For better or for worse, today’s society has become infatuated with technology. Neil Postman, in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death explores many examples of this phenomenon. Technology traps society because of the addiction it forms, such as television for example. Computers traps those who can’t afford the technology to purchase one. Computers also trap people because of the delicate balance between convenience and over-reliance. The Internet and social media have enhanced the spread of fake news, tricking society into believing false news stories. Phones instead of making us more connected actually make us less social.
First of all, television is one form of technology that has a strong hold on society. There is a reason why Best Buys
…show more content…
are never seen going out of business. Americans are obsessed with watching TV. Television is so popular it has become central to American culture. Americans watch their beloved football, cooking shows, reality shows, all through one medium of technology. It’s impossible to talk about entertainment without mentioning television. TV shows and movies are all great examples of television providing entertainment. Although TV has positive attributes such as the power to bring people together, it also has many downsides. Postman discusses in his book how TV, which is focused solely on entertaining, has limited real discourse. With the invention of Netflix and Hulu, users now have the power to watch whole seasons of certain TV shows. The rapid increase of childhood obesity in America is because more and more kids watch TV instead of playing outside with friends. Equally important, computers trap society as well, but in ways that are not as overt as television. While it’s impossible to deny computers have had many positive impacts on society, it’s important to discuss the negative impacts as well. Americans have the luxury to be able to purchase these powerful 21st century computers. However, outside of developed countries such as the United States, purchasing these computers is unrealistic. Many people across the world don’t even make enough money to buy a computer in a year. This digital divide leaves many people in the dust. As technology in computers becomes more advanced, the divide gets larger and larger. This divide traps those who can’t afford the computers. Another reason why computers trap society is because of the over-reliance society has on them. The ability to do many things on computers is a double-edged sword. For example, people can now pay their bills online instead of mailing it. At first, this seems to be a great example of convenience, technology can provide society with. However, the constant news flow of major companies getting hacked, consequently releasing customers’ personal data, has raised concerns. In 2013, Yahoo was hacked, which compromised one billion accounts, exposing users’ passwords and cell-phone numbers. Most troubling about these intrusions, is that the companies don’t realize until years later that the breaches occurred. This relates back to banking online because many people’s personal information is out there for any determined hacker to find and use. This brings up an important question of how safe is it to conduct business online. Differing from computer hacking, the internet has trapped society because of the fake news that it spreads. Postman said that most of the content of television is junk and very little provides valuable information. (Postman 159) Even though Postman was talking about television, this principle can also be expanded to include the internet as well. The Election 2016 is a good example, 90% of the news articles online are junk reporting, while only a small sliver of articles are well-written. Everyone knows the cliché statement “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.” However, some people need to take that statement to heart. The spread of fake news on the internet has become such a big problem; Facebook and Twitter have vowed to crack down on fake news. The problem with the spread of fake news, is that the public is having an increasingly difficult job of discerning fake news from real news. An example of this was when an anti-Trump protest was occurring in Texas. Somebody shared a photo on Facebook of a row of tour buses and accused the protesters of being shipped in to protest. Although this assumption was later proved to be completely wrong, the rapid spread of this false story convinced many people that it was valid. This example leads into the next form of technology. Social media is a great way to connect and share your thoughts with others.
Social media accomplishes these goals, however, similar to other technology there are dangerous uses as well. The fake story about the protesters was able to spread so fast because of the power of social media. The only thing social media needs to spread that story, good or bad, is one person to share it. After the first person shares the story, the followers of the first person share the story with their followers and keeps repeating from there on. This is how social media traps society, all it takes is the original share and the dominos fall rapidly from there. Of course, social media doesn’t always spread false news, but it’s important to recognize the downsides of social media. The next piece of technology is what allows social media to become so …show more content…
powerful. Consequently, society has become so reliant on the phone, people know they are trapped by it and still don’t care. One specific age group is especially trapped by the phones; teenagers. Pre-teenagers and teenagers across America have an addiction. This addiction isn’t drugs or alcohol, but to phones. At any high school in America, if a student isn’t in class or doing homework, more often than not, they are on their phones. Instead of talking with classmates, students prefer to bury their heads in their phones. Social media and phones were supposed to combine to bring the world closer together, and improve communication with each other. Unfortunately phones had the opposite effect. A great example that humans have become more anti-social is the rise of online dating. Many people substitute calling someone on the phone for talking face-to-face. For example, families instead of visiting their grandparents, call them on the phone instead. Phones have hurt relationships as well, instead of spouses talking to each other, they occupy their time by staring at their phones. Although this essay argued that technology traps society, the trade-offs are worth it in the end.
