essay on influence of electronic gadgets on modern society

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Essay on Electronic Gadgets – 10 Lines, 100 to 1500 Words

Essay on Electronic Gadgets: In today’s digital age, electronic gadgets have become an integral part of our daily lives. From smartphones and laptops to smartwatches and tablets, these devices have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves. In this essay, we will explore the impact of electronic gadgets on society, examining both the benefits and drawbacks of our increasing reliance on technology. Join us as we delve into the world of electronic gadgets and their influence on our modern lifestyle.

Table of Contents

Electronic Gadgets Essay Writing Tips

1. Introduction: Start your essay by introducing the topic of electronic gadgets and their impact on our daily lives. You can mention how these gadgets have become an essential part of our lives and how they have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves.

2. Define electronic gadgets: Define what electronic gadgets are and provide examples of popular gadgets such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and headphones. Explain how these gadgets are powered by electricity and are designed to make our lives easier and more convenient.

3. Discuss the benefits of electronic gadgets: Write about the various benefits of using electronic gadgets, such as increased connectivity, improved productivity, and access to information at our fingertips. Mention how these gadgets have made tasks like communication, research, and entertainment more efficient and enjoyable.

4. Explore the negative impacts of electronic gadgets: Discuss the negative impacts of excessive use of electronic gadgets, such as addiction, distraction, and social isolation. Mention how over-reliance on gadgets can lead to health issues like eye strain, poor posture, and sleep disturbances.

5. Address the environmental impact: Write about the environmental impact of electronic gadgets, such as electronic waste and energy consumption. Discuss how the disposal of old gadgets can contribute to pollution and how manufacturers are working towards creating more sustainable and eco-friendly products.

6. Provide tips for responsible gadget use: Offer tips on how to use electronic gadgets responsibly, such as setting limits on screen time, taking breaks from technology, and recycling old gadgets. Encourage readers to be mindful of their gadget usage and to prioritize real-life interactions over virtual ones.

7. Conclusion: Summarize the main points of your essay and reiterate the importance of electronic gadgets in our modern world. Emphasize the need for balance and moderation when using gadgets and encourage readers to make conscious choices about their gadget usage. Consider ending with a thought-provoking question or a call to action to inspire further reflection on the topic.

Essay on Electronic Gadgets in 10 Lines – Examples

1. Electronic gadgets are devices that use electricity to perform specific functions. 2. They have become an integral part of modern life, aiding in communication, entertainment, and productivity. 3. Examples of electronic gadgets include smartphones, laptops, tablets, and smartwatches. 4. These gadgets have evolved over time to become more compact, powerful, and versatile. 5. They rely on advanced technology such as microprocessors, sensors, and wireless connectivity. 6. Electronic gadgets have transformed the way we work, play, and interact with the world around us. 7. They have also raised concerns about privacy, security, and addiction to technology. 8. The market for electronic gadgets is constantly expanding, with new innovations being introduced regularly. 9. Consumers are increasingly demanding gadgets that are faster, more efficient, and environmentally friendly. 10. Overall, electronic gadgets have revolutionized the way we live and will continue to shape the future of technology.

Sample Essay on Electronic Gadgets in 100-180 Words

Electronic gadgets have become an integral part of our daily lives. From smartphones to laptops, these devices have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves. They have made tasks easier and more convenient, allowing us to stay connected with others and access information at our fingertips.

One of the key benefits of electronic gadgets is their portability. We can carry them with us wherever we go, enabling us to work or stay entertained on the go. They have also improved communication, allowing us to connect with people across the globe instantly through calls, messages, and social media.

However, the overuse of electronic gadgets can have negative effects on our health and well-being. Excessive screen time can lead to eye strain, disrupted sleep patterns, and even mental health issues. It is important to strike a balance and use these gadgets responsibly to enjoy their benefits without compromising our health.

Short Essay on Electronic Gadgets in 200-500 Words

Electronic gadgets have become an integral part of our daily lives. From smartphones to laptops, tablets to smartwatches, these gadgets have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves. The convenience and efficiency that electronic gadgets provide have made them indispensable in today’s fast-paced world.

One of the most popular electronic gadgets is the smartphone. With its myriad of features and applications, smartphones have become a one-stop solution for communication, entertainment, and productivity. From making calls and sending messages to browsing the internet and accessing social media, smartphones have made it easier than ever to stay connected with the world around us. Additionally, the advent of mobile apps has further enhanced the functionality of smartphones, allowing users to perform a wide range of tasks with just a few taps on the screen.

Another popular electronic gadget is the laptop. Laptops are portable computers that allow users to work, study, and play on the go. With their powerful processors and high-resolution displays, laptops are ideal for tasks that require more processing power than a smartphone or tablet can provide. Whether it’s writing a report, editing photos, or playing video games, laptops offer a versatile platform for a wide range of activities.

Tablets are another popular electronic gadget that has gained popularity in recent years. With their larger screens and touch-based interfaces, tablets offer a more immersive experience than smartphones while still being more portable than laptops. Tablets are ideal for tasks such as reading e-books, watching videos, and browsing the web. They are also popular among artists and designers for sketching and drawing.

Smartwatches are a relatively new addition to the world of electronic gadgets. These wearable devices offer a range of features, from tracking fitness metrics to receiving notifications from your smartphone. Smartwatches are particularly popular among fitness enthusiasts who want to track their workouts and monitor their health in real-time. They also offer a convenient way to stay connected without having to constantly check your smartphone.

While electronic gadgets offer numerous benefits, they also come with some drawbacks. One of the main concerns surrounding electronic gadgets is their impact on our health. Excessive use of electronic gadgets, particularly smartphones and tablets, has been linked to eye strain, poor posture, and disrupted sleep patterns. Additionally, the constant connectivity that electronic gadgets provide can lead to feelings of anxiety and burnout.

In conclusion, electronic gadgets have become an essential part of modern life. From smartphones to laptops, tablets to smartwatches, these gadgets offer a wide range of features and functionalities that make our lives easier and more convenient. While there are some drawbacks to using electronic gadgets, the benefits they provide far outweigh the risks. As technology continues to advance, electronic gadgets will only become more integrated into our daily lives, shaping the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves.

Essay on Electronic Gadgets in 1000-1500 Words

In today’s modern world, electronic gadgets have become an integral part of our daily lives. From smartphones to laptops, tablets to smartwatches, these devices have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves. The rapid advancements in technology have made these gadgets more powerful, efficient, and convenient, making them indispensable tools for both personal and professional use.

One of the most popular electronic gadgets is the smartphone. With its ability to make calls, send messages, access the internet, and run countless apps, the smartphone has become a must-have device for people of all ages. It has changed the way we communicate, allowing us to stay connected with friends and family no matter where we are. The smartphone has also become a powerful tool for productivity, with apps like calendars, to-do lists, and email clients helping us stay organized and on top of our tasks.

Another popular electronic gadget is the laptop. Laptops are portable computers that allow us to work, study, and entertain ourselves on the go. They are essential for professionals who need to access their work files and emails while away from the office, as well as students who need to complete assignments and research projects. Laptops have become increasingly powerful and lightweight, making them ideal for people who need to work or study while traveling or commuting.

Tablets are another popular electronic gadget that has gained popularity in recent years. Tablets are portable touchscreen devices that are larger than smartphones but smaller than laptops. They are ideal for reading e-books, watching videos, playing games, and browsing the internet. Tablets are also popular among professionals who need a lightweight and portable device for taking notes, giving presentations, and accessing work files on the go.

Smartwatches are another electronic gadget that has gained popularity in recent years. Smartwatches are wearable devices that can connect to your smartphone and provide notifications, track your fitness goals, and even make payments. They are ideal for people who want to stay connected and track their health and fitness goals without having to constantly check their smartphone.

Electronic gadgets have also revolutionized the way we entertain ourselves. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify have made it easier than ever to access a wide range of movies, TV shows, and music on our electronic devices. Gaming consoles like the PlayStation and Xbox have also become popular electronic gadgets, allowing us to play immersive and interactive games with friends and family.

While electronic gadgets have brought many benefits to our lives, they also come with some drawbacks. One of the biggest concerns with electronic gadgets is their impact on our health. Excessive use of electronic gadgets can lead to eye strain, neck and back pain, and even sleep disturbances. The blue light emitted by screens can also disrupt our circadian rhythm and affect our sleep quality. It is important to take breaks from electronic gadgets and practice good screen hygiene to minimize these health risks.

