Networked: In Intimacy, New Solitudes: An Analysis

People in the world today depend on technology to help them succeed through life. However, the rate of its use among young kids and teen customers is increasing at a rapid pace. The reason being is that they would rather text a class friend and use social media rather than meeting up with them. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the scenario is similar to the world today, because nobody communicates or connects with people personally, leaving them isolated and alone. Also, in the article called “Tasking Multitasking To Task”, by Mark Harris, he explains that technology is affecting the human mind to lack interest in social skills and hobbies. Harris’ claim that technology is corrupting our lives is correct because many people have lost their attention span for anything beyond a simple phrase.

“We didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people,” (Paragraph 2). The upcoming growing generation Mrs. Twenge discovers that they are growing up with a smartphone within arm’s reach. She talks to this little girl she calls Athena and asks her if she goes to the mall with her friends alone. Athena tells her no, that when she goes to the mall with her friends its always with her mom and brothers, but they stay a little behind. She says that she had to check in every 30 minutes with her mom and let her know what they are doing. As Mrs. Twenge is talking to Athena she starts to find out how teens today communicate. She finds out that snapchat is one way they communicate and according to Athena it’s also another great way to blackmail someone to. Jean M. Twenge paints a frightening picture of how smartphones are destroying the upcoming generation.

In the article “Growing up Tethered”, by Sherry Turkle, she argues that technology today plays a major role in everyday life. Youths do not have the ability to branch off and have their own independence because of their reliance and attachment to technology. They also use technology to develop who they are as people and create an online personal identity of what they think is a perfect life. In comparison, their own life seems boring, pale and unwanted. Turkle also talks about how teenagers think of their phone as a “friend’s” and cannot live without it. When feeling a strong emotion, teens want to share their feelings with their friends and phone. I agree with Turkle’s opinion that technology is changing and will never be the same, which will be hard to improve this attachment to technology because too many teens are tethered.

Ever since technology began so prominent in the modern world, can anyone remember going outside for more than 30 minutes and not see a cell phone or computer? Probably not, as these pieces of technology have become so ingrained in people’s lives, no one wants to leave their home without still being connected. And there is no reason to, as friends, family, and strangers share the same sentiments. Unplugging from technology is not only a decision people don’t make for personal reasons, it simply isn’t conducive to a productive life, as many people’s work and social lives wouldn’t be the same, if exist at all, without being connected to other people or the internet with just a single touch.

Cell phones and the computers are similar to each other in many different ways. One of the most common similarities is the internet aspect. With everyone connected to the internet, the adverse effects can spread throughout like a virus. “A Nielsen study released in 2010 indicated that texting was the primary reason for purchasing mobile phones and that text communication had become a "’centerpiece of mobile teen behavior.’" The modern smartphone of the 2010s is a powerful computing device, and the rapid and ongoing development of new applications provides users with a growing number of ways to use mobile phones for recreation, productivity, and social communication” (Issitt 2016). In the following Issitt states, “however, as smartphones have become more common, concerns about the detrimental effects of smartphone use have also increased.” (Issitt 2016). Issitt expresses the large growth of people with smartphones has its positives and negatives. The positives being the ability to communicate, but the negative being the effects on relationships with one another. An example of the negative side of things is the lack of interaction with people. People are more likely to call or text instead of interacting with one another. The lack of interaction can ruin relationships, or make people feel unwanted. In the article “Eurasian Journal of Educational Research,” the writer states that the internet, “can transform into an addictive instrument in excessive usage situations.” (Gunduz 2017). The statement explains the issue of the unnecessary use of the internet as a growing addictive process that is taking over more and more

There is an ongoing curiosity about why electronic devices are so irresistible. It is flabbergasting and utterly disappointing that people of all ages, including hypocritical parents lecturing teens about their texting addiction, “would prefer to communicate over text rather than meeting face to face”(mobile commons). Although technology has its benefits of quick communication and always staying in touch with others, the amount of common sense lost to technology has a stronger and more detrimental effect on one 's future. As people become more dependent on the technology that sits in the palms of their hands, the social skills one

Technology can become a necessity, to where we need it to communicate. In “Meet Your iBrain” it says, “As the brain evolves and shifts its focus to new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills, such as reading facial expressions during conversation or grasping the emotional context of a subtle scripture”. Technology has become a way out of in person communication. Whether it be sending a simple text or creating a false self-image on social media, technology provides as a buffer to reality. It goes in the article to say, “…young people eight to 18 years of age expose their brains to eight and a half hours of digital and video sensory stimulation a day”.

