Nowadays, technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. From the internet to mass production, technology is viewed as a wonder that has simplified people’s lives and improved them in every way. However, technology might not be as simple and perfect as it is made out to be. Famous writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once noted that “life is frettered away by detail” and that one should “simplify, simplify” (Thoreau 64). Recently technology has started to make up every small detail in our day to day lives. This steady increase in the consumption of technology is starting to change the way we live our lives. Some negative effects of technology and its complications can be seen in many aspects of our social lives. Such aspects include our mental and physical health, general saftey and overall quality of life. Technology, although made to make our life easier, has started to change our behavior and is leading to the development of an unhealthier and less fulfilling life then previous generations. 

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge in an effort to facilitate commonplace tasks. Humans have been developing technology for millions of years. We have come a long way from stone tools; modern humans have made great strides, especially in the past century, to advance the quality of life of their fellow citizens. Social media, modern means of production, the internet and television are only a few of the recent technological advances that have transformed our lives from those of our ancestors.

The benefits of technology are widely advertised. It is often considered a wonder that offers incredible advantages for society, from the ease of mass production to the facilitation of communications. Technology has the ability to bring the world together through phones, while social media allows people from different sides of the world to communicate with each other effortlessly and efficiently. Televisions have created popular culture that people can relate to, while the internet allows easy access to vast amounts of knowledge online. Housework has become more efficient by modern appliances, and countries are becoming increasingly productive through faster and better means of production. 

Although social media’s purpose is to connect people no matter how far away they are, it seems to do the opposite to the people who are closest. Social media historian Allison Graham presents the problems that social media and phone time have on our daily interactions in her TED talk. During her presentation, Graham elaborates on the dissocializing power of cell phones and social media. She argues that social media has changed the way people communicate with each other; not only do we spend more time on a screen than actually socializing with people face to face, we prefer texting our close ones rather than talking to them in person (Graham). While people seem to be in constant contact, they never truly gain any social fulfilment, since they are not truly socializing. 

Graham proceeds to skillfully address another key issue of our generation with the increase in phone use and willingness to be constantly connected; texting and driving. Texting and driving has already been established as a hazardous activity and is now a ticketalbe offence. Despite the known dangers of texting and driving, many still do it each day.While a lot of young people argue that quickly checking your phone won’t be a significant distraction, Graham comments that “if you’re driving fifty-five miles an hour and you look down at your phone for five seconds, you have just now driven the length of an entire football field completely blind” (Graham). Texting while driving really is an indication of the addiction people have developed to social media. People are willing to risk harming others and even themselves in order to check their phones and stay up to date with the latest updates.

 Constantly trying to stay connected along with the artificial validation we receive from social media posts causes an epidemic of false or unfulfilling relationships among today’s society, especially in teenagers and young adults. We have entered the era where social media has replaced face-to-face interactions, resulting in people caring more about their online presence than their actual persona. Despite the general increase in communication, a majority of it takes place online, leaving the interactions a lot less meaningful and superficial. This method of socializing, although more convienent, “leaves the [participants] feeling more isolated” and overall less fulfilled than an authentic conversation (Graham). Personal contact and interactions with others has been greatly put aside by our generation, which relies on technology for almost every sort of contact and relationship. Overall, dependence on technology for maintaining our relationships has lead to more impersonal and unfulfilling friendships, despite the number of “friends” people may have online.

Contrary to my thesis, tech journalist Elena Kvochko argues that technology has positively impacted society. In her article she goes on to describe how the rise of the social media industry has not only made tech users more happy with features and connectivity, but it has also spawned the massive boom in tech related jobs. With the social media industry being so new, Kvochko claims there is a vast amount of room for job growth. It is predicted that come 2020, the informations technology sector alone “will create 758,880 new jobs” (Kvochko). With companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat becoming increasingly popular, it is reasonable for one to believe that technology as a whole is creating jobs and leading to greater consumer happiness. While all of the points stated in this article are valid, other sources combat such claims.