Another concern with electronic gadgets is their impact on the environment. Electronic gadgets are made from a variety of materials, including metals, plastics, and rare earth elements, many of which are non-renewable and have a significant environmental impact. The production, transportation, and disposal of electronic gadgets also contribute to carbon emissions and electronic waste. It is important to recycle electronic gadgets properly and choose products that are made from sustainable materials and have a minimal environmental impact.

Despite these concerns, electronic gadgets have become an essential part of our daily lives. They have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and entertain ourselves, making our lives more convenient, efficient, and connected. As technology continues to advance, electronic gadgets will only become more powerful, versatile, and indispensable, shaping the way we live and interact with the world around us.

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Powerful Impacts of the Use of Gadgets and the Internet Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Smartphones and social interactions, smartphones, concentration, and engagement, rewired brain, space to be real self.

It is hard to disagree that people’s attitudes toward something new usually vary, and while some celebrate and welcome the benefits it brings, others only focus on the negative effects. One of the most contradictory scientific and societal responses is to the role smartphones, the Internet, and social media, in particular, play in individuals’ lives. Nowadays, it is common to see people in the subway, cafe, office, or shop staring at their phones and ignoring what is happening around them. Opinions regarding this often vary because one can concentrate on the different aspects of the situation. Overall, researchers highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of smartphones and the Internet, but most tend to focus on the bright side of the situation, and I support their view.

The first argument opposers of frequent use of the Internet and mobile phones in general provide is that they deprive people of communication with others, making them isolated and less empathetic. For example, according to Turkle (2015), in 2015, “89 percent of cellphone owners said they had used their phones during the last social gathering they attended” (para. 2). Carr (2017) also believes that social relationships and skills suffer when people use their gadgets too often. However, other studies show that it is a way to stay connected and show emotions that have changed (Fuentes, 2019). Many people smile, laugh, anticipate, and demonstrate other feelings when texting with their friends or leaving comments on social media (Brody, 2020). After all, “a conversation broken up into short bursts and quick emoticons is still a conversation” (Goldsmith, 2016, para. 5). Gadgets do not harm communication with others but emphasize the need to be connected and provide such a possibility.

Secondly, many children often hear from their parents that gadgets make them less concentrated and focused. Some researchers support such an opinion: Carr (2017) indicates that when people hear their smartphone receiving a notification, even if they do not check it, their concentration, engagement, and attentiveness levels decrease severely. Turkle (2015) finds it vital to spend more time without gadgets to improve concentration levels. On the contrary, Goldsmith (2016) notices that it is rare to see a person more concentrated than someone who is reading or watching something on their device. As for engagement, its lack in some actions people make using their devices can be defined as a chance to choose to be involved in the content they like (Goldsmith, 2016). Therefore, areas of engagement may shift from time to time, and it is great that users nowadays always have a wide range of online activities to choose from.

Next, the aspects discussed above make some researchers claim that unlimited access to gadgets and virtual space changes how one’s brain works. According to Carr (2017), “as the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens,” and the enhancing proximity of the smartphone makes brainpower decline (para. 4). What is more, social media and the Internet, in general, make people adopt “the app way of thinking” (Turkle, 2015, para. 28). However, Goldsmith (2016) and Fuentes (2019) do not consider this fact increasingly disturbing as they believe that changes in the human brain in response to the developing world are unavoidable. Goldsmith (2016) poses an interesting question: “wouldn’t it be strange if, in the midst of this digital revolution, we were still expected to use our brains in the same way we read books?” (para. 8). Consequently, the change in thinking and analysis patterns do not necessarily mean the degradation of the human brain.

Finally, another aspect related to the use of gadgets that many researchers highlight is that virtual space allows people to act the way they want and be their true selves. On the one hand, such an opportunity leads to specific problems: some users might post threats on the Internet and demonstrate other aggressive behavior, showing, as some claim, humans’ true nature (Fuentes, 2019). However, both Goldsmith (2016) and Fuentes (2019) do not think that social media and mobile devices are directly related to the growing rates of online aggression. Moreover, when accessing virtual space, many people use it to show the other part of themselves – instead of negativity and hatred, they demonstrate cohesion, empathy, cooperation, support, and love (Brody, 2020). Therefore, talking only about aggressive online behaviors is incorrect because another, more powerful side of the situation exists.

To conclude, the paper demonstrates researchers’ different views on a number of aspects related to the use of smartphones and the Internet in particular. Some indicate that increased access to the virtual world has reduced people’s social skills, levels of empathy, brain capacity, and ability to concentrate, simultaneously allowing them to uncontrollably spread negativity and aggressiveness online. Others state that the mentioned aspects should be viewed from the positive side: individuals are not less socialized, empathetic, or engaged, but the ways they communicate, show emotions, and stay focused have changed.

Brody, N. (2020). It turns out our tech gadgets aren’t as isolating as experts say . The News Tribune. Web.

Carr, N. (2017). How smartphones hijack our minds . The Wall Street Journal . Web.

Fuentes, A. (2019). Are we really as awful as we act online? National Geographic . Web.

Goldsmith, K. (2016). Go ahead: Waste time on the Internet . Los Angeles Times . Web.

Turkle, S. (2015). Stop Googling. Let’s talk . The New York Times . Web.

The Impact of Smartphones on Mental and Emotional Well-Being
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"Stop Googling. Let's Talk" Article by Sherry Turkle
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"Looking Toward Cyberspace: Beyond Grounded Sociology" by S. Turkle
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Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Science News

Smartphones may be changing the way we think.

Those attention-grabbing digital devices are like a new appendage. How are they changing us?

DIGITAL MINDS Smartphones offer ways to connect, store data and get directions. But what exactly digital tech does to our brains is still an unanswered question.

Tassii/iStockphoto

Attention grabber

One way in which today’s digital technology is distinct from earlier advances (like landline telephones) is the sheer amount of time people spend with it. In just a decade, smartphones have saturated the market, enabling instant internet access to an estimated 2 billion people around the world. In one small study reported in 2015, 23 adults, ages 18 to 33, spent an average of five hours a day on their phones, broken up into 85 distinct daily sessions. When asked how many times they thought they used their phones, participants underestimated by half .

In a different study, Larry Rosen, a psychologist at California State University, Dominguez Hills, used an app to monitor how often college students unlocked their phones. The students checked their phones an average of 60 times a day, each session lasting about three to four minutes for a total of 220 minutes a day. That’s a lot of interruption, Rosen says.

What am I missing?

In one small study of 104 college students, more than half unlocked their phones more than 60 times a day.

essay on influence of electronic gadgets on modern society

Source: L. Rosen

Smartphones are “literally omnipresent 24-7, and as such, it’s almost like an appendage,” he says. And often, we are compelled to look at this new, alluring rectangular limb instead of what’s around us. “This device is really powerful,” Rosen says. “It’s really influencing our behavior. It’s changed the way we see the world.”

Technology does that. Printing presses, electricity, televisions and telephones all shifted people’s habits drastically, Przybylski says. He proposes that the furor over digital technology melting brains and crippling social lives is just the latest incarnation of the age-old fear of change. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Is there something magical about the power of an LCD screen?’ ” Przybylski says.

Yet some researchers suspect that there is something particularly compelling about this advance. “It just feels different. Computers and the internet and the cloud are embedded in our lives,” says psychologist Benjamin Storm of the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The scope of the amount of information we have at our fingertips is beyond anything we’ve ever experienced. The temptation to become really reliant on it seems to be greater.”

Memory outsourcing

Our digital reliance may encourage even more reliance, at least for memory, Storm’s work suggests. Sixty college undergraduates were given a mix of trivia questions — some easy, some hard. Half of the students had to answer the questions on their own; the other half were told to use the internet. Later, the students were given an easier set of questions, such as “What is the center of a hurricane called?” This time, the students were told they could use the internet if they wanted.

People who had used the internet initially were more likely to rely on internet help for the second, easy set of questions, Storm and colleagues reported online last July in Memory . “People who had gotten used to using the internet continued to do so, even though they knew the answer,” Storm says. This kind of overreliance may signal a change in how people use their memory . “No longer do we just rely on what we know,” he says.

MRI scans of hippocampus and caudate nucleus

“We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools,” Betsy Sparrow, then at Columbia University, and colleagues wrote in 2011. “The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows.”

