The Issue With Technology This course has affected me to think differently about technology. It has showed me that many times, we rely on technology too much. Dependence on technology erodes community. Online and offline, when it comes to computers, phones and other such devices, you have created the potential for major distraction and danger. Distraction in the sense that one can spend too much time or too much energy trying to better yourself (often against others) through the technology you have. If you are focusing on how to help others, not on how many more gigabytes you can download with a certain machine, you can be a society that prides practical support for each, over personal security in any virtual world. Danger in the sense that not everything you can encounter through technology is going to be of use to your well-being and/or, by extension, others. Take any of the pornography, alcohol or drug industries. Previously these had a much more limited influence. Now you can access them simply through a click. Community requires effort, and if you want your society to improve itself, it should have to put in an effort to help one another. Using these tools together, and not letting yourselves get sidetracked by their other purposes help you to be independent. You also want to stop society abusing itself because it can. Technological devices can be useful, but from a spiritual perspective, one has to take care of how they are used for everyone to benefit.
We are getting too sucked in to the technical world. People today use technology for a lot more than they realize. According to a 2010 study of eight to eighteen year olds conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Today’s teens spend more than seven and a half hours a day consuming media – watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking, and playing video games” (Masuma Ahuja). And they are going to be completely lost without it. What happens if we lose technology for a long period of time? People will wish that they paid more attention to this major argument that we have been having for a long time.
“The world’s oil and natural gas supplies are running out too fast. At some time between 2010 and 2020 the world’s supply of oil and gas will fall below the level required to meet international demand” (The Insider). There will not always be electrical supply. One day we will run out of natural resources, which means that we will run out of electrical supplies. Then what will happen? No one will be able to take care of him or herself because they have been relying on technology too much. People are so obsessed with their phones that they text someone in the same room. Kids lose their chance to play outside and enjoy childhood because they are always watching TV. Being too dependent on technology can even cause health problems.
“Our technology may be getting smarter, but a provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the decline” (Macrina Cooper-White). Each generation is becoming dumber. We are dependent especially on technology. Why on earth would children need iPads or iPhones? It is absurd how much America depends on technology. Each generation is just becoming dumber and dumber. Children are not developing proper skills, and it is truly sad to see how much society is deeming as "okay".
We are becoming too dependent on technology and this shows in the fact that people are losing their jobs. People lose jobs because there is a machine that does the same as an employee. “Technology has always displaced some work and jobs… the pace of automation has picked up in recent years because of a combination of technologies including robotics, numerically controlled machines, computerized inventory control, voice recognition and online commerce” (Steve Lohr). This will always be an issue and it is sad to see how many people lose or are without jobs because of technology. You can also notice that in our penmanship, we were writing in cursive and now we have created new words like "wtf" and "ttyl”. These new text scriptures are lazier and abbreviated than cursive. Social awkwardness is also becoming an issue because of social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook. People barely use the telephone anymore to speak to their friends and family. We are becoming more and more isolated as well as dependent on technology to take care of our inconveniences. When in reality, people don't see that what is convenient, may be or become too convenient.
Modern advancements are even destroying lives. Modern advancements have created among us cyber bullying. The Cyberbullying Research Center did a series of surveys that found several cyber bullying statistics. “About half of young people have experienced some form of cyber bullying, and 10 to 20 percent experience it regularly. Cyber bullying victims are also more likely to have low self esteem and to consider suicide.” Because of that many people are dying. This digital world is just another problem more for the people to worry about. I believe that we may be safer if the people would just stop with the modern advancements. It could make a great change among us.
We do not enjoy the little things anymore. We have simply conformed to society as it has advanced. Life has been made simpler by technology, but the true meaning of life has been blocked by it. Children today are less imaginative because they let video games and other technology imagine for them. We get this false sense of connection when we go onto social networking sites because humans are supposed to interact face to face so that we can read each other's emotions and connect on a much higher level than through a screen. I do agree that technology has helped us improve our medical field and kept us safe, but it has hindered true relationships with family and friends. What if every piece of technology vanished? How would we survive knowing that our world is practically run by it? I hope people consider how much time technology has consumed their life, and take at least 10% of that time and spend it on someone or something important that can benefit yourself and others.
Our lives are handed to us. Everyday we do not go to bed wondering if we will wake up the next morning because it is a given that we most likely will. We forget about survival and think nothing of it. Everyday we receive water, electricity, heat, food, and millions of useless products for our entertainment. What if the power shut off? What if we used all of earth's resources? What if a natural disaster occurred? What if I have to screw in a light bulb? These are all questions we must ask ourselves and think about. Our lives are handed to us through electronics as we sit there on our phones and our own little social networking world, oblivious to the real world around us. We need to wake up and get outside. Everybody is becoming too nature phobic and is trying to reason with survival. An animal kills another animal because it needs food to live, not because it is mean or rude. We need to get out of our electronic daze of confusion and start making a difference in our lives. We are getting fatter and lazier. Who knows, hospitals might have even invented apps so that in ten years we will all get carpal tunnel syndrome and pay them to fix our hands. We could not even live a day without our phones; try it. I personally prefer to smell a fresh forest rather than exhaust from a car. Our ancestors have lived for thousands of years without phones and electronics and survived. Each generation is becoming more and more dependent on electronics. There is no reason to give your baby a phone to play with. We are way too dependent on electronics and it could lead to our downfall. We need to get out of our fake lives of pretending to care about what everybody else is constantly doing all of the time. People are actually supposed to talk at a party and not text everybody who is not at it! We need to be able to live without electronics just in case we actually have to and also to keep our sanity. Our lives have been handed to us and all we have to do is work for money by typing with our faces in a computer all day just to pay for a nice car and a large house. The world is going into an electronic age and it is only going to get worse. Resist the urge to depend on electronics and live free!

Works Cited
Ahuja, Masuma. "Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Media, on Mobile Devices." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
Cooper-White, Macrina. "People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 May 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
"Cyber Bullying Statistics." - Bullying Statistics. Cyberbullying Research Center, 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
"The Insider | World’s Oil Will Run Out In Ten Years." The Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2014
Lohr, Steve. "More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.