Zhimin Yang's Signs Of Life In The US

My name is Zhimin Yang and I am a student from De Anza college, Cupertino. In today’s society, many of us can’t live without technology because it provides multiple uses include communicate with friends in a fast way, games, musics, and many interesting entertainment that are able to keep us away from boredom. Over the last century, technology has taken over our society and everybody need technology daily, from children to adults. Technology is essential in today’s society and makes every problem that we need to face in easier and faster ways, yet it causes laziness and many of us are abuse it. For instance, many people don’t have to leave home in order to get items what they want. Technology has affected many people’s daily lives, however,

many are better than others. Furthermore the three principles that we should keep in mind when developing consumer technology are how should we deal with addiction to technology, how much we should consume media and technology and lastly, the ways to deal with the issue of sacrificing privacy for the sake of security.
Dealing with technology addiction is one of the important concepts that we must keep in mind when developing consumer technology because ever since the use of digital technology become attractive, many students rely on it daily and some feel unconnected without it.

A quote from the book, Signs of Life in the USA by Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, in chapter 5, The Cloud, mentions “texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort.” wrote one student. “When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.” In today’s society, many teenagers have cell phone as early as in elementary school and many communicate through it. I believe that many students’ lives are connected together by constantly text and call each other, but keep in touch in such way that opt out of the communication pattern would be equal to reject from social life. Technology have improved our lives by making communication easier and effortless, however it causes a lack of social skill especially with

students.
The second idea that we should keep in mind when developing consumer technology is the issue of sacrifice privacy for the sake of security. Technology creates many easier and faster ways for us to solve problems under certain situation, but in the reality, today technology allows individuals to carry personal information in hand does not make the information any less worthy of the security. I believe that everyone should have personal privacy and it is up to ones to decide whether to give name or anything related to self on social media or not. In the book, White Teeth by Zadie smith, “One just has to look at the thing from a perspective that interests you personally.” Over the last few years, technology and privacy has been transformed and created a landscape that’s both unsafe and encouraging. This quote simply explains that we are all individuals and we look at thing from different perspective. For instance, some people believe that by putting personal information on social media help them gains more true friends, yet others feel insecure. Because of the advances in technology in today’s society, many people feel uncomfortable and decide not to update personal information onto social media in order to keep self safe.
Finally, the last idea that we should keep in mind when developing consumer technology is how much and where we should consume media and technology. Many people agree that technology become part of their lives and it is hard to discard, yet others believe that technology is harmful to individual especially to students. Students from high school to college often use technology to look for difficult answers online in order to receive higher grades on certain course. In the article, Teens and Technology a guide for Parents from Momlife Today, explains that parents need to set guideline with their children in order to maintain their technology usage. This article feels that strict rules must be made to control their children from using too much technology. Rules are include set an example, provide cell phones with clear condition and expectation from them or turn off cell phones in a specific time, Place a computer in an open living area so that parents could designate a time when they should the computer off.
I believe the group of people that we should focus on first is children because they are the easiest group of people to get rid of bad behaviors and habits.

In order to consume media and technology, first we should focus on setting an age limit for having a phone for example, children only allow to have a phone after middle school or control data usage and set a time limit for internet usage by parents. In the book, S​ign of Life The USA b​y Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, in Chapter 5 T​he Cloud. ”American college student today are addicted to media, describing their feelings when they have to abstain from using media in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol.” page 403. According to a new ICMPA study, it asked more than 200 students to give up all social media for 24 hours and after the 24 hours process, the students were asked to write about their experience. Based on the study, many students feel unconnected and were “incredibly” addicted to media, yet, most of them complain about how boring without a

phone.
In conclusion, technology spread through every aspect of our lives and we are surrounded by it. Technology addiction can be extremely useful and important in today’s society, whereas it can also cause harmful and damaging for individuals such as children. In order to consume media and technology, I believe the best way is to limit the usage of technology especially with teenagers. Technology definitely creates many easier ways through life for us, yet it has been created a landscape that’s both unsafe and encouraging.