That digital crutch isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Storm points out. Human memory is notoriously squishy, susceptible to false memories and outright forgetting. The internet, though imperfect, can be a resource of good information. And it’s not clear, he says, whether our memories are truly worse, or whether we perform at the same level, but just reach the answer in a different way.

“Some people think memory is absolutely declining as a result of us using technology,” he says. “Others disagree. Based on the current data, though, I don’t think we can really make strong conclusions one way or the other.”

The potential downsides of this memory outsourcing are nebulous, Storm says. It’s possible that digital reliance influences — and perhaps even weakens — other parts of our thinking. “Does it change the way we learn? Does it change the way we start to put information together, to build our own stories, to generate new ideas?” Storm asks. “There could be consequences that we’re not necessarily aware of yet.”

Research by Gazzaley and others has documented effects of interruptions and multitasking, which are hard to avoid with incessant news alerts, status updates and Instagrams waiting in our pockets. Siphoning attention can cause trouble for a long list of thinking skills, including short- and long-term memory, attention, perception and reaction time. Those findings, however, come from experiments in labs that ask a person to toggle between two tasks while undergoing a brain scan, for instance. Similar effects have not been as obvious for people going about their daily lives, Gazzaley says. But he is convinced that constant interruptions — the dings and buzzes, our own restless need to check our phones — are influencing our ability to think.

Making maps

Consequences of technology are starting to show up for another cognitive task — navigating, particularly while driving . Instead of checking a map and planning a route before a trip, people can now rely on their smartphones to do the work for them. Anecdotal news stories describe people who obeyed the tinny GPS voice that instructed them to drive into a lake or through barricades at the entrance of a partially demolished bridge. Our navigational skills may be at risk as we shift to neurologically easier ways to find our way, says cognitive neuroscientist Véronique Bohbot of McGill University in Montreal.

Historically, getting to the right destination required a person to have the lay of the land, a mental map of the terrain. That strategy takes more work than one that’s called a “response strategy,” the type of navigating that starts with an electronic voice command. “You just know the response — turn right, turn left, go straight. That’s all you know,” Bohbot says. “You’re on autopilot.”

Google begets Google

Compared with people who had to rely on memory (blue bars) to answer an initial mix of easy and hard trivia questions, people who used Google to find answers (red bars) were more likely to use Google for a second, easy set of questions. Inconvenience (having to get up from the sofa to walk to a computer or an iPod Touch) didn’t stop the Googling.

Source: B.C. Storm, S.M. Stone and A.S. Benjamin/ Memory 2016

A response strategy is easier, but it leaves people with less knowledge. People who walked through a town in Japan with human guides did a better job later navigating the same route than people who had walked with GPS as a companion, researchers have found.

Scientists are looking for signs that video games, which often expose people to lots of response-heavy situations, influence how people get around. In a small study, Bohbot and colleagues found that people who average 18 hours a week playing action video games such as Call of Duty navigated differently than people who don’t play the games . When tested on a virtual maze, players of action video games were more likely to use the simpler response learning strategy to make their way through, Bohbot and colleagues reported in 2015 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B .

That easier type of response navigation depends on the caudate nucleus, a brain area thought to be involved in habit formation and addiction. In contrast, nerve cells in the brain’s hippocampus help create mental maps of the world and assist in the more complex navigation. Some results suggest that people who use the response method have bigger caudate nuclei, and more brain activity there. Conversely, people who use spatial strategies that require a mental map have larger, busier hippocampi.

Those results on video game players are preliminary and show an association within a group that may share potentially confounding similarities. Yet it’s possible that getting into a habit of mental laxity may change the way people navigate. Digital technology isn’t itself to blame, Bohbot says. “It’s not the technology that’s necessarily good or bad for our brain. It’s how we use the technology,” she says. “We have a tendency to use it in the way that seems to be easiest for us. We’re not making the effort.”

Parts of the brain, including those used to navigate, have many jobs. Changing one aspect of brain function with one type of behavior might have implications for other aspects of life. A small study by Bohbot showed that people who navigate by relying on the addiction-related caudate nucleus smoke more cigarettes, drink more alcohol and are more likely to use marijuana than people who rely on the hippocampus. What to make of that association is still very much up in the air.

Sweating the smartphone

Other researchers are trying to tackle questions of how technology affects our psychological outlooks. Rosen and colleagues have turned up clues that digital devices have become a new source of anxiety for people.

Portion of 14- to 18-year-olds who reported always or almost always texting while watching TV

Source: Deloitte 2016 Digital Democracy Survey

In diabolical experiments, Cal State’s Rosen takes college students’ phones away, under the ruse that the devices are interfering with laboratory measurements of stress, such as heart rate and sweating. The phones are left on, but placed out of reach of the students, who are reading a passage. Then, the researchers start texting the students, who are forced to listen to the dings without being able to see the messages or respond. Measurements of anxiety spike, Rosen has found, and reading comprehension dwindles.

Other experiments have found that heavy technology users last about 10 minutes without their phones before showing signs of anxiety.

Fundamentally, an interruption in smartphone access is no different from those in the days before smartphones, when the landline rang as you were walking into the house with bags full of groceries, so you missed the call. Both situations can raise anxiety over a connection missed. But Rosen suspects that our dependence on digital technology causes these situations to occur much more often.

“The technology is magnificent,” he says. “Having said that, I think that this constant bombardment of needing to check in, needing to be connected, this feeling of ‘I can’t be disconnected, I can’t cut the tether for five minutes,’ that’s going to have a long-term effect.”

The question of whether digital technology is good or bad for people is nearly impossible to answer, but a survey of 120,000 British 15-year-olds (99.5 percent reported using technology daily) takes a stab at it. Oxford’s Przybylski and Netta Weinstein at Cardiff University in Wales have turned up hints that moderate use of digital technology — TV, computers, video games and smartphones — correlates with good mental health, measured by questions that asked about happiness, life satisfaction and social activity.

When the researchers plotted technology use against mental well-being, an umbrella-shaped curve emerged, highlighting what the researchers call the “Goldilocks spot” of technology use — not too little and not too much.

“We found that you’ve got to do a lot of texting before it hurts,” Przybylski says. For smartphone use, the shift from benign to potentially harmful came after about two hours of use on weekdays, mathematical analyses revealed. Weekday recreational computer use had a longer limit: four hours and 17 minutes, the researchers wrote in the February Psychological Science .

Story continues after graphs

British teenagers’ mental well-being, based on a 14-question survey about happiness and life satisfaction, seemed to shift with hours spent using digital media. Scores averaged between 40 and 50. Each type of media had a sweet spot, suggesting that moderate digital technology use may have benefits.

Source: A.K. Przybylski and N. Weinstein/ Psychological Science 2017

For even the heaviest users, the relationship between technology use and poorer mental health wasn’t all that strong. For scale, the potential negative effects of all that screen time was less than a third of the size of the positive effects of eating breakfast, Przybylski and Weinstein found.

Even if a relationship is found between technology use and poorer mental health, scientists still wouldn’t know why, Przybylski says. Perhaps the effect comes from displacing something, such as exercise or socializing, and not the technology itself.

We may never know just how our digital toys shape our brains. Technology is constantly changing, and fast. Our brains are responding and adapting to it.

“The human neocortex basically re-creates itself over successive generations,” Krubitzer says. It’s a given that people raised in a digital environment are going to have brains that reflect that environment. “We went from using stones to crack nuts to texting on a daily basis,” she says. “Clearly the brain has changed.”

It’s possible that those changes are a good thing, perhaps better preparing children to succeed in a fast-paced digital world. Or maybe we will come to discover that when we no longer make the effort to memorize our best friend’s phone number, something important is quietly slipping away.

This article appears in the April 1, 2017, issue of Science News with the headline, “Digital minds: Are smartphones changing our brains?”

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Stories From Experts About the Impact of Digital Life
3. Fifty-fifty anecdotes: How digital life has been both positive and negative

1. The positives of digital life
2. The negatives of digital life
About this canvassing of experts
Acknowledgments

A number of these experts wrote about both sides of the story, taking the time to point out some of the ways in which digital life is a blessing and a curse. A selection of these mixed-response anecdotes follows.

