Matt Richtel's article 'Hooked on Technology, and
paying a price' brings up an important argument that has
recently been talked about a lot in today's media and online
discussions. The main point that Richtel brings up in in his
article is that technology in recent years has had an
important impact in today's social interacts, family interacts,
and how people multitask. Although the author points out
the other challenging viewpoints, he points out statistics and
real life events that support his argument, that made me
realize his point of view is worth looking into, and possibly
discuss solutions and further in argument in the future.

I believe that Richtel's argument and time of
publication of his article is spot on. There has been a lot of
new technology coming out recently with cell phones,
computers, and video games consoles. All these new
inventions have made it easier to become more addicted to
them, and become more involved and immersed in people's
lives today. Recently, the Iphones have integrated Facebook
within the phone's software to log in easier, save Facebook
contacts in the phone, and save friend's birthdays in the
calendar app. Microsoft has done similar things with the
release of the Xbox One. Even though these additions are
great and very useful to those that choose to use the
features, it has impacted the way people interact with other
people face to face, degrading family values, and increased
how people get addicted to the technology that surround
them constantly.

In the article, Richtel talks about how the technology
impacts human interact with other humans, as well as how
they interact with the technology itself. Not only does he
address these issues, he also discusses how we, the
consumers, always feel the need to get the latest and
greatest, in the fear of falling behind everyone else. I feel
that these points that he makes are very important, because
it's something always thought about, but something that
hasn't been pulled out in to the open in depth. Technology
has affected human-to-human interaction tremendously.

Looking around, I notice that people always walk
around looking at their phones (myself included in this),
driving while looking at their phones, texting and on social
media while hanging out with their friends. While people are
at home, they are either on their phone, on the computer,
playing a video game, or on their tablet. I feel as if people
can't or don't interact with people without some form of
electronic with them. Whether that is a computer, tablet,
phone, etc. This has increased exponentially just within five
years. Five years ago, many of these innovations haven't
been around. Nowadays, people even multitask trying to do
everyday tasks while involved with some kind of technology,
or even multitask between being involved with different
kinds of technology, such as being on the computer and
being on your phone at the same time.

Richtel talks about multitasking in his article and he hit
on many points worth bring up. According to him and the
examples he provided, people are generally terrible at
multitasking. This is not just talking about using technology,
but with everyday tasks, such as cooking and cleaning at the
same time. Many people would argue that, no, generally
people are good at multitasking and doing many things at
once. To help rebute some of these ideas and shed light on
the subject, the article includes statistics and studies on how
people handle multitasking, and while some of the test
subjects could do the tasks that they were asked to do,
many of the test subjects failed the tests. Multitasking has
proven to affect performance of getting tasks done
thoroughly in a negative way. Also, Multitasking and trying to
balance a surplus of things all at once also hurts the
traditional familial structure.

'Hooked on Technology, and paying a price' addresses
a recurring example of a real life everyday family of how
multitasking and the increase of the role of technology affect
the family as a whole. The family's father figure, Mr.
Campbell, is the creator of a software business and is
constantly attached to some form of electronic device. Even
though the Mrs. Campbell tries to organize a vacation or
some form of family event, Mr. Campbell is always on
'plugged in'. It's not just Mr. Campbell, it's his children as
well. They are the same way as well, with having a phone,
computer, and video game up all at the same time. The
family cannot have face-to-face time, or even eat dinner at
the dinner table anymore. This sounds familiar to me,
because my own family has become the same way when we
get together around Christmas time, or anytime that we are
all together. When I first read Richtel's article, it almost took
the words out of my mouth, because I was trying to find the
exact words to explain how I felt about the whole
technological predicament and how it affects everyone on a
daily basis.

I feel that this article is important, and people should
read it or read another professional article like it talking
about the same issues that we deal with everyday. This topic
isn't the most crtically important issue the world has by any
means, but it's certainly something that needs to be address
and put out in the open, so we can acknowledge it and try to
remedy it as best we can, as a whole.

I feel that Matt Richtel has a lot of valid points when it
comes to this topic of concern. He writes about technology
for the New York Times, and he has written another article
for the New York Times in 2010 called 'Driven to
Distraction', which addresses some of the same points that
he wrote about in the article. He has even spurred action to
first introduce texting and driving laws across the nation
from that 2010 article he wrote. Many of his points have
convinced me that the topic that he arguing is important and
has made me start thinking and researching what others are
saying about the topic as well.

