Why does technology have such an impact on a person’s daily life? Technology can play a positive and negative role on society. People can use it for scientific discoveries or social discoveries. The common person mainly uses technology for social reasons. Technology is not only used by adults but also children. The use of tablets or iPads are becoming more normal to kids. The constant use of technology is breaking people down and evolving them. Everyone is always invested into the phone screen. It is causing people to lose social skills; as in not being about to look people in the eyes when talking or not being able to talk to someone face-to-face. Especially the kids who use tablets or iPads all the time. For all age groups technology has created a distraction, loss in social skills, missed opportunities, violent behavior, poor self-esteem, social media addictions, and other ways that have negatively affected them.  For the generations to come technology is going to be the only thing that they know. Technology is not going to be something that just disappears. People are going to need to know how to co-exist with it. Technology cannot win this battle and take over a person. People need to stop and remember where they came from without technology and how it things can be done without it. 

A somewhat big screen that plays movies, games, and talks; seems certainly appealing to a child under the age of twelve. In fact, 70% of children under the age of twelve use a tablet or an iPad (Nielsen). This generation is the future of the world. People of this generation need to not be negatively affected by technology. Since the use of technology is a major part of this age group; precautions should be taken so that children can develop the right skills that are needed in life. Technology is currently shaping these children’s social skills. The apps that kids are playing are leading the violent behavior. Statistics have shown that, 77% of children use a tablet or an iPad to play downloaded games (Nielsen). The apps create a real-life scenario that allows them to feel like they are actually harming other people in the game. The kids take this experience from the games and apply it in real life which leads to harmful behavior to other kids in the classroom. Teachers have noticed this in recent years. In a study about preschoolers and the effects of media, technology, and screen time; the teachers noticed that the children who used tablets and iPads more became more violent; by hitting other children and getting upset much quicker. Also the children had different social skills than the kids who do not use devices as much. As in not being able to look the teachers in the eyes. In Preschool Children’s Expose to Media, Technology, and Screen Time, Kimberly Sharkins explains that technology can affect the development of a child brain. This study was also written with multiple different authors who all have a background in children’s studies. This information provided the support of the argument about how technology can negatively affect a person or child. A child should not be exposed to technology for large quantities of time.

Technology can be a distraction and also allow children to develop poor communication skills. Everyone is always looking at their phones. Now a day’s people do not know how to have a real conversation with someone. Isn’t this world built on talking to people in real life? Having a conversation with someone face-to-face is a skill that is taught to a child when they are young. It is becoming something that kids are not knowing how to do but because of tablets, phones, and computers. A big way that face-to-face contact is becoming an issue is through electronic communication (Markus). It gives people a way to communicate with other people without having to talk to them face-to-face; because of this people are becoming less personal and not being social with one another. People are starting to hide behind a profile to meet people because it is the easy way. When it comes time to meet that person the conversations are awkward and do not flow as easy due to the lack of face-to-face interaction the two people have had. Being distracted by technology effects every age not just the young kids; adults as well. In an ad for Windows, people are being shown not paying attention because they are spending too much time on their phones. The people are missing out on what is happening around them. This ad is a great representation how people look when they are on their phones. Multiple people who are not on a phone say “really” to the people who are on a phone because they are not focusing on them or what’s going on. Windows is a technology company that was making fun of how people are so invested in their phones that they do not pay attention to anything. They were also advocating for their new phone which is faster and leads to more time without the phone being a distraction. This ad says it all and no one is saying anything but “really”. It shows a person how unintelligent they look when they are on their phone all the time. Technology has become a distraction and has led to poor communication skills. These are issues that should not be in existent from technology. People need to learn how to co-exist with technology without having problems in their daily lives. People cannot have a conversation with another person while using their phones at the same time. It distracts a person from getting out actual thoughts.

Phone, tablets, computer, and other devices were created so that humans could communicate with others who lives far away. It let friends and family connect from far distances. It also gives people a way to do activities but still stay in contact with friends and family. Communicating branched when social media was invented. Social media are applications that people can join to see what everyone is doing all the time. Once social media was created the private life a person thought they lived was no longer private. People post every event they attend, every person they hang out with, and every thought they have. This form of communication turned into a competition with fiends. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and others apps are different forms of social media. These applications have turned people into monsters; creating profiles that are not genuinely the person who it says it is. Then the person behind the fake profile tries to start a relationship with someone, but is lying about who they truly are. This is called catfish and it is a disturbing idea.  People are posting pictures that are being edited to make women look skinny and beautiful. Women who see the pictures and think that is the way they should look. This causes poor self-esteem in women who are perfectly fine but, because of social media it has led to self-doubts about the way a woman looks. Another problem with social media is that people are getting cyberbullied. People think it is casual to hide behind a screen and call another person hurtful names or say hurtful things to them; when in reality they would not say any of those actual things in person. Social media was created as a way to communicate with others and still is but people are abusing its rightful use. Social media and technology can have a negative effect on society because of the wrong ways it is being used. They were not used for the right purpose, but instead being used to bring people down. The whole reason for social media was to connect with family and friends who do not live close. It was supposed to make them feel like they were with friends and family.

Social media in the 21st century becoming an activity that people are addicted to. In 2017 about 81% of the United States population uses some form of social media (Zarka). About 318.9 billion people live in the United States. That’s a whole lot of people who use social media in the 21st century (Zarka). The average teen spends about nine hours a day on social media and the average person spends about two hours. Also, 70% of teenagers check their phones every hour, and many experience phantom pocket-vibration syndrome (Stein). This is a part of being addicted to social media and phones. The need to check a phone every five seconds is not going to make things better.  This times could be spent on school or work. Social media is something that was created in the last ten years. Before that people were not spending most of their time on social media. People spent their time outside getting chores and doing other activities instead of staring at a screen. More people are becoming addicted to social media. People are addicted to checking these applications around the clock to see what is going on because they have a fear of missing out. People do not need to know what is going on 24/7. They should just be focused on what they are doing in their life and not others. Social media is a part of life that is now infused into daily life. 

