Attached To Technology

Attached to Technology and Paying the Price by Matt Richtel focuses on the negative effects technology brings into our lives. Richtel uses a family, the Campbell’s, as a case study to explain his points. The author specifically focuses on the husbands overbearing relationship with technology and how multi-tasking is negatively impacting various aspects of his life. Mr. Campbell uses multiple monitors and his cell phone on a daily basis to connect with his business and social worlds. Richtel includes the Campbell’s children to show how their father’s habits seem to become their own habits. Mr. Campbell’s oldest is always using some form of technology and his youngest seems to be following the same footsteps, always playing video games. Technology

for this sample family is slowly pulling them apart. They cannot even go on vacation without technology. Richtel explains the benefits of technology such as becoming efficient in finding information and having better visual sharpness. Richtel even expresses how the Mr. Campbell and his son are bonding over video games. However the negatives outweigh the positives. Technology, while it has numerous benefits, mostly ruins relationships, business opportunities, and daily life.
Technology is putting heavy strain on interpersonal relationships. The author, Richtel mentions that “… scientists are discovering that even after multi-tasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist.” (Richtel). The author then further suggests “this is your brain off computers” (Richtel). Even while someone is no longer looking at or physically using some form of technology they are not focused on who is around them. People are consumed with getting more and more information and less worried about maintaining a conversation with the person right in front of them. This causes a chain reaction and the person that is not getting attention has to occupy themselves which is typically by way of their phone. Technology causes small differences in the way people react but those small differences add up. Richtel recounts how “[Mr. Campbell] goes to sleep with a laptop or iphone on his chest, and when he wakes, he goes online.” (Richtel) Mrs. Campbell would be the one suffering in silence as her husband’s relationship with his electronics become more prominent than their own. If people could put down their electronics even for a few minutes just to have personal conversation with their loved ones relationships would not suffer nearly as much.