In his June 12, 2015 article” Flick Flick”, published in Commonweal, Rand Richard Cooper argues that the technology of “handheld devices” interferes with being in present with others and being present with ourselves. He measures pieces of evidence to illustrate his point; for example, he mentions teens in a school bus busy with their phones and they do not communicate with each other. The author uses technology; however, he agrees that with the excessive uses of technology we lose the ability to communicate, the personal freedom and our time to our selves. Also the author claims that we lose the appreciation of nature around us and our ability to do the daily actions. Cooper even explains how people interact with their phones and cannot stop

People who become too accustomed to lives based around technology will no longer interact in the real world. Today people rely on technology for many things such as communication, entertainment, transportation, e.t.c. For example, in Ray Bradbury’s work “The Pedestrian”, the world has diminished into lives lived sitting in front of TV screens. He writes, “The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multi-colored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them”, (Bradbury, 60). In this example Bradbury describes the life of people watching television all day and seeing the sights on-screen, but not being inspired or enlightened to go outside to experience it. Most people prefer to stay

Matt Richtel tells the story of how the Campbell’s spring break went. “We didn’t go out to dinner,” Mrs. Campbell mourned. “We just sat there on our devices.” Her husband joined them at the aquarium for a little while until he begged to do e-mail on his phone, and later she found him playing games. But finally they unplugged, “It changes the mood when everybody is present,” Mrs. Campbell said. Richtel goes on to say, “In the modern world, the chime of incoming e-mail can override the goal of writing a business plan or playing catch with the children.” The ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room,” Mr. Nass from Stanford thinks. If the students put down their electronics, and encourage the rest of their family to do the same, it could be an opportunity for them

For the last couple of years’ technology has augmented our everyday life. Alex Williams, a reporter for the New York Times and an editor of the New York Magazine, would strongly agree with this. Williams believes technology has changed the way we live, and the way we interact with each other. Schools are loaning iPads, tablets, and laptops to students so they can immerse their self’s in a world of cyber learning. Teenagers are drooling over their cell phones for hours upon hours, ready to text back the boy in their Algebra class. Parents are preoccupying their little kids with games on their phones. Nevertheless, this is making life easier and simpler. Alex Williams hypothecates that technology might actually have “beneficial [attributes]

We rely on it to do everything from saying ‘I love you’ to breaking up, from checking bank balances to investing, from sharing photos of the grandchild to sexting” (Psychology Today). Furthermore, the smartphones addiction has been a curse especially to the school children. Technology affects children in many different ways. For example, the children who don’t take their eyes off the phones are decreasing their contact to the real world and are raising fears about the future generations and their lack of ability to interact in societies. In this editorial cartoon, all kinds of rhetorical devices are shown to bring out this criticism.

“Little by little, Internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society.” (Melissa Nilles “Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction”) Because of technology, the interactions with other people have no meaning, and that we are no longer in touch with the world that we live in. Since technology makes it easier to connect and converse with friends, family, etc. it gives people the opportunity to avoid face to face interaction at all, which leads to isolation and loneliness. This is because as human beings, physical touch is something that we

Everywhere one may go, people will be looking down on their phones, laptops, tablets, and other devices. The fact that people can not go one day without technology is a scary concept to comprehend. Jane E. Brody shows the dangers of our excessive reliance of technology in the essay, “Hooked on Our Smartphones.” This short yet knowledgeable essay gives specific insight into people in societies obsession. Brody fears that our heavy reliance on the technology will limit people's abilities to think on their own. She states that people who are obsessed with their phones become, “disconnected from what really matters, from what makes us feel nourished and grounded as human beings” (Brody). The heavy reliance does not allow one to live a “normal” life. Without people being able to know how to think individually and hold a conversation makes it a worry whether or not people will be able to live on in the future. A recent college study named “The World Unplugged Project” challenged college students all around the world to go technology free for twenty four hours. According to the “The World Unplugged Project,” “a clear majority of students in the 10 countries studied experience distress when they tried to go without their devices for 24 hours.” This experiment is very important because it shows how dependent the future generation of society is on technology. All these examples of our heavy reliance in technology closely relates to Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. All throughout the novel the heavy reliance in their society is seen. For example, citizens of the dystopian society wear devices called “seashells” in their ears all day long. This small device blasts government propaganda and news. This seashell can closely be related to radio streaming apps seen in our society today. As time progresses it seems that our dependency on technology as a society is getting greater and

Technology consuming our lives is making us so attached to it that a moment without it feels like we are dying. We use technology to cure our issue of boredom with mindless activities like watching videos or scrolling through social media. We never really are alone with our own thoughts; we always have hundreds of people we can access at the touch of a button. When my computer died a few years back, I had nothing else to access my favorite websites, so I simply borrowed my parents until I bought a new one. Boredom, or solitude, felt so unusual for me; I had no clue what to do with myself. I couldn’t just sit there and be bored. Instead, I immediately filled that void with technology once again when I could have just waited a few days for when I got my laptop. Even when I claim that I am doing nothing, I still have headphones in or some video or show for background noise. I strategically avoid the feeling of boredom all the time, and I immediately turn to my technology.