

Excessive use of technology is detrimental to young adults physical health and general well being. Technology can be beneficial in educational settings, medical atmospheres, and maintaining long distance relationships. Overall technology in moderation improves efficiency and allows us to maintain healthy lifestyles. In this essay, I hope to convey the importance of lessening the presence of technology in our day to day lives, not only for our physical health but our mental health in addition.

Computers significantly increase the efficiency in the workplace, medical fields, and educational settings. They allow for information to be more widespread and communication to happen almost instantly through emails and instant messages. Technology also decreases the need for face-to-face contact with professors, which makes communication more convenient but also depersonalizes the relationships between students and teachers. In Internet Goes to College, Jones discusses the benefits of faster communication between students and professors, allow research to be obtained easier and faster, and increasing general efficiency significantly. He states "four-fifths of college students (79%) agree that Internet use has had a positive impact on their college academic experience" (Jones, 3). He also asked participants to answer if they had ever been on the internet or not. His research concluded that of all college students surveyed, 86% had been online as opposed to 59% of the general population. Many students were required to use the internet: "about half of all college students (48%) are required to use the Internet to contact other students in at least some of their classes" (3). His next statistics concern what students do with their time on the Internet, which involves communicating socially with friends and family, engaging in work for classes, entertainment, and professional communication. The most popular activity was to communicate socially (42% of their time), with working for classes at a close second (38%of their time). Students in college also agreed (44.3%) or strongly agreed (34.3%) to the statement that the Internet has benefitted them in college. Majority of students (73%) agreed that they used the Internet more than the library for researching, primarily because there is more readily available to them at a more efficient speed.

Playing games can also have a beneficial effect on young adults general well being and skills. In Positive Effects of Entertainment Technology on Human Behaviour, Rauterberg discusses many beneficial aspects of entertainment technology on people of all ages. Depending on the game and the age of the player, different skills are built accordingly. He argues that "kids encouraged to play stand the best chance of becoming healthy, happy and productive members of society ...  positive aspects of playing can promote literacy, thinking, reflecting and creativity [16][31]" (Rauterberg, 53). While all games promote the development of these skills, not every game teaches these skills in the most traditional way. Content of the games is also a concerning aspect of using games to build skills. There are games that are rated by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) that contain appropriate material for kids below 12 years of age. However, typical video game stores contain vast amounts of games with explicit or graphic content. The advertisements in the windows are often provocative, and while these games do teach certain skills such as "logic, memory, problem solving and critical thinking", the content is usually unsuitable for younger gamers. On a brighter note, playing games can excel the development of social skills through games that require cooperation between players. His research concludes, "65 studies found that co-operation tasks promotes higher achievement than competitive tasks, 8 found the reverse ...  Cooperation tasks promoted higher achievement that individualistic tasks in 108 studies, while 6 found the reverse" (Rauterberg, 54). These statistics support his argument perfectly, because games that require players to cooperate with each other forces them to strategize as a unified whole. Another benefit of games is that they promote socially accepting behavior. He states "children exposed to prosocial content have more positive social interactions ... and less stereotyped views of others. Especially in this day and age, all the media and hostile attitudes/commentary towards people of a different ethnicity makes for so many uncomfortable and violent events. Rauterbergs final statistics concern therapeutically beneficial effects of technology on human health. For example, the "robot pet Paro in a hospital environment showed ... the mood of children and elderly patients could be positively changed" (55). Although a robot dog isn't quite as comforting and soft as a living dog, the playful attitude programmed into the robot did cause a shift in patients' attitudes for the better. He also states "active play may reduce impulsivity thereby helping children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder" (55). This statistic makes a lot of sense for his argument because a game that requires kids to be active can be an outlet for all their excess active energy. While technology has increased our efficiency and helped us achieve things our ancestors never imagined possible, there are many detrimental effects. Primarily technology retards our natural ways of building skills the way we are supposed to. It also affects our physical health, by preventing or natural sleep patterns to control our body clocks. The subconscious, psychological effects are also detrimental considering technology has an addictive, attractive appeal.

There are many beneficial aspects to not using technology as often in our daily routines. For instance, less technology time allows for more face time with people we are surrounded by and allows for better conversational skills. It also promotes a more active lifestyle, which allows for better health overall. In Social Networking Among Health Sciences University Students: Examining Social Network Usage, Social Support, and General Well-Being, Mahapatra implies that SNS sites negatively impact relationship building and happiness of students after extensive use. She concludes so by stating the statistics that 70% of students didn't feel close with significant others after conversing through social networks and that 2.9% of students experienced positive well-being with use of social networks greatly influencing their lives. These are pretty morose statistics; especially with all the hidden promises SNS ads give, concerning the users making more friends and being more connected with the world. Conversational/rhetorical skills are lost when users spend excessive time behind a computer screen. The ability to have genuinely strong relationships with your acquaintances through shared memories and experiences is also lost when technology is used to replace that.

Technology can be very successful in an educational environment, especially for visual learners and improving efficiency when sharing files. However, students who type notes rather than hand write them tend to absorb notes significantly less as well as students who write their notes. Typing on a computer does increase note-taking speed and allows students to get more information in a shorter amount of time. However, Oppenheimer states in The Pen Is Mightier than the Keyboard: Longhand and Laptop Note-Taking that students who take the time to hand write their notes have to shorten/abbreviate what the lecturer is saying and put it into their own words, therefore writing it in a way they can best understand, therefore increasing their retention ability. While the research Oppenheimer did was mostly specific to the student, overall laptop users had significantly more "verbatim overlap" than handwritten notes, which tended to have fewer words and arranged in a more personal manner.

