"The Illusory Effects of Technology' In our modernized world today, technological devices are a necessity, as it connects us to people around the world, the events happening everywhere and most of all, it fills up the gap between us and our loved ones who are far away from us. So, how could this possibly make us feel more alone? People created technological devices such as cellophanes, computers, laptops, cameras, pads and many more so that we could stay connected. But, is this really happening? Do we really feel unconnected with the people around us?Can we still build strong and rich relationships with people? Based on what is happening now, people become more uncomfortable talking to someone face-to-face. According to Melanie 2011, instead of having the presence of each other, people prefer to talk online and send text messages because they can control how long it takes for them to respond, leaving out the awkwardness of the sudden silence people make during face-to-face conversations. People are continuously reducing the importance and quality of real invitations as they are more comfortable talking and facing a computer screen instead of looking into someone's eyes.
The use of technology, social networking and social media sites is Just an illusion that makes us feel more loved and known to the world, but the truth is that it only makes us feel lonelier because we do not spend real face-to-face conversations with the people who are around us. So, why does it makes us feel more alone? First of all, it does not really build real and strong relationships. We get a different view of people if we only meet them inline instead of meeting them personally. For instance, if we meet people online, we get so comfortable talking to them in that manner.But when we finally get to see them in person, we often get disappointed and feel uncomfortable because we are not used to talking to them face-to-face. But isn't that the beauty of having a relationship with someone? One of the most valuable things in a relationship is each other's presence.
When someone we love is far away from us, we have technological devices that can connect us to the person even if he/she is at the other side of the world. Some people spend most of their time video chatting with them so that they could somehow feel their presence.But even if they spend the whole day chatting, there will always be something missing with their whole conversation, as they were only there for each other emotionally, but not physically. This is the advantage of people who meet personally.
The presence of each other is the key to a healthy relationship with friends and family as we comfort them not only emotionally but also physically. Second, the disadvantage of depending on technological devices all the time is the act that it shuts us out from the people around us.According to Klein 2014, people spend about 100-200 minutes per day using the internet and 30-90 minutes per day using social networks. Much more when it comes to teenagers and children who get too addicted using their gadgets by playing and talking to hundreds of their online friends. But even though they have hundreds of friends online, they still say that they feel so alone.
This is because they spend so much time with these devices that they tend to shut out the people who are willing to give them company. Thus, if they only knew how to balance their time, then they would not feel so abandoned and alone.Balancing our time will make us feel more productive and alive, compared to people who use gadgets all day long, who are totally escaping the real world. And lastly, technology reduces the importance and quality of face-to-face conversations. These devices were made for us to converse with people by sharing our thoughts, emotions and ideas, but people use them in the wrong way.
As stated by Niles 2012 from The Bottom Line, social networking sites are slowly destroying the importance and meaningfulness of conversations that we have with people, thus, making us feel more detached and isolated in today's society.Instead of spending time with someone, we prefer calling and testing them instead because we think that it is more convenient, efficient, and only needs little effort. Therefore, the fact that people always want to do things the easy way makes them think that online conversations are better than face-to-face conversations. This is very noticeable with teenagers and children, especially when they talk with their distant friends, family ND relatives.They feel comfortable chatting and testing with them, but when they finally meet them in person, they tend to be shy and silent, as they got used to the emotional presence of these people, not the physical presence. Adults, on the other hand, also experience these situations but not as much as younger generations.
They want to get connected to the world by getting updates from current news and events. But when it comes to meeting people, studies show that they prefer talking to them face-to-face because for them, spending valuable time with their loved ones is when hey have the presence of each other.Getting to see each other personally is a big deal for them. When it comes to their family, they always want to spend time with their children, but the problem is that children get too caught up with the use of technology that they forget to spend time with them.
This shows that the use of technological devices depend on your age. Children these days are born in the age of modern technology, and it is important for them to know how to balance their time and not make their entire world circle around these devices. In conclusion, the use of these technological devices should be limited.