James M. Hinton , an author, commented, “Having grown up in the pre-internet era, my childhood was spent in a substantial monoculture. There was a single shared set of values and beliefs that everyone was expected to conform to. As someone who did not fit into that set of shared expectations (and only grew further apart from them as I aged) this created a substantial sense of isolation and even oppression. The advent of internet technologies – and particularly the ability to communicate instantly, inexpensively, across the planet – has given me access to like-minded individuals who have eased that sense of isolation. This makes it sound as though my answer should have been that these technologies have created, and will continue to create, a substantial improvement for my well-being. However, the very technologies that have created these opportunities have exposed me to even more of the general hostility of the surrounding culture to those like myself. Rather than a small, local community isolating me, now there is sense that a substantial portion of the world, establishment and orthodox belief systems are actively opposed to my positions. Perhaps, to take things to a bit of an extreme, I could compare it to being sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. I am, at last, surrounded by a large number of people like myself, but with an impending sense of dread at what is waiting just beyond the fence to eventually come down and wipe us out.”

Technology improves the lives of people who can avoid being dominated by it and forced into debilitating addictions to it. Frank Kaufmann

Frank Kaufmann , a scholar, educator, innovator and activist based in North America, commented, “Technology improves the lives of people who can avoid being dominated by it and forced into debilitating addictions to it. Technology allows me to grow and benefit from loving relationships among friends and family who can now be close despite geographical distance. Tragically it prevents the addicted from growing and benefiting from the most exquisite types of encounter, namely being in the physical and personal presence of another.”

Eric Royer , a professor based in North America, said, “Digital technology has fundamentally reshaped higher education, to the point where lectures are being replaced with online courses and information is readily available at the click of fingertip. This means that knowledge is no longer the domain of the ‘Ivory Tower’; however, I hold concerns over the effect of the internet on actual learning and a love for education itself. As a consequence of digital technology, education has become a commodity, and students view it as a means to an end.”

Sasha Costanza-Chock , associate professor of civic media at MIT, said, “On the one hand, digital technology has been used by progressive social movements to rapidly organize an enormous mobilization wave after the election of Trump. We’ve seen digital media used as a key tool to turn out hundreds of thousands of people with very short notice to protest the Muslim ban, attacks on LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, the Women’s March, #MeToo, continued #BlackLivesMatter mobilizations, and more. At the same time, digital media are also used to surveil social movement actors in increasingly sophisticated ways; to propagate well-funded disinformation campaigns; and they are also used by far right movements.”

Barry Chudakov , founder and principal of Sertain Research and Streamfuzion Corp., wrote, “As a researcher with colleagues in the communications sphere, I hear a recurring conversation about the new world realities of ‘Me, Inc.,’ made possible by ubiquitous digital technology. The good news is that concept-generation, creativity, programming, publishing or musical performance is no longer in the hands of indifferent gatekeepers – the greybeard editors of various industries who decided which voice and talent was worthy. But this coin has another side.

“Digital technology has, in many areas, hollowed out apprenticeship and expertise. Anyone with a tool (a digital camera or smartphone, editing software, some programming chops) can now be an expert and build an app or a reputation. Older communicators may marvel that newer digital tech tools enable fresh ideas, ingenious approaches and direct versus staged or canned presentations. On the other hand, in the ‘Here Comes Everybody’ world of digital tool mayhem, just having the tool is readily equated with expertise. Many people see in this the breakdown of ‘guild wisdom’ – learning a craft that took years of mentorship and trial and error, which results in reduced standards of excellence and quality. Often there simply are no standards. When there are no real experts, everyone can present her/himself as an expert.

“The impact on workers’ well-being is profound: from relying on buzz words to explain approaches that are highly conceptual but lack experience, to relying on data summations that cannot be clearly articulated as beneficial to outcomes but provide a cloud of information that appears to be relevant – I see a high degree of insecurity and a struggle for clarity and standards. Whether you call yourself a designer, a programmer, a social media expert, a storyteller, a data analyst, a market research professional – you can now go through any door that is near you to get a job or build a career. But the mentors, for many, are gone. You will come up with brilliant insights that were ho-hum years ago; you will propose fuzzy solutions that appear to you clearly superior but are hollow as a dead tree; you will eventually consider your career and brand far more important and worth spending time on than your client’s job – following the dictum that ‘Me, Inc.’ means Me First.

“My friends’ lives in regard to well-being feel permanently insecure. The framework of progression, succession and apprenticeship is gone. ‘Me, Inc.’ rules. It’s me and my software and my digital technology. But, of course, a new apprenticeship will likely appear and then gatekeepers and filter governors will once again be part of the scene, albeit in different form – probably algorithms. This is because newer digital tools enable cooperation and increased socialization, even if it happens through screens, platforms and crowds.”

[the beaten trail]

Seth Finkelstein , consulting programmer at Finkelstein Consulting, wrote, “When the Net was younger, many users of it were easily able to have *substantive* open forums where anyone could join. I very much enjoyed being able to have discussions with people who were at a status level far greater than I could have communicated with beforehand. On the other hand, that meant people at a correspondingly higher status level could be personally offended by what I wrote. In retrospect, for me, the trade-off was not worth it. This is now writ large in social media today. There’s much more of a potential for becoming internet-famous, which can be a blessing or a curse. But it’s possible that there are many more and powerful curses around than blessings.”

Christian Huitema , a technology developer/administrator based in North America, appreciates the internet but commented that being disconnected is still occasionally quite important, “We now have a new checklist item before going out to dinner: We make sure that none of us is carrying a phone.”

Our greatest strength can also be our greatest weakness, and our human relationship with technology is a classic testament to that. Andie Diemer

Andie Diemer , journalist and activist user, wrote, “I use technology in almost every aspect of my life, as everyone I know does. It helps me make quicker, more-informed decisions and it can connect me to anything or anyone at any given moment. However I’ve also noticed the compulsions that come along with having technology so engrained in my life; the dopamine hit when you see you are receiving likes, the soothing feeling that can come from looking at photos of baby animals. Technology can make us feel anything whenever we want – all we need to do is hit search. As much as it’s great to plug in and be connected and feel limitless, there is no real total opposite of that in our society anymore. There is no way to totally shut it off or opt out. Most jobs require you to be computer-literate or to have a cellphone that can be on your person at all times. Our greatest strength can also be our greatest weakness, and our human relationship with technology is a classic testament to that.”

Colin Tredoux , a professor of psychology at the University of Cape Town, commented, “The advantages of digital technology are clear, but there are also disadvantages. One memorable advantage was being able to track and keep in contact with my two young children, ages 12 and 7, when they were lost on a train in Germany. I was able to get them to approach passersby, and get them onto a train that would get them to a designated location even though I was in Cape Town at the time. However, I can also tell stories about how much the ubiquity of digital technology has made everybody feel unsafe – the slightest disappearance of children or friends or adults from instant communication makes everybody highly anxious, almost always for no good reason (last year my daughter, now 20, went offline in Paris, and we spent six hours fretting, worrying, etc.). In other words, we need to weigh up the cost of worrying versus the benefit of making safe. My sense is that the former occurs with 100-times-greater frequency than the latter, so then the important question is what weight to put to the two.”

Simeon Yates , professor of digital culture at the University of Liverpool, wrote, “Digital life can be dominated by email and time-management tools. Even using these well leads to a significant increase in workload. This is not matched by changes in organisational structure and management practice to address this workload. This has long-term health impacts. But digital life is also good. Nearly everything we do for enjoyment has been helped by tools and apps: Going climbing (using an app for route guidebook), reading (endless access to books), music (endless access to music), film (endless access to film and TV), keeping in touch with friends and family, organising time together. All of these are much easier.”

Daniel Schultz , senior creative technologist at the Internet Archive, commented, “This morning I rolled out of bed to see a note from a constituent on Twitter, an email from a public school think tank about the extreme need for more effective communication with parents, I logged onto Slack to catch up on notes from my coworkers and friends, and received a FaceTime from my daughter downstairs as a reminder that it was time to eat breakfast with her. The end of this story actually captures both the benefits and risks of technology. I was immediately drawn into my phone after waking up – I got information, some of it adding to my pile of tasks and increasing my stress, some of it enabling human connection, but it was also at the expense of spending my first moments with my family. My life would not exist in its current form without digital technology. I work from home, and as a result I am able to see my family any time of the day. My professional collaborations are coordinated and executed online. A large portion of my civic engagement and advocacy is done through the creation or use of technology to share a message or make a point.”