Technology use can also be detrimental to young adults health. CBS news did a report on how late night technology use can hurt sleep patterns. The blue light emitted from the screens can cause young adults to stay awake and disrupt REM sleep patterns. TheHealthy.com has 10 of he most obvious and major detrimental issues concerning technology on our bodies, whether it's conscious or unconscious. Sleep deprivation is the biggest one, because when the blue lights emitted from our phones stimulate us, we can't help but continue to think about what we were just viewing because the light has disrupted our sleep patterns. It's a sick joke played on us by the technology industry.

Excessive Internet use welds the potential for psychological problems, giving user the possibility to become more sedentary, reclusive, and depressed. Caplan implies in his article Preference for Online Social Interaction: A Theory of Problematic Internet Use and Psychosocial Well-Being that the more depressed and lonely individuals were, the more likely they were to spend the majority of their time on their social media/networking pages. This is detrimental to helping them get over their depression and loneliness because they aren't getting out as often as someone who spends less time online. Just the act of leaving stale surroundings and exploring a new place can uplift someone's mood exponentially. The second hypothesis that Caplan's research supports that mood swings and compulsive/excessive use of technology does have significant effects on depressed users moods and attitudes toward others. The data also shows that "loneliness indirectly correlated with negative outcomes concerning Internet use" (Caplan, 638). Lonely people tend to gravitate and prefer online social interactions, rather than face-to-face interactions. The data concludes that excessive Internet use can have a negative effect on how lonely people feel, and this pushes them even father into avoiding face-to-face contact with others. The only way to get better at communicating with others is to practice conversational skills. You learn through experiences, and the primary reason lonely people prefer to hide behind computer screens is because they're scared of awkward encounters with others, therefore not having learning experiences and crawling deeper and deeper into their caves.

While depressed social network members may think they're making friends on social media sites, the possibility of it being a "catfish" situation is highly likely. "Catfishing" is an online strategy most commonly used by predators, cyber bullies, and people dissatisfied with their own lives. These people will pretend to be someone else, including fake pictures and statuses about their lives to build a persona that attracts lonely people. Through conversations and other interactions over the web, these predators will attempt to obtain the trust of their victim, and in the worst-case scenario meet up and cause harm to the victim. In Valenzuela's Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation, he states that the internet is a breeding ground for "unsafe disclosure of information, cyber bullies, addiction, risky behavior, and contact with dangerous communities" (Valenzuela, 875). There is a lot of truth in this statement because while the Internet wasn't created for the exploitation of people and their personal information, it allows tech-savvy, malicious people to take advantage of people who are less educated on computer safety. Technology can definitely be detrimental to our general well being, however like all things good in this world, it's not awful in moderation.

Daily technology use is an indefinite part of our fast-paced lifestyles. While excessive use of technology is detrimental to our general well being, Cutting it out of our lives completely is virtually impossible. In Freedom to Surf: The Positive Effects of Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing, Coker discusses the effects of browsing the internet during work. The kinds of workplace internet leisure browsing he identified include checking sports results, reading online news websites, reading/writing social media blogs, playing online games, shopping, composing personal emails, researching hobbies, and viewing adult websites. His research concerning "WILBing" (Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing) shows that multiple short bursts of internet leisure time is beneficial to productivity: "those who WILBed had significantly higher productivity  ...  than those who did not WILB" (Coker, 244). On the contrary, he also states that too much WILBing or WILBing in a few, long bursts "may begin to consume time needed to complete organizationally set tasks" (244). So Coker gives us both positives and negatives of WILBing in the workplace, providing us with the conclusion that technology in moderation is key to living a more productive life.

Many technology developers will be quick to highlight the positive effects of technology on young adult's well being and health. Technology has helped our civilization excel in almost all areas, such as education, medical fields, researching, maintaining relationships over long distances, and further developing industrial ideas. In Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation, Valenzuela argues that increased SNS (social networking sites) use, specifically Facebook, directly correlates with higher life satisfaction. He defines social capital as "social networks, trust, civic engagement, life satisfaction, and happiness of one's family members are all correlated to high life satisfaction and happiness" (Valenzuela, 877-8). His research was specific to Facebook, and was also published about 7 years ago, so compared to today's social media vortex I think the statistics would be a little bit more dramatic. His ultimate conclusion was that "Facebook members and nonmembers did now differ in terms of their life satisfaction, social trust or political participation" (888). Therefore, does Facebook benefit young adults well being? Considering members and nonmembers of the social media site didn't differ in their social capital, it seems the site doesn't have that much of an impact, if any at all, on the users happiness. 

Computers can also act as strange stimulants to humans. Computers as Persuasive Social Actors discusses how computers are designed to trigger reactions and emotions in us, therefore act as persuasive social actors. Fogg says that news articles are a primary example of stimulants, because they're broadcasted in ways that are specific to the audience watching/reading the information. It's strange that computers can have such a large effect on our emotions and reactions without us realizing it.

In conclusion, moderation is key. Less technology use in our daily routines will promote healthy relationships and lifestyles. At this point in time, when technology development is so rapid and rampant, it's necessary to learn how to work with it and adjust with the new developments in order to keep progressing. At the end of the day, friendships and relationships with those around you are what will really give you the satisfaction and psychological health we were programmed to have as humans.