The claims Kvochko makes are either projections or facts that only apply to one industry. The article “How Technology is Destroying Jobs” argues the opposite of Kvochko, proving that jobs as a whole are lost and the quality of life for middle class Americans is at risk. Authors and economists Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that productivity and total employment levels have followed a similar increase over the decades, since the 1940s. Simply put, the more jobs there were, the more productive society was as a whole. Although around the year 2000 the levels flipped, leaving productivity skyrocketing while jobs were diminishing (Rotman et al). 

This sudden decrease in jobs yet subsequent increase in productivity could only have been cause by one thing; technology replacing human jobs. Recently, technological advances such as robots are taking over an increasing number of jobs previously held by humans. The automaztion of jobs saves companies money, in addition to increasing productivity. According to a survey done by the U.S Bureau of Labor, more than 5.6 million manufacturing jobs have been lost during the years 2000-2010 (Ignatius). The replacement of manufacturing jobs is a phenomenon that has now spread to all sectors, with technology threatening to replace blue collar jobs in the food industry and retailing. The Bureau of Labor also reports that more than 72% of jobs in the food industry could be automized along with 53% of retailing jobs. Yet blue collar jobs aren’t the only ones at risk; white collar jobs in accounting and finance can easily be at risk to automization with recent advances in computer speech and task comprehension (Ignatius). Consequently, Kvochko’s argument that new technologies will create new jobs is refuted, since a large majority of todays jobs can be automated, leading to an overall net loss in jobs.

With the decrease in jobs across America, a disparity is forming within the working classes. Less jobs equal higher unemployment rates and therefore a reduced household income. A reduced household income ultimately leads to a lower quality of life (Rotman et al). While the country is producing more and making a larger profit, the lower and middle class workers are suffering. The advances in production methods and computer systems benefit the companies they save money for, but ultimately hurt the workers and their families. At the end of the day, one of the most important factors for the success of our country is for the American people to be content. This won’t be the case if unemployment rates keep increasing and blue collar jobs are replaced by machines and robots. The continuation of such job replacement is further “hollowing out the working force” and creating a larger discrepancy between the lower and upper classes (Rotman et al). 

Similarly to the industrial revolution when agrarian jobs shifted to manufacturing jobs, nowadays technology is once again causing a shift in our workforce. The automization of jobs is completely reforming our economy. Lower skill level jobs are constantly being lost, leaving the lower class with less working options. Other than certain manual jobs and highly skilled professional jobs, the minimally skilled jobs are beginning to disappear, creating a salary gap and a difficult choice for people to make; in order to earn a living, one must either go through a lifetime of education or simply settle for an easy manual job and barely get by. Since 2002, the mean income level has diminished by 8% (Sweet et al). As stated earlier, lower income levels lead to a lower quality of life. With lower income levels and job loss being attributed to technology, it is safe to assume that technology is a factor in the average person having a less fulfilling life.

Technology today has greatly affected how fast we receive our information. With social media and online news sources, information is easily spread from one side of the world to another in the touch of a button. While this is mostly seen as a benefit, negative consequences such as misinformation have arose from it. Misinformation is not as easy to avoid as it was in the past. With most of todays news coming from social media people are exposed daily to hoaxs, rumors and other fake news. A study done by Filippo Menczer, professor of computer and information sciences at Indiana University, shows that “misinformation is just as likely to go viral as reliable information”. With information being so readily available, it is sometimes hard to distinguish the truth from fiction (Menczer).