Leora Lawton , lecturer in demography and sociology and executive director of the Berkeley Population Center at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote, “In positive ways I have close friends that I met online through email lists, colleagues that I communicate with and the ease of doing business or personal matters no matter where I am in the world. I love being able to check things in Google on my iPhone as the thought occurs. I like apps on my phone. I get to listen (or watch) baseball and other sports anywhere. However, I dislike the continuing demise of radio and print newspapers. Online sources are a different experience. They have their pluses, but there’s a reason why people still like vinyl over CDs. I feel the same way about radio. I take 25 hours off each week from the digital world – sometimes more – for religious reasons. Without the religious imperative I’m not sure I would do it, but I’m so glad I do. It’s such a relief! My co-religionists all agree. Even the teens often agree (not always of course, but they are teens).”

Daniel Berleant , author of “The Human Race to the Future,” commented, “We all remember the days when any group was subject to interruptions as someone’s cellphone rang. Text messaging and email have made communication even easier, while alleviating the interruption factor imposed by a ringing phone. At the same time, it has presented a disadvantage: people often will not answer a phone call, especially young people. This has produced an adjustment problem in my own experience, whereby I would sometimes like to call a family member on the phone, but cannot get through because they prefer a text message that does not interrupt them. I, and others, need to adjust expectations and tactics to the realities of modern cellphone-based communication.”

Charles Ess , professor, department of media and communication at the University of Oslo, said, “An obvious example is the use of digital technologies to communicate with family and friends around the globe. On the one hand, all of this makes it wonderfully easy and convenient to stay in touch – including during critical life moments such as the birth of a new grandson, a sibling’s loss of a job, a serious illness or death, et cetera. At the same time – as someone who grew up writing letters, e.g., the ones I wrote to my parents while working and then traveling through Germany and Europe in 1971 – I’m acutely aware of what is NOT communicated through digital channels (researcher Sherry Turkle addresses this more eloquently). First of all, such a letter demanded extended attention and focus – and, as research over the past 10 years or so has confirmed, the process of handwriting slows one down so as to open up silences and spaces for reflection that we elide quickly over if only using a keyboard. There is also the materiality of the letter. To not only see the words – but to hold in one’s hand a piece of paper that existed with me and then with those close to me at a specific time and place decades ago – is utterly distinctive. I receive hundreds of emails a day and write 10 to 20 or more. My professional and personal life turn on them, along with many other digital and communication technologies, of course. But I strongly doubt that my children will be interested in or find much value in trawling through even just the emails sent to them after I am gone. While they have their own affordances – first of all, speed and convenience – they also suffer from a kind of immateriality and, usually, brevity. By contrast, I suspect they’ll find my physical letters to be far more valuable and precious. I don’t think this is just nostalgia. Rather, it resonates with the so-called ‘death online’ research, which – alongside evidence for the many benefits of grieving and mourning via social media, memorial sites, etc. – also documents how for some number of people, precisely young people, there is the discovery that grief requires embodied co-presence. This is ramified by the unpleasant sides of online grief, e.g., postings from ‘friends’ who ignore you the next day, etc. Again, there is some indication of not necessarily rejecting ‘the digital’ entirely in favor of ‘the analogue’ (with all the caveats those terms require) – but rather of attempting to find a better balance.”

Nathalie Coupet , an internet advocate based in North America, said, “My first thought in the morning, having just awaken, is: ‘Do I have any emails?’ The internet has taken over my life and made me a 24-hour-a-day-connected pod to its mother ship. Without my smartphone, I dare not venture in the Big World out there. What if someone was trying to contact me? Ironically, I still remember the day when, sitting comfortably in a tram in Zurich, I had vowed to never carry a cellphone with me. To jealously safeguard my independence. To daydream in peace and be deliciously idle. Not to be so engaged all the time in a stressful awareness of place and time, people and events. To be left alone. It has now become a goal.”

Craig J. Mathias , principal for the Farpoint Group, wrote, “I’ve benefitted from email, other messing services including voice and video communications, access to a wide array of information via the Web, and access to many services I use regularly, like banking and health care. All of these are good, but I do worry about security and privacy, which still receive far too little attention. Stronger penalties are required for those who compromise these vital requirements.”

Kathleen Hayes , a technology specialist based in North America, commented, “For the good, my 91-year-old mom checks emails and uses her tablet when she travels so she can stay connected. She uses the caller ID on her home phone to ward off robo calls. For the not-so-good, on her new car some of the controls were difficult for her to figure out. What used to be a knob is now a screen with a vague description of what it may or may not do.”

A professor at a major U.S. state university said, “I am able to share information with my family who live in other states more easily. We are able to see photos and share news to groups that would have taken longer in the past. I do often wonder if we really want photos of our children online, however. I feel concern about safety and well-being of children.”

Theodora Sutton , a Ph.D. candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, wrote, “… Digital technology is interwoven into my daily life as it is with everyone I know. The first thing I do when I wake up is usually check my iPhone for messages and news or scroll through Twitter on my laptop to help wake myself up. I find it to be an extremely useful and relaxing way to see what’s happening in the world without necessarily engaging. I also often use resources online when I’m struggling to fall asleep, as there is a rich library of calming content and most of it is free. A problem that I have with my digital technology is the way that boundaries are blurred. For example, context collapse on social networking sites, which make posting content a minefield, and can cause unnecessary anxiety. Another way that similar boundaries are blurred is in the activities I use the laptop for – both working and relaxing can be provided by the same ‘portal’ of my laptop screen, which I find unhelpful, as when I’m working there is always a distraction available, and when I’m relaxing it’s always possible to quickly check my work email, both things which can hinder the task at hand.”

Richard Padilla , a retired system administrator, said, “Tech has changed the development of the lives of everyone. A need to refine its processes for better growth is now the requirement.”

Michele Walfred , a North American communications specialist, said, “I have witnessed family members unable to join conversations, sit at a table and not bring their phones with them, etc. Social media platforms have provided everyone with a forum to express views, but, as a whole, conversations are more polarized, tribal and hostile. With Facebook for instance, there has been a huge uptick in fake news, altered images, dangerous health claims and cures, and the proliferation of anti-science information. This is very distressing and disturbing. People are too willing to share without doing their due diligence and fact-checking first. People now get their news from sources that are only aligned with their belief systems or ‘tribe’ and freely shut out any information that they don’t like or agree with. On a positive note, if one is interested in diverse opinions and views, the ability to make informed opinion and decisions is at one’s fingertips. I learn something new on the internet every day. GPS, maps, navigation have transformed my personal transportation. It has changed the way I shop, source local materials, find out what is going on in my own community, or – when I travel – immediately connect me to inside information about a new town or city. I used to bring along a Rand McNally map. Now I use Google Maps and, while I miss looking at maps, the technology now is so accurate and convenient. I am an avid photographer, and the multitude of editing apps is astounding. I have 40 installed on my iPad and they have transformed my artistic efforts. My grandson lives three and a half hours away in a very large city – not a pleasant drive for me, so being able to FaceTime him is a development I treasure.”

Timothy Leffel , a research scientist at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, one of the largest independent social research organizations in the U.S., said, “I probably spend more waking hours looking at a screen than not. And this seems to be the new normal, which is a bit jarring. If you’d told me 10 years ago that this is what everyday life would be like today, I’m not sure what I’d think. I’m not sure what I think today, even. I have superficial knowledge of any topic at my fingertips, which is incredible. But with that knowledge comes a highly addictive and hidden reward system that probably leads me to overestimate the positive impact of computers on my life.”

Bouziane Zaid , an associate professor at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, wrote, “Changes in quality of life, whether positive or negative, cannot be reduced to our uses of technology. It is a human tendency to idealize a past that probably was never as good as we think it was. Well-being is improved and lessened due to hyperconnectivity.”

Kathleen Harper , an editor for HollywoodLife.com, said, “GPS has changed my life – for the better. It sounds dramatic, but I honestly don’t know what I would do without it. I am what they call ‘directionally challenged,’ and I’d forever be lost without my handy-dandy smartphone (and my backup portable charger of course). Living in New York City can be intimidating, and it’s quite easy to get lost. Without step-by-step GPS and my subway app, I definitely wouldn’t be able to explore the city, attend events, and try new things as much as I do. Playing devil’s advocate though, maybe without it, I’d be forced to actually learn and/or memorize the city, which would in turn expand that part of my brain and make me a more well-rounded person.”

Mark Richmond , an internet pioneer and systems engineer for the U.S. government, wrote, “Twenty years ago my daughter met a man 8,000 miles away. Yes, it was via internet. They married and she has lived there ever since. Despite the distance we are able to stay in regular contact, including routine video chatting. My other children and grandchildren use social media either very little, or sometimes way too much. It helps to keep up with what everyone is doing, the joys and pains in their lives, but it also exacerbates things, especially for the younger ones. Every minor disagreement seems to be a major production, lived out on a stage. I am hopeful that as they learn, they will also learn moderation.”

