Dangers of Technology

The Dangers of Technology and our lack of Personal Interaction

Smartphones and other hand held devices are taking over our lives. These types of technology are making it increasingly easy to neglect those that are closest to us.  Be honest. Have you in the last month been in a room with family, on a date with our spouse or significant other, or even out by yourself where you have completely ignored the person right there with you or those around you?  I have, and I think that I may have a problem.  My fear is that I am not alone.  We have all seen the memes on Instagram and Facebook or television commercials where the person walks into a door or falls into a fountain because they have their nose in a technological device. Einstein was quoted to have said something like this.  “I fear the day when technology will surpass our human interaction.  The world will become a generation of idiots.”  In my opinion we could be in danger of becoming social idiots.  (quoteinvestigation.com) 

These devises allow us to do so much yet can be a huge hindrance in our daily interaction with those that are most important to us.  They allow us to stay connected with people that we haven’t seen in a long time, i.e. Facebook.  Or help us to get last minute work done by sending an important email.  Things can be sent to love ones across the world in an instant, and we all love to post duck face selfies right?  Who doesn’t love to LMFAO or LOL at something that they have seen or read?  Again, I’m guilty.  But can these things be harming our relationships with everyone?   Jack Cafferty in his blog on cnn.com at caffertyfile.blog.cnn.com explained this point 3 years ago when this idea was originally thought to be a potential risks.  The title of his post was “The day we stopped talking to one another."  His data in 2011 explained the following.   “It's estimated that 93% of Americans now use cell phones or wireless devices. And one-third of those people are using so-called smartphones, which means the users can browse the Web and check e-mail on their phones."  Again this was in 2011.  How much better faster, accessible, and easier to use are all of these devices?  A more recent study showed the following. (www.telegraph.co.uk) Young adults, aged 18 to 29, send on average 109.5 texts a day, or approximately 3,200 messages a month. They receive an additional 113 texts and check their phones 60 times in a typical day and students spend about seven hours a day interacting with information and communication technology. This study alone was just dealing with text messages and doesn’t mention all of the other functions and apps that we can get readily lost in.

I have eight brothers and sisters. Everyone in my family is married accept one of my sisters and most us are still living in the area.  Every Sunday we get the family together for dinner.  We all have our own assignments to bring different sides to make up the meal.  This is one thing every week that I look forward to.  We have a very close family and I cherish those relationships.  After dinner we sit in my parent’s living room and visit with one another while the kids play outside and have fun together.  This used to be a time when we would talk about anything and everything.  From current events, gospel topics, and what was going on in each of our families lives. But recently I have noticed that some of us and I can be guilty of it as well; don’t participate in our discussions as often. This is because they can’t put their phone down long enough to pitch in and give their opinion on the current topic that is being discussed.  I texted all of my siblings and their spouses and asked them to weigh in on this topic.  I received responses immediately and some read like this.  My brother Matt one of the most opinionated in the family said “We spend too much damn time on our phones”.  My sister Cari is one of the most analyticall in the family and always has something of merit to say said this.  “I think that we miss many opportunities to really connect with each other when our energy and attention is divided by something like this”.  We collectively agreed that we do spend too much time lost in our phones.  Starting this coming Sunday we committed to one another to check our phones in at the front door and see how it goes without the distraction. 

My personal experience since I convinced my wife to get iPhones is this.  We very seldom go to bed together with each other.  We have become content with browsing Instagram or Facebook instead of hitting the sack for some much needed intimacy.  Sometimes we will sit in our living room on our nice comfortable couches and look at our phones for an hour or two and hardly say anything to each other.  This leaves very little time to talk about our day or share our concerns with one another.  It is a little scary to me that we have become so comfortable in doing this.  How can we talk about things that we are passionate about or concerns about our kids when this is our routine.  Now do I love my wife and are we happily married? Yes.  I love her dearly but I have recognized that if we continue with this practice then it could be a potential problem.  I saw a picture on Facebook the other day.  It was a picture of a restaurant sign that said.  “No, we don’t have Wi-Fi; talk to each other."

So is the world really going to hell in a hand basket because there are (myself included) people that think that we need to put our phones down more often?  Maybe not.  Are we truly a generation of idiots?  I would submit that we aren't, but I do believe that we are idiots if we don’t recognize these things for what they are and use them with a little self-control and moderation.