The multitude of positive things that technology has provided society with, outweigh the negatives. Even though computers are expensive to buy and leave many behind in the digital divide. The benefits of technology are hard to turn down. Even though the Internet and social media enable the spread of fake news, Facebook and Twitter are working hard to fix the issue. The addiction that society has with smartphones is quite troubling, but if society remembers to just put down the phone, it will be alright. All of the technology in today’s society is beneficial in some way, but society needs to be aware that is also traps them as
well.
In Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, he claims that media, especially television, is having an adverse effect on human values and eroding critical thinking skills. Postman primarily focuses on the effect of television on politics and religion. He begins by presenting historical facts in the first part of the book, and then he continues to describe the effects of media in American life in the second part of the book. Postman believes that media has begun to control the human mind. Therefore, he argues that humans need to learn how to combat the negative effects of media. He also argues that humans need to control media before it completely takes over our lives. Postman presents a factually supported, but biased argument in which he views media to be a rival of American advancement.
The evolution of technology has had a great impact on our lives, both positive and negative. While it is great to be able to be able to travel faster and research anything with the smartphones that now contain almost every aspect of our daily lives, there are also many advances within the realm of technology. Nicholas Carr presents information on the dependency aircraft pilots have on automated technology used to control airplanes in the article “The Great Forgetting”. Likewise, in “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche, the result of isolation and pseudo relationships created by social media is shown throughout the article. We live in such a fast paced society with so much information at our fingertips that we don’t make
Since the Internet has emerged from society, access to information has been made readily available for anyone to discover. The Internet connects us to the world everyday, whether at work or at home. It helps us communicate with others; via email, social networking, or blogging. With the absents of the Internet, our society would be missing out on a vast amount of knowledge. Therefore, the Internet is unmistakably beneficial for society to use as part of their daily lives. Also, cell phones have evolved from being solely in place for emergencies, to searching the Internet and paying bills. People of all ages are using cell phones, whether for work or pleasure. There are so many technological devices in our society; however, this technology can be misleading. People voice numerous arguments, both beneficial and non beneficial- concerning technologies in our world.
Technology is a giant part of life for the new generation. Nowadays, kids can learn how to use an IPad faster than tying their own shoes and it is very uncommon to not own a computer or smartphone. Also, electronics are more common in houses than they were years ago. Technology, while it makes tasks easier for humans, can also be detrimental to society because of how easy it is to misapply.
The topic of technology and our society has become a very controversial subject today. Many people believe that technology is an essential component of our modern world, helping us to improve communication from farther distances as well as giving us easy access to important information. On the other hand, there is the opinion that too much technology is affecting social interactions and our basic development. “Technology…is a queer thing, it brings you great gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.” (Carrie Snow.) The CBC Documentary “Are We Digital Dummies” displayed the pros and cons when it comes to modern technology that we use in the western world everyday.
Although Though technology can be good, it can be worse than good, such as people always with their faces on their phones and headphones in their ears, people neglecting books and using more online text, and people wasting their lives watching TV.Children now know how to use a phone faster than they can
Technology has advanced the standard of living for most people. However, it can be overused and create an addiction for some users. Two articles published in the New York Times, speak on this dependency on technology. One, “Technology’s Toll- Impatience and Forgetfulness”, by Tara Parker-Pope, explains the negative effects of technology and the addictive qualities it has. While, “Online but not Antisocial”, Janna Smith, explains technology is not as bad as people make it seem.
Social networks, like Facebook or You Tube can keep someone updated with world events and even local events. It has become part of everyday life in which people can’t live without. But what lies beneath is the evil of how addictive technology can be. The above chart demonstrates that almost 60% of students use electronics more than two hours a day. This shows us that technology can be addictive. Jonathan Mandell’s article Are gadgets, and the Internet, actually addictive, recalls a time in April 2007 when BlackBerry users could not send or receive emails for 11 hours because of a glitch in the system. Many people reported this as a natural disaster (Mandell, 2007). People are relying on technology so much, that it is becoming a major problem in our society when it becomes temporary unavailable. Being able to plan your whole day on your smart phone and lock your front door to your house at the same time contributes to society laziness and dependency on technology. On the chart picture below I surveyed fellow ECPI Students on the question does technology make us lazy and or smatter and this was the results. From this pie chart it’s clearly shown that more than half of the students at ECPI agree that technology is making people lazy. Also the ratio of yes to no is about 6:1, certainly showing that the wrong effects of technology are starting to show up in our society. Choices people make about using their
The opinions of many people vary on technology and the effects it has on today’s society. Some say that it’s more beneficial than anything, others completely disagree, and some have mixed emotions. Would you rather read out of a book, or play online learning games with a possible risk of eye problems? It’s about taking matters into your own hands. 71% of people believe technology has improved their lives. 76% of people completely disagree by saying that technology creates a lazy society and that is distracting and corrupting. Daily life with technology is also another huge issue in society. According to a survey taken in January 2013, people feel their work productivity has dropped 8% in the last year. They also felt that their relationships with their family at home dropped 4% in the past year. The opinions vary, but they are needed to show how technology is affecting different people.