I love meeting many new people from across the world through digital mediums. But I have noticed culturally a decrease in actual face-to-face human interaction or even a voice phone call with emotion and true connection, accuracy and depth. John Senall

John Senall , founder of Mobile First Media Group, said, “Digital technology has offered additional career opportunities and advancement to me. However, the type of career opportunities for me and countless others usually involve sitting at a computer screen, working more hours and being stuck to a smartphone. All have made communication more seamless and constant, but have, in part, played a role in decreasing my health quality. I love meeting many new people from across the world through digital mediums. But I have noticed culturally a decrease in actual face-to-face human interaction or even a voice phone call with emotion and true connection, accuracy and depth. I ponder what it all may mean for my young children and their friends and classmates, down the road when there will be deeper technology and more communication changes. The benefits of a hyperconnected life are amazing and rewarding. Yet, I think many of us yearn, at least occasionally, for a simpler, less digital time.”

William J. Ward , president of DR4WARD, said, “After spending a lot of time on digital I found my physical and mental health declining. I now spend much less time on digital and much greater time doing physical activity like yoga to counteract the damage to the body that spending too much screen time inevitably causes. I also invest more time in face-to-face and social activities and finding a balance where digital is helpful but does not distract from relationships.”

Cliff Zukin , a professor and survey researcher at Rutgers University, commented, “The only way I can reach my children is by texting; this is disjointed asynchronous communication, not conversation. However, I can walk out of the house not knowing how to get where I’m going or needing a map, which I love.”

Christopher Wilkinson , internet pioneer, wrote, “I do not agree with the epithet ‘hyperconnected.’ We are far from it. Life-changing events: 1) Word processor spell/grammar checkers in several languages. 2) Sending SMS by Skype (disgracefully discontinued by Microsoft). 3) Negative: Demise of the handwritten letter.”

A selection of anonymous responses

An internet activist from Europe said, “Great for keeping in touch across oceans, but across the city people’s tendencies to substitute text for voice is not always good. It is great to be able to look things up instantly, but this may lead to shallow understanding of answers.”

An internet pioneer and social and digital marketing consultant commented, “On one hand, I can be in close communication with my 12-year-old daughter and not have to wonder where she is as she goes about her day, and can remind her to bring things home from school. I can also be in contact with friends through social media, which helps as I live in a city where I don’t have many social outlets. On the other hand, I’ve found that too much time spent online, particularly on Facebook, can make me feel depressed. Either I catch myself comparing my life to the posts that others make, or I get overwhelmed by the toxic political atmosphere currently playing out.”

A senior lecturer in media studies wrote, “There are both positive and negative consequences from being always-on. Being always-on means that I can be in constant contact with my family who live on the other side of the world, but it also means that I receive work emails all throughout the day.”

A senior lecturer based in Southeast Asia said, “Time wasted on social media is negatively affecting well-being; positively, social media helps to bring people close, so that it helps to make a lively environment with intimate people. In education, it has been a good platform as well as a resource.”

A chief of staff for a nonprofit organization wrote, “FOMO (fear of missing out) is a problem, but digital life is also useful for communicating with loved ones far away.”

A retired professor and research scientist said, “Good impacts of digital life: Immediate and extensive answers and how-to advice; quick, easy access to books and movies. Bad impacts: Reduced conversations with wife, especially at mealtime – just Google it.”

A vice president at a major entertainment company in the United States commented, “Clearly, collective action (good or bad) happens with much more ease and speed. I marvel at the ease of organizing things that result in greater connectivity with my family – from renting a house in a far-away place for vacation to helping my children.”

A research scientist said, “On the one hand, I can communicate with friends who decades ago I would not be able to stay in touch with. On the other hand, we have a white supremacist in the White House.”

A professor of English wrote, “What has been positive is the ability to follow along with positive facets of others’ lives – birthdays, anniversaries, etc. This has been positive. Yet, again, a birthday card, a phone call, a conversation would be more meaningful.”

A futurist based in North America wrote, “Generally, very positive is the access to information. It is easier to do research, find out about current events, etc. Among the negatives are kids immersed in digital devices; staring at a screen as an acceptable activity.”

A professor from North America said, “I’ve cut off from lots of digital media. I realized it was consuming lots of my time. It didn’t make me feel good – what I was seeing and reading made me mostly angry and depressed. It was feeding negativity. I am happier without it. However, a friend who has a child with a chronic medical condition has monitoring so that medical personnel are notified when parameters are exceeded so interventions can occur rapidly. The child gets fast feedback, too, so they can change behavior or take action in a way that would not have been possible five years ago.”

An entrepreneur based in North America wrote, “I feel like technology has made our life better (instant access to information) and worse (instant access to entertainment).”

A professor based in Europe wrote, “When I replaced my mobile I gave the used, but still quite powerful one to my granddaughter aged 10. She made nice pictures with it, which I appreciated. But she also got obsessed with certain internet games, leading to conflicts.”

An assistant professor of political science at an Ivy League university wrote, “As a parent this is easy. My kids (ages 4 and 7) are steeped in technology. They have iPads in their classrooms (which help with engaging them and I think are a net good), but they also want to be on iPads at home (which may not be as good). They think every screen is a touch screen. Even at 4 years old, my son’s first instinct when he doesn’t know something bit of information is to Google it or ask Siri. My kids love to read books on Kindle (and much prefer it to paper books) so even the educational activity of reading is now deeply intertwined with technology. In some ways that is good, on Kindle they can highlight the words they don’t know as they read and – something that has proven very important for my 7-year-old – they cannot see how thick the book is, so they tend to read more without lamenting about length. At the same time, they have little interest in libraries and miss out on books that are not available via Kindle. They can FaceTime family who live far away, but sometimes they see that as a substitute for actual visits. In short, there is good and bad but there is little doubt that technology structures our daily life in profound ways.”

An executive director of a tech innovation firm said, “Looking at my kids; they’re connected and informed. And they spend too much time online.”

A director of technology based in North America wrote, “In a positive way it has allowed me to keep in touch more easily with friends that live far away. In a negative sense it has provided a distraction to what is happening in the moment.”

A professor based in Europe wrote, “My working days are longer! I wake up and check email and I am habituated like one of Pavlov’s dogs to check my email regularly throughout the day and into the evening. Even though my boss has banned us from sending work emails after 6 p.m., I still check my email. As a result, I never truly feel disconnected from work – even during vacations.”

A professor from North America said, “For me (in my 50s) digital life has been positive – a way to keep up with old friends. However, for my teens, it can create sadness and feelings of being/having less than peers.”

An associate professor at a U.S. university said, “My ability to stay connected to family and friends brings me great joy. And I’m able to connect to other academics when I am not on campus, which is more often than not. However my husband feels that I am too connected! In this regard it may be hurting our relationship. At times using technology can border on addiction. For me that is.”

A North American researcher wrote, “Technology has changed my life because I now work for a company in a different state. My contributions are made at my home, via telecommuting. This is both good and bad – on the good side, I’m able to help take care of my disabled son and to help my wife through a battle with cancer. But, on the down side – there’s no opportunity for the water cooler discussions that can speed up development work. There’s no opportunity for facetime with managers and VPs to get that all-important rapport with senior management. In other words, there are no opportunities to exercise and grow the ‘soft skills’ necessary to progress in the organization.”

An anonymous respondent wrote, “It has made work communication easier but often less thoughtful since constant connectivity fuels the expectation of an immediate response. It also has diminished the opportunities to disconnect from work for a proper break, but it does give me flexibility to not be tied to my office.”

A college student said, “I am not too proud to admit that I also suffer from the FOMO (fear of missing out) that comes from living a hyperconnected lifestyle. I hold lengthy Snapchat streaks with friends to bond with them, I check my social media accounts for approximately three to four hours daily. Daily I catch myself peering at my phone the moment I awake to learn about the events I may have missed while I slept. While my Snap streaks do provide a satisfying, quick dopamine hit each time I respond, overall, I cannot say that living a hyperconnected lifestyle has enhanced my life in any way. But I would also argue that it has not hurt my mental well-being either. While I am willing to admit I struggle in certain areas to balance my digital distractions with the important things in life; overall, I don’t think that it has had a negative effect on my life. I do think that some people are negatively impacted, but most will work to find a balance after some trial and error as new tools for digital life continue to appear and we adjust.”