With all of the misinformation on the web, people and their beliefs can be easily misled. Online, there is no editor to control the quality of what is written. People without any basic knowledge of a subject can make any claims they wish, often influencing a great number of people who do not question the source of what they read. A survey done by a team at Columbia University suggests that 32% of Americans completely trust news and information from the web and that 54% mostly trust online information (Mitchell et al). In other words, a vast majority of Americans trust online news sources. This wave of misinformation in our society means that there is a plethora of people who are wrongly influenced by false information. Misinformation should be a great concern for the average person because it affects everything from one’s beliefs to the credibility of a one’s research paper. Through the web, misinformation has the power to negatively influence our quality of life by presenting false knowledge to its users.

Similar to the internet, television can also be a double-edged sword. Its constant projection of appealing television shows with people leading seemingly perfect lives can often  compel one to sit on the couch for hours. However, this attractive device can have deadly effects on its viewers. The article “How TV could shorten your life” presents research that proves adults that watch television for over two hours a day may be twice more likely to die young than those who watch less than an hour (Blaszczak-Boxe). Watching television for extended hours each day leads to a highly sedimentary lifestyle that can have adverse health effects. In addition, mindless snacking is also higher when watching TV; this also adversely impacts the viewer’s health (Blaszczak-Boxe). Television, although an entertaining pastime, can be detrimental to one’s overall health.

 The effects of television are not restricted to physical health; they expand to mental health as well. According to the article by Jessica Firger, binge watching TV is linked to loneliness and depression (Firger). While many consider watching TV for extended periods of time a form of escape from the real world, studies among young people showed that those who viewed television for longer amounts of time reported that they felt higher rates of depression and loneliness in their life (Firger). The study also found an association between a lack of self-control and binge watching (Firger). This activity takes valuable time out of these people’s lives and reduces their productivity significantly. Furthermore, television reduces the interactions people have with each other. It is much easier to sit and observe the lives of others than to go out and live your own. Inactivity and despondency are a vicious cycle that can be nearly impossible to break. People need exercise, sunlight, and human interaction in order to live full and happy lives. To achieve this, they need to control the amount of time they spend in front of a television screen. Television, however, is only one of the many technological factors that are negatively impacting the lives of stay at home parents.

Another aspect of our society that technology has reformed is housework. Women no longer have to do most chores by hand; clothes and dishes are washed by machines, while cleaning and ironing have become much easier through modern devices that minimize the time needed for each chore. However, these devices may not be as great as people think. Studies have shown that the housewives of today have become much more inactive than the housewives of the past (Boyette). Women that stay at home now have a lot less physical activities to do, which results in them developing a more sedentary lifestyle. Such a lifestyle can cause great harm to these women, who end up sitting at home all day with very few distractions. Because of their vast amounts of free time, they often end up sitting around the house and become occupied by computers and televisions for most of the day. This stagnant lifestyle can be detrimental to the health of housewives, often leading to complications such as obesity, diabetes, and depression (Boyette).

Overall, it really depends on the users of the technology to allow it to negatively impact themselves. Palmer Shelly’s article on the Huffington Post “Technology: Good or Bad” presents that technology in itself is neutral; it is the way in which we utilize the technology offered to us that determines its effects (Palmer). Texting, for example, can be a means that facilitates communication but texting can also cause deadly accidents when practiced while driving (Palmer). In the first World War, for example, the generals did not fully understand the power that their new weapons possessed, resulting in an unprecedented number of casualties (Palmer). This discrepancy gives technology the ability of doing great damage to its users. It is essential to remember that it is the way that people use technology that causes it to be harmful. One should remember to focus on other parts of their lives rather than succumbing to the daily dependence of technology in order to live a stable and healthy life.

Looking at the effects of technology within social media, the economy and overall human health, it can be observed that technology has negatively influenced several integral parts of our lives. It’s easy to focus on the bright side and ignore the  numerous drawbacks of technology, but at the end of the day it is something that affects us all. When looking at everything technology provides us with, it is important to also remember everything that it takes away. Rather than living a technologically-dependent lifestyle, it is time to start realizing that our lives are not meant to be simple and passive. We actually need to make an effort outside of our technologically advanced world in order to live a wholesome and fulfilling life.

 