the internet. Twitter specifically can make fake news look SO real. But I think it's our responsibility to pay attention and notice these things. The internet isn't able to monitor information people put out to determine if it is real or not. If we have the resources to find out the truth, we should use them, and not just believe the first thing we read.
I think the scariest thing about all of this is how dependent we all are on technology. As I said earlier, we use it even if we don't realize it. What if one day, everything crashes? What will schools, businesses, and households do? My sister HAS to watch her videos when we eat dinner, and if that goes away, what then? If that's all she's known her whole life? We type letters, send memos, and record our voices, but what if we can't do that? Taking technology out of society will completely change the society we live in. The one we once knew, the one we are in now, won't exist. To avoid this, it's important to acknowledge the bad and take advantage of the good. Technology is so useful to us, it's important that we respect what it can give and be aware of what would happen if it was taken away.
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