A clinical assistant professor at a major U.S. university wrote, “I am old enough to see the effects that cellphones have had on family dinners. In a positive light, some arguments are resolved more quickly – Wikipedia can often provide resolution to many debatable points and repair faulty recollection, leading to much more productive conversations. More negatively, the interruptions caused by text messaging and email often divide the attention of those dining together and can sometimes diminish the quality of time spent together.”

In the negative, the ‘always-on’ capabilities are big triggers for my anxiety around perfectionism and performance. In the positive, when working with my therapist on ways to bring myself more forward in relationships, social media was a key tool. A teen library specialist

A teen library specialist wrote, “I have had both positive and negative impacts in my personal mental health courtesy of hyperconnection of digital connectivity. In the negative, the ‘always-on’ capabilities are big triggers for my anxiety around perfectionism and performance. In the positive, when working with my therapist on ways to bring myself more forward in relationships, social media was a key tool. She described Facebook (at the time that was the dominant tool) as disastrous for her work with narcissists but a dream for working with folks like me. I have grown more comfortable with expressing myself and I feel more visible in this format than in others within my communities. And I don’t mean that I have more friends online than I have in the real world. I mean my ‘real-world’ relationships are richer because I share with the people in my workplace or family or church via social media in a way I never before did and still rarely do face to face.”

An anonymous respondent commented, “We are able to keep in touch with family all around the globe. On the other hand, our family wouldn’t have been so spread out in the first place without the internet.”

An academic leader based in Australia wrote, “Digital technology has provided unthinkable access to information. Systems for doing business have enabled us to perform tasks and obtain and share information like never before. At the same time, digital transformation has meant each individual spends a lot more time navigating systems and doing work that previously would have been performed by other experts.”

[The good:]

There is so much pressure to publish research even when it’s greatly flawed… Moreover, in many ways our techniques and standards of rigor have improved over time, so I don’t want to sound completely hopeless about scientific progress in my field. A research scientist based in North America

A research scientist based in North America commented, “I’m 26, so the internet changed pretty much everything, right? It grew up with me, more or less. In fifth grade, I remember writing a research report about the gray whale. We had to go through all these crazy steps – finding books, writing down facts on notecards, putting them in those little clicky boxes that held notecards. Now, when was the last time you saw one of those? We were allowed to have internet sources, I think, but there were all these requirements about what constituted an appropriate source, as well as strict limits on how many internet sources could be used. The assumption was that somehow, finding information on the internet did not constitute real research, and this was our teacher’s way of preparing us for the research we would be doing in the future. Fast forward to now, where I’m finishing up my Ph.D., and I do research practically every day. Do you know how often I have to seek out resources that I can’t find online? It’s never. Literally never. My dissertation uses about two, neither of which I sought out – just some books my advisor just unceremoniously handed me one day. Admittedly, my academic field is quite young comparatively, and there may be fields with more emphasis on works that cannot be found online, but still, this is mostly a good thing for my well-being, as well as for the productivity of my field. However, there are also more insidious consequences of the increased volume and availability of research. The most prominent consequence I observe is that there is simply more research than we as a field are able to deal with. There is so much research that is redundant or contradictory, and our field doesn’t currently have the structure in place to reconcile it all. Hundreds of papers are published every day, and most of these will never be read, let alone cited (and that’s assuming people are actually reading what they cite – ha!). There is so much pressure to publish research even when it’s greatly flawed, as well as to frame every finding with a theoretical impact it cannot actually have. Instead of a gradual forward trajectory, we’re sitting on an unmanageable mound of contradictions. This research machine I live in is so unimaginably wasteful, with such deeply entrenched and utterly misguided incentives that I do not know how we will ever overcome it. This is not to suggest that this is entirely the fault of digital technology, although it certainly has enabled this trend. Moreover, in many ways our techniques and standards of rigor have improved over time, so I don’t want to sound completely hopeless about scientific progress in my field. I think to an outside observer my field is flourishing, and we have much to offer the world. However, if we do not find ways to restructure and rethink what progress looks like, we will be crushed by our own weight.”

A solutions consultant based in North America wrote, “Hyperconnection via text messaging has helped in a world where physical proximity and time constraints make it more difficult to connect. For me, a quick text, letting my husband know that I’m thinking about him or giving him a heads-up on something important – is amazingly positive, and helpful. And it does so without detracting from my day. Same when I communicate with my son, who spends 50% of his time at his father’s house, and 50% with me. It helps us stay in touch and positively connected. But we also do not overuse it – perhaps we are not as ‘hyperconnected’ as other users of technology, although, my mother, who is 80, says that the text messaging is ‘just too much!’ She believes that is hyperconnectivity.”

[Advanced Research Projects Agency Network]

An anonymous respondent wrote, “Twitter is the greatest time-sink ever but a great source of interesting news and entertainment. However, I waste too much time on it when I could be reading the newspaper or a book.”

A post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University commented, “My family and I use our smartphones to send photos, video chat and send text messages on a daily basis, allowing us to stay in contact more frequently we did back when letter writing and telephone calls were our ways to stay in touch. On the negative side, I look at headlines way too much as a form of stimulus any time I have a second to spare – even when I’m with my children. I’d say I’m less present, less able to focus on reading long form text, than I was before my smartphone came into my life.”

A series of scenarios tied to potential future concerns of digital life

Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, owner-operators of Pathfinding Smarter Futures and participants in this canvassing, submitted in response to the request for anecdotes the following series of scenarios they wrote in 2005 in order to spark discussions of potential issues.

Auto Angel I: Your commute co-pilot

You’re yawning as you slowly merge into the through lane on the long ride home. Your comfy biofueled hybrid-electric car is programmed to keep you alert and relaxed. The new ATM (autonomous traffic management system) keeps everything flowing smoothly without slow-downs or jam-ups, but you still have miles to go before you sleep. The music seems to keep pace with the flow of traffic, and you slip into a kind of driving flow state. The ATM is intelligent, but not smart enough to have autonomous lanes to do the driving for humans, nor do most people want that. Crack! The burst of sound and light, and the gentle spray on your face, with the aroma of peppermint, eucalyptus, and rosemary, brings you back to full alertness. Damn! You’d nodded off again. Fortunately, it was only a second, thanks to Auto Angel, your co-pilot on the two-hour commute from the agile economy enterprise zone to the only affordable housing in the tri-county area. Too bad your insurance doesn’t cover that latest wakefulness drug that’s all the rage.Auto Angel advises you to pull over as soon as possible and take a short power nap. You can set Angel’s alarm so you won’t sleep longer than 20 minutes and get groggy. You start looking for a safe place to stop and rest.

Auto Angel II: The high price of Drowsiness

The e-alert from your doctor’s office is surprising.“We’re concerned. Please come in at your earliest convenience. Press star for an immediate appointment.” What could possibly be the matter? What do they know that you don’t?At the clinic, you’re confronted with a stark, unforgiving choice. Auto Angel has reported one too many instances of drowsiness for your automobile insurance company to allow you to continue to drive under your existing policy. Either you must get the much more expensive hazardous driver rider or be treated immediately for “driving drowsiness” (suspected narcolepsy or sleep apnea, now on your medical and insurance e-records).If you’re actually diagnosed with narcolepsy, your doctor must report it to the department of motor vehicles. You’ll be subject to random monitoring for treatment compliance.Your health insurance doesn’t fully cover this treatment because driving is now considered an elective activity. There are drugs available, but they’re not on your formulary list. You’re advised to take public transportation.Of course, some can still afford fully private transportation, just they can afford health care and higher insurance premiums. You’re not one of them. And the public transit system doesn’t extend all the way out to your community yet.

HealthGuardian

You’re in Mexico City on your way to your next business appointment. “Señor, amigo, come with us — NOW! You’re at risk for a heart attack. We’re from HealthGuardian. We’ll get you to the hospital pronto.” Your HealthGuardian biosensors are supposed to provide alerts of impending medical emergencies.Uniformed men with insistent voices grab you by both arms and hustle you toward an official-looking van. Are they really from your HealthGuardian monitoring service, or are they kidnappers? How can you verify their identity? Are you really in danger?!?Your heart races and your head spins. You feel pressure in your chest, and it’s hard to breathe. What’s going on?!?

