Jannie Temple Temple 3
Prof. Rima Fakhry
ESL 51-301A
21 October 2015
Position Essay, Draft 3 In The Digital Age Relationship Have Become Fragmented In her article, “How Our Digital Devices Are Affecting Our Personal Relationship”, Iris Adler highlight some important points made by some tech enthusiasts that people are too occupied with digitals. There are many negative consequences of using technology. Children complain about their parents not giving them the attention they need because they are so hooked on their devices. Children also get distracted from their school work. People has to balance between the digital and non-digital. The use of this device in one to one interaction has hinder our affection and confidence [Adler]. In my opinion, Adler is right for the following three reasons. Firstly, our digital devices has impacted the way we interact with those close to us. People who are living in the same household communicate through Facebook with each other on their cell phones like they never sit down at supper time. You cannot have a conversation without the interruptions or cell phones or the person engrossed in his computer. At the end of the day, personal interaction will continue to decline, and people will become totally intolerant of one another. Secondly, digital devices causes distractions with student as well as adults. For example, teachers will be teaching whilst some of the student will be on their phones or iPad, texting or doing something else, which many a time leads to poor grades.’’ According to Kaiser Family Foundation study young people ages 8-18 now spend nearly every waking moment when they are not in school using media… more than 7.5 hours a day’’[Adler]. Most adults will be glued to their phones and tend to ignore their kids. In order to avoid distraction, we should limit the time we spent on digitals, especially phones, as the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Thirdly, the more we interact with the digital world, the more we become indifferent to the real world and people. We live in an age where everybody is constantly connected to their iPhone, iPad and computers. Our phones have almost become an extension of ourselves; and although they does offer a lot of positive benefits, it also means we are non-stop plugged into the technology world instead of the real world. ‘‘We are too immersed in the digital world and not present enough in the real world’’ [Adler]. We cannot help but feel that the digital device has influenced our level of engagement and connection with the real people in front us. To sum it all up, digital device has impacted the way we interact with those close to us, it causes distractions to both student and adults and it also makes us more indifferent to the real world and people. We have become convinced that our phones, iPad and other digitals are urgent to us no matter what. As a result, we have become overly attached to digital communications and lose the connections to the real world and real people. This leads to a vicious circle, where the more we interact with the digital world the more we lose the connections to the real world and real people.