Relationship with Technology: Healthy or Unhealthy?

Technology has taken over the world in unimaginable ways throughout the last decade. In 2015, only about 35% of the world's population had a smartphone. As of 2020, this percentage has increased to 85% of the world’s population. Today’s society has the ability to have any information they may need at their fingertips, in seconds. 

Technology is an absolutely incredible invention, but there are also many dangers and downsides to having such easy access to so much so quickly.

Technology has revolutionized the way we learn, interact, and travel. Our relationship with technology is one that has taken over our life. The relationship we have built with technology is greatly impacting our everyday lives and is not always impacting us in good ways. A recent study shows that 98% of college students use social media on a daily basis and 27.2% of college students spend more than six hours on social media each week! 

Checking social media to interact with friends and family especially while away at college is extremely important and allows for a way to stay connected but this constant connection to the world can become very unhealthy, very quickly. The constant distraction of a phone ringing or buzzing is disruptive when doing homework, taking courses, and trying to spend quality time with the people around you. Over 210 million people suffer from social media addiction. This shows that people are abusing technology and need to learn to limit themselves rather than allowing technology to take up so much of their daily lives. 

Another issue with technology is understanding what sources you are reading and whether or not they are reliable or misleading. When scrolling through Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. there are thousands of articles and posts that can be seen each day. Not all of these posts can be trusted. Technology should help educate society, but when misleading information is shared it can easily do the opposite and cause society to become more ignorant about the world around them. A recent study by three MIT students has revealed that false and misleading news found on Twitter actually spreads more rapidly than reliable sources. Why is this? Well, misleading headlines are often written in a way to grab a viewer's attention, therefore users find these stories and quickly repost them because they are intrigued. We are all victims of misleading information which is why we must be extremely cautious before hitting that repost button! 

Much of society has accepted technology into their daily lives. They have accepted distractions and misleading information as the new normal. This does not contribute anything positive to the daily lives of myself, my friends, or my family. Personally, having the ability to constantly connect with friends and family has been a positive aspect of technology. 

One main negative aspect of technology is the fact that people often post “highlight reels” of their life rather than a reality. People only post what they want others to see. This can easily result in others feeling bad about themselves and wondering why their life isn’t as “perfect” as those they follow on social media platforms. This constant comparison to others causes an extremely unhealthy relationship with technology by leaving young can even lead to forms of cyberbullying. Data shows that internet and social media usage has shown a spike in suicidal thinking among victims by 14.5%. This number is a clear indication that users do not always have a healthy relationship with technology.

Altogether, technology and social media are great ways to better communicate with the world around you. Still, it is important to understand your relationship with your technology in order to ensure healthy balances. Finding ways to limit technology use and be present in your everyday life is essential, especially for mental health and the relationships within your life.