Allie
Cuccoli
ENGL
102-039
Causal
Argument Essay
28
January 2013
Technology the Inhibitor: The Downfall of
Human Interaction.
It seems that a majority of the American population
are proud owners of a fancy piece of technology. Walking around places such as Boston, or on a
college campus, individuals are seen to be engulfed in their iPads, laptops, or
smart phones. Over the last few years,
this observation has become increasingly apparent wherever one goes. However, what have become less noticeable are
physical and verbal interactions when people are surrounded by their peers. In social settings, individuals fail to start
conversations with those surrounding them, and instead they opt to communicate
with the world via technology. Due to
the improvements being made in technology and the increasing usage of these
gadgets and the Internet, people have become less social; as a result of these
causes, society is impeded from forming strong social connections and relationships
between one another on physical, intimate and emotional levels because of a
disconnect from the physical world.
In order to form solid relationships, individuals
must be actively engaged in their environment, and in the here and now. It is much easier to meet new people, and
maintain conversation with another person when the phone is tucked away. The new digital tools are rather distracting
and take people’s attention away from things that matter. For example, in the article, “Your Life is
Fully Mobile,” a survey conducted by Time reported that “48% said they spend
too much time looking at their mobile device and not observing the world”
(Gibbs). Also, according to Angela Moscaritolo, a study conducted on data usage, such
as data used to access the internet, or using apps that require a wireless
connection, reported that data usage has risen dramatically in the United
Kingdom, which indicates, “smartphone users are growing increasingly reliant on
their mobile devices.” People are spending too much of their time honed in to
their electronic devices, thus they are not immersing themselves in the surrounding
environment. The first step to establish physical social connections is for
people to become aware of their surroundings and realize what is transpiring
around them in that moment. However,
people are so enamored by their phones and using them so frequently, it has
practically become an addiction that inhibits people from functioning socially
with others around us. Another shocking
statistic from the Gibb’s survey is that 17 percent of the participants said
that they “check their phone at every meal regardless of who they are with” (“Your
Life”). Rather than socializing with
those around them, people are more engaged in their conversations online than
the conversations they could be having in the physical world.
Along with this increasing
dependence on smartphones and other digital tools to communicate with, there
has been steadily increasing amounts of people using the Internet and a huge variety of apps to access Facebook and
other social networking websites to establish and maintain relationships.
However, these websites are preventing members of society from forming intimate
bonds with one another. According to the
article, “Me and my 400 Friends: The Anatomy of College Students’ Facebook Networks,
Their Communication Patterns and Well Being,” intimacy is defined as
“disclosure of private information requiring high levels of trust and
confidentiality between partners” (Mango, Taylor and Greenfield). Furthermore, intimate relationships are
crucial in maintaining individual and overall well-being (Mango, Taylor and
Greenfield). Facebook and similar
websites may offer more chances to meet new people online, however these sites
allow for the creation of short-lived, meaningless friendships and
relationships. According to the
previously mentioned article, a study that was conducted produced the theory
that “technology, like urbanization, will enable manifold instrumental
relationships with relative strangers or superficial acquaintances” (Mango,
Taylor and Greenfield). Online social
networking sites are a product of the ever improving technological progress we
are experiencing, however, these sites are impeding peoples’ abilities to form
close friendships or relationships with significant emotional connections. In the article “Electronic Intimacy,” Rosen
discusses the results of a meta-analysis of online dating. According to the study, “people become
cognitively overwhelmed when they search through hundreds of dating
profiles. To cope they ‘must objectify’
the people they are sizing up for some sort of emotional connection” (Rosen). Society has easy access to the Internet via
phones, thus people can easily connect
with other cyber users; however the best connections that occur are those
formed through physical confrontation.
On the other hand, some may argue that technology
has improved society’s ability to stay connected with others even if thousands
of miles separate individuals from one another.
According to an article written by Gibbs, “in a poll conducted by Time
Magazine, 73% of civilians in India said they feel more connected with their
families, which was 21 points above the national average” (“Your Life”). Due to the vast amount of technological
improvements, people are saying that they feel more connected to peers and
family members who are distant.
Although there are certainly more means
of communication, these methods decrease the likelihood of forming meaningful
and intimate relationships because there is no face–to-face contact with these
new ways of reaching out to others. Face to face contact is vital when forming
and maintaining a strong relationship with other individuals. Therefore, through such contact, it is
possible to accurately interpret the tone of their voice, their body language
and their eye contact in order to determine the strength of the relationship. Furthermore,
it is more sensible to convey the true meaning of one’s message via
confrontation than via text messaging, Facebook chat or email; it is easier to
understand the message because one can pick up on social cues through
face-to-face communication. However,
technology acts as a barrier for this process to occur; it enables the user to
hide behind a shield that prevents the true underlying message from being
understood. In an article by Reich et al., studies have shown that interacting
online with friends limits opportunities for face-to-face contact (“Friending”). Physical contact is the most crucial step in
forming bonds of intimacy and trust in relationships, whether or not such
contact is a familial, friendly or romantic relationship. Furthermore, it is a
lot easier to convey messages in person rather than via text messaging,
Facebook chat or email. Without physical
confrontation, communication is ineffective.
At first technology may seem as though it
is improving the way members in our society communicate with one another,
however it is preventing us from creating enduring, confidential and intimate
relationships. Smartphones, and other
similar electronic devices are constantly being updated so that we can access
our emails, and communicate faster with our peers. People have immersed themselves in their
devices so much that they have become overly reliant on them. This dependency is serving as a distractor;
people focus their time and attention on what is occurring in the digital world
on their devices rather than concentrating their attention on the physical
world, where the real people are located.
As a result of the improvement in technology, the Internet has become
the home of famous and useful social networking sites. Although these sites seem to connect the
world efficiently and enable better communication, the emotional connections
that solidify relationships are lost because of the lack of physical
confrontation. It is time for people in
our society to look up from their cellphones, put them away and say the words,
“Hi there, how are you?” rather than texting the impersonal “hey! :)”
Works Cited
Gibbs, Nancy. "Your Life Is Fully Mobile." Time 180.9
(2012): 32-39. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
Manago, Adriana M., Tamara Taylor, and Patricia M. Greenfield.
"Me And My 400
Friends: The Anatomy Of
College Students' Facebook Networks, Their
Communication Patterns, And
Well-Being." Developmental
Psychology 48.2 (2012):
369-380. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
Moscaritolo, Angela.
"U.K. Provider Sees Data Usage Double In One Year." PC
Magazine (2012): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Feb.
2013.
16.1 (2013): 8-13. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
Reich, Stephanie M., Kaveri Subrahmanyam, and Guadalupe
Espinoza. "Friending,
Iming, And Hanging Out
Face-To-Face: Overlap In Adolescents' Online And Offline
Social Networks." Developmental Psychology 48.2 (2012):
356-368. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
Rosen, Christine. "Electronic Intimacy." Wilson Quarterly 36.2 (2012): 48-51. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
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