Technology has more negative effects on today’s society than positive. Due to technology in the past few decades Canine Shock Collars have been increasingly popular. Students in school pay more attention to texting than they do their classes. Violent addictive video games have made their way into American homes. Parents encourage their children to not text as much, but them to face the problem of constant communication. The Internet gives the students easier ways to cheat in school, and reinforces laziness. Internet Porn gives every bored male a chance to look at the seediest film in the comfort of his own home. Technology has taken the innocence and mystery away from the American family.
Society has been impacted both negatively and positively by technology. As a result, every aspect of our lives has been influenced by technology. Hence, life is easier, yet it has taken away some of the enjoyment. For example, remember the days of less stress and more personal interaction, when there were no online messages, no emails, social media or cell phones. We have become excessively dependent on technology. As a result, we need to rely less on technology even though it has made learning fun, and business, daily tasks, work, travel, shopping, making new friends and staying in touch easier. In conclusion, technology has a lot of benefits, yet it could take over our lives and become our worst enemy if we aren't careful.
To sum it all up, people can see many positive effects of technology on different aspects of human life such as education, personal safety, agriculture, and the environment; however, not everyone thinks about its downsides. Though modern technology indeed facilitates people’s tasks and duties, it may weaken human bodies, ruin nature, and destroy good values regarding social communication. I believe in technology, I completely support it, but only to an extent. I say go ahead and enjoy what technology has to offer, learn about the world we live in, entertain yourself and consume in it. Just until it doesn’t affect your appearance or the people around you and especially the person in you. Think about it like this, we as humans made machines we can’t let machines make us who we are.
Albert Einstein quoted, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” The use of technology today is affecting our future generations by introducing them fast into using technology. Children today are focusing more on Ipads, Ipods, smart phones, or other electronic devices, rather than focusing on their knowledge. In addition, toddlers are mastering using electronic devices before they can even speak. (Alison Lee, 2013) According to research conducted by Alison Lee, it has been shown that when her child was 17 months old, he could activate the television by the use of the remote control. Although, today’s technology has also abducted the minds of adults, and It makes them addicted to it. For example, due to careless driving and many causes of death accidents, this happens from people who use their electronic device while driving their vehicle. In fact, technology is being upgraded annually, and causing more people to get addicted to it. Today’s society is very addicted to technology, that studies indicated that 2013 is the year where some human beings have an internet disorder. In addition, people who have internet disorder suffer from this condition. However, people who are overly attached to the use of technology makes them more prone to anxiety, physiological disorders like cyber bullying, and clutched to that electronic device would dominate home life.
Technology addiction is almost similar to drug addiction. Technology is useful in many ways. Using computer, internet, cellphone, television etc. make peoples’ life easier and comfortable. Young people are the most user of it. They cannot think of a single day without use technical device. Tara Parker-Pope is an author of books on health topics and a columnist for the New York Times. In her article , she expressed that, “The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to refrain from using electronic media for a day. The reports from students after the study suggest that giving up technology cold turkey not only makes life logistically difficult, but also changes our ability to connect with others.” ( Parker-Pope, “An Ugly Toll of Technology: Inpatients”). Her point is that, for the young generation it is quite impossible to give up from becoming addict...
In conclusion, I think that as technology is getting more advanced, more people are being drawn in which is leading our society astray. Children need to start spending more time away from the TV and more time should be spent outside. We need to stop ordering take aways online every day and start getting the family together to help produce healthy meals. Adults also need to put down their phones and start spending more time doing things with their children or even doing simple things such as going out for a walk. Our society needs to realise what the over use of technology is doing to us and realise that not everything has to be centered around technology and we can have fun without it.