Alexi, ever-faithful e-valet

Soft chimes announce his voice. “Sir?” Alexi, your e-valet, continues close to your ear. “May I suggest that you eat something soon? You’re moving into your danger zone.” His interruption irritates you as you walk briskly along the crowded sidewalk. “Sir, the bistro four doors up on the right fits your dining profile and has two very nice specials today. Or I can recommend the Thai restaurant around the next corner.” Your blood sugar level is dropping precipitously close to where even deciding to eat, let alone where, is becoming a chore. “Sir?” “OK, OK, Alexi,” you say to yourself. Your gait slows, you check the bistro menu in the window, and go inside. What ever would you do without Alexi’s constant and respectful attentiveness?

Your privacy – priceless!

[radio-frequency identification]

Scrambling your identity

At WuMart’s self-service checkout, you’re fuming. You’ve ducked into the store on your lunch hour to pick up a few essentials for this afternoon’s flight, and you’re in a real hurry. Nothing is scanning right. The dental care travel kit scans as reading glasses, vitamin C as laxatives, and deodorant as antacid. You call loudly for a supervisor. The young man sighs. “Yeah, it looks like somebody in the store hacked our RFID tags again and scrambled the data. It’ll get straightened out when the machines go through their data consistency and reliability power cycle in about 10 minutes. Sorry about that.” He puts an obviously used, dog-eared “Out of order – please try again later” sign on the scanner. “If you’ll just step through the electronic gate over there, we’ll have you on your way in no time.” You stride through the metal archway with your goods, and the human checker enters the products numbers to ring up your purchases. The finger touch system debits your account. Finally! You have just enough time to get back to the office. Later, when you try to enter the restricted area to get the data reports you need for your trip, you’re stopped cold. Your implanted VeriChip doesn’t properly authenticate your identify, and security forces are there in moments. Missing your flight will be the least of your problems.

The mall knows you better than you do

As you stroll through the environmentally controlled mall, your mobile flashes a steady stream of personalized messages from nearby merchants. “Jeans tops – 30% instant discount!” “Free skin-care consultation!” “Shakira CDs all on sale!”The automated ads have no way of knowing that the RFID-tagged jeans, derma-repair cream, and pop diva CD in your shopping bag are purchases for other members of your extended family. You’re not interested in more purchases like them or to go with them. You’re done.Nearby, the animated window display of dancing cookware catches your eye, and you linger a few moments, watching with great amusement. Flying frying pans? Flipping spatulas? Spinning plates? What were they thinking?!? The mall looks more like an amusement park every time you come here.But now the stream of messages is all for cookware, tableware, stemware, cooking schools, and related products and services. You’re beginning to feel you’re being stalked instead of enticed with great offers. How did they know what you were looking at? What else do they know about you? And how do they know it?!?This is creepy.

Who is responsible?

The distinctive ring on your mobile is your daughter’s. “Waaah! The bus didn’t come, and it’s our last practice before Saturday’s big match! You’ve gotta drive me NOW. Plueeease???” Just then the mobile beeps twice. “Just a sec, sweetie.” It’s an automated request for you to approve entry of your new drug prescription into the GVS Registry database. You’ll deal with that later. “OK, I’m back. I’ll try to get someone to cover for me. Pick you up in 15 minutes, OK?”The next evening in a heavy rainstorm, a drunk driver ploughs into your Viridian hybrid. As they stabilize you on the way to the Trauma Center, the EMTs read your implanted VeriChip to get your updated medical information.In the ER, your condition suddenly worsens in a most peculiar way, and the doctors suspect a bad drug interaction. But how could that have happened? Did the EMTs make a mistake? Were you taking something they didn’t know about?Right now they’ll save your life. What happened and who’s responsible will come later.

Shopper’s Revenge

“Undecided shopper’s discount! Pick up prod, put back 2x, RFID shelf reader -> instant 25% off coupon.” Intrigued by this alert from Shopper’s Revenge (“Don’t get mad – get bargains!”) on your mobile screen, you check for something you actually want, walk over to the right shelf, pick it up, and put it back. Rinse, repeat. Voila! This is too easy. … A month later, the store catches on and raises the bar. You still get the coupon if you pick up the product, wait for over a minute, and put it back three times. A little tedious, but worth it for some pricier items. That works for three more weeks. A few days later, your Shopper’s Revenge e-coach tells you to vary the pattern so you’ll look more “natural” – to fit the store’s learning agent’s evolving model of an undecided shopper. Thanks to Shopper’s Revenge, you’re saving money, outwitting the technology, and looking more and more like a very hesitant shopper every day.

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The Industry Innovators

Till even a few years back, things were much simpler. Today, we live in a time in which we are permanently visible and available at all times through our many internet outlets. One needs only look around at the average social setting and see the impact of how modern gadgets are influencing human relations and the society. We see silent tables at the café, quiet train commutes, and unresponsive faces on walks. There seems to be “a disconnect with all this connection”.

The Positive Side

One aspect of technology that has had a great impact on society is how it affects learning. It’s made learning more interactive and collaborative; this helps people better engage with the material that they are learning and have trouble with. Also, it gets you better access to resources. With the creation of the internet, it gives us access to information at a twenty-four-hour rate and you have access to almost anything online.

In addition, it allows students to get work done easier. Students can take quizzes and exams more easily, and teachers being able to hold online classes can be very effective.

Modern gadgets have helped expand the boundaries of the classroom, encouraging self-paced learning. People can access learning through YouTube and social media. In short, technological advancements made learning more fun and convenient.

modern gadgets are influencing human relations 1

You Might Also Like: 5 Revolutionary Innovations Of Technology In Education

Another way gadgets have impacted society is the way we communicate – how we talk and communicate with one another worldwide. Technology brought many new methods of electronic communication. For instance, there are emails, social networking, you can facetime a person that lives on the other side of the world, and here’s video conferencing where you can have conferences electronically.

Lastly, the technological advancements that were made within the health industry have helped keep people safe and healthy. There are many innovate gadgets and apps that enable users to keep a check on their weight, calories, heart rate and other health properties any time of the day.

The Side-Effect – How Modern Gadgets are Influencing Human Relations

The growth and spread of digital media technologies as well as their changing capabilities seriously disables interpersonal, community and individual communication, as well has significantly altered what it means to be literate and to learn in the 21st-century.

Modern gadgets and mobile devices are everywhere we turn, they have for many people become a necessity, not only are they essential in communicating. They also give us the opportunity to shop, read, play,communicate, calculate, etc. This has a negative side too!

Impact of Gadgets on Children

The aftermath has led to:

Children of all age groups are being attracted towards electronic gadgets such as iPads, iPhones and smartphones which has had a negative impact on the physical wellbeing.
Loss of creativity is taking place as the need to think out of the box has largely diminished.
These days, every single idea is taken from the internet – the good, the bad, and evil.
Instead of initiating conversations with friends and families around, children today are turning to social media websites and channels to seek love, support, and encouragement.
Furthermore, conversations with others are not taking place anymore because every question’s answer can be found on the Internet, thus taking away the need to ask others for answers.

Technology and Its Impact on Human Relations

There is no denying that we need these gadgets and a myriad of other technologies to manage our personal and professional lives comfortably. We now live in a digital world and technology helps us to complete tasks faster and in a more efficient way.

According to a research conducted by Mohammed M Elsobeihi , although we have the latest technologies to connect to anyone instantly in any corner of the globe; somehow at times there is a sense of disconnection. The personal touch and emotions seem to be missing in the process.

Virtual distances between people are growing rapidly and some prefer to live in the digital world, rather than facing the real world.

Also Read: Hu man Brain is in Trouble: The Cause & Solution is Technology

Some people are having shallow and meaningless relationships due to the influence of technology.People are neglecting to engage personally, uninhibited by phones and devices and even when actually in the presence of others. They are becoming more reliant on communicating with friends and family through technology. These are partly because they spend more time on the mobile and internet and therefore have little time for interaction with their friends and family.

The latest technologies are shaping the way we communicate with each other and also the way people behave, grow, evolve and develop as individuals and also in connected societies. Therefore, it is important, more than ever, to stay focused on the true purpose of life and avoid distractions and distortions caused by multiple technologies and modern gadgets that are evolving at a rapid pace.

Let us know what are your thoughts on how modern gadgets are influencing human relations. Stay tuned to this space for the latest technology news. You can also sign in for our newsletter to get daily updates delivered to your mailbox.

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Modern Gadgets Influenced Human Relations

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