Mahima nearly contracted a psychological ailment when she had to move back to her country five years ago. Her best friend – her soul sister – Rachel has been absent in her life since then and this badly affected her. The girl who, once, was cheerful became dull and pessimistic; but thanks to a change of fortune there’s finally light at the end now. The new initiative taken and implemented by the Government of Mahima’s country led to the increase of the internet speed. The upgrade of the telecommunication infrastructure also led to improved network. This has made many people like Mahima to easily video-call their friends and families living far away from them without any interruption. Mahima now video conferences with her best friend everyday. The girl whose academic performance deteriorated before has suddenly started doing better and her mood has improved too! She is now a happier person and thus technology and its improvement has made people like Mahima rejuvenate their lost contacts. Though technology has positive effects in our lives, it also has its negative side. Dilshad Fayeza Haque in her article, “Of Technologies and Lost Conversations” talks about how technology is negatively affecting our lives. She starts with the statement that technology has made us more distracted and careless. According to her, today, we do not use our intellect when doing something because we are too much distracted by technology. Additionally, Dilshad states that technology has demoted our privacy in social media networks while making us desperate for attention. She further fortifies this by saying that we are too blind to realize that technology has made us like this. Moreover, the author says that technology, also, has made us lose the true essence of friendship and made us less sociable in real life. However, she also claims that technology makes us behave awkwardly in social gatherings and outings with friends. Dilshad points out that as technology is being excessively used, we seldom talk to our friends when we meet them and that we are letting our gadgets overtake us to do something that we should not be doing. Consequently, the author states that we and especially the school-going children, have become dull and their innovative skills have been affected. She gives an example that when we were children ourselves, we used to think and make up games that were full of fun and activities but the children of today do not have this conception. The author adds a statement presented by research which claims that as children are inclined towards technological gadgets, thus, they cannot think creatively. In short, the author suggests that technology has made students to become inattentive and hence, underachievers in academic. To back up her claim, she talks of recent research reports which says that those who overuse technology score below the par grades than those who do not overuse it, which, therefore, is a demotion. She also adds that as students have become inattentive, it has made them lose concentration easily when reading. All in all, the author says that we should use technology to a certain extent and not exploit the chance that we are getting it so easily. The objective of this essay is to write the analysis, discuss my points of agreement with the essay, which is technology is making us more distracted and dull and also discuss the points of disagreement that is, we are underachieving in academic and being less sociable and finally, add my own insights on the topic written by the author, Dilshad Fayeza Haque.

To begin with, the essay is targeted towards those who are heavy-users of technology and gadgets, who are addicted and dependent on technology, and also those who are the exploiters of it and those who keep an interest in it. Dilshad Fayeza Haque has written her article in such manner that these categories of people will be influenced by her article or find similarities that they know about and can relate to. Also, I would like to add that this article is targeted towards a certain age group –especially children, teenagers and the youth and parents who let their families use technology and gadgets to a greater extent. The newly found freedom in the world of technology has made them become heavy users of technology. In my opinion, teenagers and youth form a major part of this group because they find that being in touch with technology all the time is actually staying in “trend” and in “style”. Teenage years and early twenties are crucial times of a person’s life. This is because they are either appearing for their college exams or university entrance tests, therefore, they need to take a stand and prepare themselves for better results. The author’s purpose is to create self-motivation. Students need to realize that they must achieve good grades in order to fulfill their dreams and ambitions. In order to do that, they must not make their life routine such that it will deviate them from their goal. Dilshad believes that self-motivation is the most important thing that can change a person and thus it will lead to the change in how they use technology.

I agree with Dilshad Fayeza Haque on certain points that explains how technology is making us more distracted and dull. Her article speaks of certain brands of gadgets that is very much popular amongst us and so we crave for them. I liked the way she mentioned this because I can relate to it. I also agree to the point that technology is making us more distracted. She has validated this by citing information from a research which says that people who are distracted by technology score 20% less marks than those who are not. Those who are heavy mobile phone users are more distracted all the time. The latest mobile handsets equipped with features like camera, heartbeat sensors, and motion sensors and loaded with interactive applications are supposed to make our lives simpler but, actually, it is keeping us distracted most of the time and, ultimately, complicating things. For example, during a walk through the park, we might bump into someone head-on. Why? Because we were too busy not looking up, but looking at our phone’s screen. This can create a very awkward situation. To the second point, I will give my complete agreement that children who are addicted to or watch TV a lot, are inattentive and distracted most of the times and so they do badly in their school tests. These children, mostly, cannot concentrate during class lectures and thus they do not do satisfactorily in the exams. While technology is making our lives easier and giving us entertainment, but, it is also making us stay distracted and making our lives dull too.

I, to some certain points, disagree with the author, namely the excessive use of technology is harmful for us. I do not think that technology has made us lose the real essence of friendship nor did it make us less sociable in real life. Instead, I will state that technology has made us more aware of our friends’ lives and that we are more interested to meet new people in real life that we came to know of thanks to technology. I want to give an example of how Facebook helped one of my friends Akib, who is a vocal for a band in the local music scene to meet and interact with a Norwegian guitarist named Kim. Without Facebook, thus technology, they would not have ever known each other; last year, in 2014, Akib organized a gig and invited Kim and his band to play in it. The most astonishing thing is that Kim came all the way from Norway to perform at Akib’s gig. Akib even suggested and convinced Kim to stay in his house and it was a happy occasion. They came to know and shared experiences about their lives, culture and taste in food, music and life. Technology made them get to know each other and socialize in person which would never have been possible at all. To broaden the details on my next claim that technology has made us aware of our friends’ lives, I will add another example. I have a very good friend named Eshpelin who is a very active person on Facebook and he doesn’t converse over the phone much. A few weeks back, he suddenly disappeared from Facebook and that raised my interest to what actually happened to him. I, luckily, had his mother’s number and called her to ask what happened and where was Eshpelin? Her reply to me was that Eshpelin’s father has suddenly been hospitalized because of pneumonia and therefore Eshpelin was busy running from home to hospital and so. I visited Eshpelin and his father in the hospital, good news is that, now, after proper medical care, his father is well and fit. Thus, we can say that technology has made us more social and aware of our friends’ lives.

To conclude, I would like to say that Dilshad Fayeza Haque in her article, “Of Technologies and Lost Conversations” has addressed to a few good points about the negative effects of technology in our lives in a precise and convincing way. I liked how well she discussed about the issue, but I cannot completely agree with her stance. Although, technology has its harmful effects in our life and lifestyle, it has its positive effects too. Therefore, to make sure that we use it to our benefit, we can establish a habit of frequently keeping check of the time we allocate to the use of gadgets and social media use per day and keeping it at a minimum. For children and teenagers, strict parental guidance will ensure that they do not exploit technology. In short, for the target age groups who exploit technology, awareness campaigns can be devised so that everyone knows what the benefits and harms of overusing technology are. In my final statement, I will say that, we, the people, can use technology on our own terms to be benefited to an extent and forgo it when it is signaling something harmful. Everything has its benefits and harms, but it is all dependent on our choices, isn’t it?