Parents are using technology to parent and get away from their children. In the article Is Your Technology Use Hurting Your Kids?, the author Lisa Firestone, explains that parents are spending most of their time on a smart phone or computer and using smart phones and tablets to keep their kids happy. Parents are so consumed by the devices that it leads to the children misbehaving because they are not getting the attention they want from their parents. Due to the use of devices children are not developing the right social skills needed later on in life. Parents think that because their child is quiet and sitting still that they are doing a fantastic job parenting. Studies have shown that a child develops most of its learn at early stages in life(Firestone). When a child is learning from a screen on a phone, tablet, computer, or TV there might be some lack of developments. Young children need to learn in the early years from real people and get real attention from real people and not screens. The lack of attention given to a child effects their behavior(Firestone). It creates a gap for the child when forming relationships. In the early stages of childhood, children learn all of their basic skills from their parents. If their parent is not present or paying attention enough attention to the child; then no basic skills will be learned because there is nothing for the child to learn if they parent is not giving enough attention. 

People like to surround themselves with work to keep busy. People like to keep busy so that they have something to do all the time. Keeping busy with technology is not always a suitable thing. If people keep their brains busy with technology all the time it keeps them from better learning and remembering information. The brain is the power house of the body; if it starts to shut down then every thought is gone.  The brain needs down time away from technology to better process information; a nice walk or run outside can help. Multiple different sources of researchers that have down studies on how people retain information better by giving their brain down time (Richtel). This down time is referred to taking a nap, going a couple hours without technology, having some peaceful time to reconnect without a device.  When people do not let their brains have done time from technology they are not giving their brain the best opportunity to retain information. The brain needs to learn new things to understand the newer/bigger things. Taking a couple hours, a day to put down the phone, computer, tablet, or TV remove can have a big advantage in the long run. The brain needs time to process information for the future. Technology can be so helpful but without taking the right precautions when using it could potentially hurt a person’s learning and thought process.

People develop different behaviors from different experiences that are learned. Kids learn from their parents, but now with video games kids are learning from the games. Video games are a way to entertain kids by them controlling a player in the game. To kids they are an entertaining way to a game inside on a screen. Video games can be adventurous, violent, playful, realistic, exciting, and challenging. In recent years there was a study done by Christopher Ferguson. He studied how violent video games can affect the behavior of kids. He believes that violent video games can lead to aggressive behavior in the players. When playing the violent video games, the kids feel like they are actually in the game playing. The emotions that the kids feel when playing the games are hatred, frustration, competition, graphic and other negative emotions. The main goal is to win. Some of the violent games involve hurting people or destroying things. When the kids are not playing the games they showed the same emotions as if they were playing the game in real life. The kids feel they are being involved visually and personally (Ferguson). Violent video games have effected kid’s behaviors in a negative and violent way because of the feeling they are just as if they are living the game for real. Technology can be a gift but a gift that can take away from everyday life.

Technology is used by every age group. The baby boomers, generation x, and the millennials. The millennials do not know how to do anything by themselves because growing up everything was done for them. They were raised to be selfish and in an era of technology. Growing up around technology it has made the millennials become self-centered. “Millennials are interacting all day but almost entirely through a screen. You’ve seen them at bars, sitting next to one another and texting. They might look calm, but they’re deeply anxious about missing out on better”(Stein). Stein thinks that the millennials are self-centered and cannot do anything for themselves because it was handed to them when they were growing up. He thinks that because they were babied growing up that they cannot do anything. The millennials grew up when technology was at its peak so they do not know much different from not having technology. The millennials lack empathy for others and an understanding of other points of view because they think everything is only about their person. Technology shaped the millennials. It has also started to shape the generation above the millennials. 

Social media and technology to some can always be seen as having a negative effect on people. Some people might not always see it as something that has a negative effect on people. Technology and social media both have their negative effects but they also have their positive ones. Technology is a limitless advancement of the 20th and 21st centuries. People have been able to discover many new things and invent many new things because of technology. Like how to make the internet run faster or see when a person is searching on their phone. Social media has its ups and downs but it is the modest way to communicate with others. Technology and social media are outlets that people love to use. It is part of everyday life, but can turn everyday life in to a struggle when all a person does it check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. It is something that the world will never be able to get rid of; so people need to learn how to live without it hurting them. If we did not have smart phones in this time period for a whole day, no one would know what to do because everyone relies so much on them; yet people used to be able to not need them. Technology is something that will never go away now that it is here. People use so much technology every day to help them. 

Technology is not only used by adults but also children. The use of tablets or iPads are becoming more normal to kids. They are growing up to that being normal. The constant use of technology is breaking people down and evolving them. Everyone is always invested into their phone screen. Spending too much time looking at a screen can make it harder to learn and retain information. Social media can turn people crazy by having to look perfect, post the perfect pictures, post the right status, and even say the right things. Using tablets at an early age for long periods of time can her the development of the brain. Technology has not always been in the world so people can function without it. It is a matter of whether they want to or not. Self-control plays a role in the use of technology. I do not think that people know life without phone, tablets, computers, or TV. I think that people need to learn how to not be so consumed into phone, tablet, computer, or TV screens. Technology is slowing killing the human race. We are all so consumed in social media that we don’t pay attention to what’s going on around us. My kids are only going to know life with smart phones and social media and it scares me because we do not really know how this technology is going to affect us in the long run. I wish that people have more face-to-face contact instead to using their phone. After all my research I do believe that technology and social media can and always will have a negative impact on people.
