The article I choose to write about was Hooked On Technology, and Paying A
Price by Matt Richtel. This is an essay about the effects that technology has on
people today mainly the negative effects but he also talks a little about the possitives
of tech. This topic is a present day issue and I'm sure it will be a continuing problem
in the future. I do not see people just giving up on technology like Google, Twitter or
Facebook which are part of the problem of to much information coming in to you to
fast. We talked about how to find credible sources on library day. We talked about
how just googling something can bring up unreliable sources.

I believe this topic is not urgent issue but it will need to be handled
immediately. Most people have been affected by this daily but in small ways. Like
walking into or tripping over objects while texting, or getting distracted by an ad
while looking up information online. As more social media apps are being made it is
going to become more and more distracting. The time it takes to check all these apps
is going to increase and the same can be said for the rate of accidents. Later I will
give examples on how multi- 'tasking is a trait that is rare amount people, and how it
is more of a negative impact on your daily life.

He does show awareness for the topics using specific and detailed examples
on how this topic has affected people today. He uses stories of a Mr. Campbell and
his business and family. He also uses studies done on multitasking done by different
colleges and scientists.

Well the positives of the venue he choose is that young college kids are
reading and discussing about this problem and maybe they can change some things
in there lives. The negatives of this venue are that it is limited to only a select few.
The relationship of the venue and the topic of the paper is a positive one as it is in a
paper book and the topic is about the problems of technology. If people where using
technology to read it then it would give a mixed message.

Mr. Campbell ends up learning out about this problem the hard way, and it
nearly cost him $1.3 million dollars. He was able to salvage the deal but this is not
the last time. Minutes before an online meeting for his new venture he was
distracted by a tweet of a news article that had nothing to do with his business
opportunity. Yet again he was able to pull himself together to make the deal go
through, luckily. In another story he is so overwhelmed by emails that he is to
distract and signs his company up for the wrong type of amazon account. This
mistake cost his company around $1,800 for really nothing extra they needed.

The problem doesn't end with Mr. Campbell though it extends to his family as
they became obsessed with their technology. His daughter, who is a second grader,
is on her phone and tablet. His son is having some trouble in school because he
cannot focus on his homework. This is because he has two monitors in his room,
both of which have some form of social media on it, and his phone constantly going
off with texts from his girlfriend. They aren't the only family in the world having that
same problem either. We can find thousands of examples of families behaving like
this.

Another problem he mentions is the myth of multitasking. There are multiple
studies showing both the possible and negative effects. Most of the effects he
mentions are negative, but he does talk about the positives of video gaming. In that a
study done by the University of Rochester found that that players of some fast- 'paced
video games can track the movement of a third more objects on a screen than non- '
videogame players. They say the games can improve reaction and the ability to pick
out details amid clutter.

Now for the negatives first of all multitaskers did significantly worse than
non- 'multitaskers at filtering out the irrelevant information. The multitaskers took
longer than non- 'multitaskers to switch among tasks; the example given is the
differentiating of vowels from consonants and then odd from even numbers. The
multitaskers were also shown to be less efficient at juggling problems. A study done
by the University of California found that people constantly interrupted by messages
or emails show signs of significantly increased stress when compared to people who
where focused on the tasks. The hormones released when stress have been shown
to reduce short- 'term memory.

I myself have been heavily affected by technology in just writing this essay.
Every time I sat down to start writing I found myself watching Netflix or Hulu Plus.
The worst part is now that hockey season has started I will be to busy watching the
games to do my homework. In another way technology has helped with this project
to as I have been looking up information about this subject on my phone and
inserting it into this paper.

I have also been majorly affected in my life because of people's obsession
with getting information as soon as possible to through the acts of one of my friends.
She was driving to a friend's house and ended up wrecking her car because she tried
to reply to a text. The next couple of days where really touch and go as she did not
show much brain activity. She is healthy now but she will never be 100% herself,
and this is because she got a text that said 'How long til u r here'.

That is why this problem must be addressed immediately. If you are texting
and you run into something or trip that's no real big deal but it is when you let it
distract you from paying attention while driving a box of metal at high speeds is
when the tech problem really occurs. There are many groups today that talk about
texting and driving, and even now companies are making apps that make it easier to
use your phone through Bluetooth and limit what action you are able to take.

Next, I would like to talk about privacy. With today's social media websites I
find that it give people to easy of a platform to just share what they think. For some
people it is a great way to get out smart/imaginative/great ideas, but for most
people it gives them a platform to spew out random nonsense that can be
interoperated as insulting or ignorant. It can get people in trouble at home, school,
work, or with the law. For stupid things like threats, jokes, or other nonsense, and I
believe this needs to be stopped immediately. I don't know how, and I don't really
care either but it needs to be stopped.

The technology problem must be thought and handled with starting with the
most severe actions- 'i.e. Texting and driving- ' to things that may affect are daily lives- '
i.e. Sorting good information with useless/bad information, or staying focused on
the job at hand instead of four tasks at once. I believe there is a way to teach people
especially young children how to avoid dangerous actions when using technology. In
short I completely agree with the author that technology has a positive side in
moderation, but in to big a number it is negative side effects we suffer from.

