Has Technology Made Us More Alone - Research Paper Example

Has Technology Made Us More Alone? Introduction Technology has been extensively embraced in the use in the 21st century. The advancement and affordability of digital devices has simplified communication between people irrespective of their distance and time differences. However, technology has also led to isolations of people from the real world due to disengagements in personal interactions. The effect leads to emotional disconnection, anxiety and mental fatigue among socially addicted individuals. On the contrary, critics against the opinion argue that technology helps people maintain real friendships, keep them up to date, manage or acquire jobs and provide entertainment like any other media. Cecilia Brown is a Research Consultant at Sachs Insights with an exclusive 9 years experience in Psychological study. She has a degree in Psychology from Connecticut College. The author mainly specializes in Ethnographic studies. Brown has currently done 14 projects in psychological research studies. Based on Brown (2013), technological communication has hindered social skills among the youths. She notes that people nowadays prefer to text than to talk. In the process, people become virtually connected, but physically disconnected in the real world. This is expressed through social networking, emailing and texting. She denotes that many people can spend days and months without having a face to face interaction with one another. She outlines the evidence through 2 studies she conducted where she interviewed 112 college students from Connecticut College. The participants were aged between 18 to 23 years where 89.1% were Whites due to their predominance at the institution. The participants were chosen randomly where data was collected through an online survey. The participants were also paired with confederates and given 5 minutes to know each other (Brown 2013, 42). Accordig to the findings, her hypothesis was confirmed. Participants who used internet and preference more often, had poor social skills. The results indicate that technology savvy youths prefer online communication isolating them from face-to-face interrelationships (Brown 2013, 56). Qingya Wang holds two degrees; Bachelor’s in Psychology and Economics from Hubei Normal University and Bachelor’s in marketing from Johnson and Wales University. Wang is currently a lecturer at Hubei Normal University. The author has 10 years experience in Psychological research where he has published 22 articles on the field. Wang (2011) argues that technology plays a big role in building peoples’ lives today. He notes that majority of people use technology to secure jobs, share information, ideas as well as personal items. He notes that internet especially the social media assist people in developing their knowledge as well as social skills. Wang undertook a research on 48 students from Johnson and Wales University. The female participants were 22 while the male participants were 26 in number. The participants were randomly sampled for feasibility purposes. 65% of the students were graduates but still studying, while 35% of them were undergraduates. Questionnaires were administered for collection of information from the participants. The participants were asked to give the advantages or disadvantages of using the digital devices and social platforms (Wang 2011, 7). Based on the findings, majority of the respondents confirmed that the both the digital devices and social platforms assist them to complete their assignments, meeting new friends virtually and physically and securing full-time and part-time jobs (Wang 2011, 8). Jason Tham holds a PhD from University of Minnesota where he has published 52 articles from different research studies. Some of interests include media, learning models, educational technology and learning theories. The author is currently a lecturer at University of Minnesota. According to Tham (2011) technology has adverse effects to peoples’ performance. He noted that internet has negative addictive effects towards the students. He noted that in year 2009 approximately 85% of Facebook users were engaged in university and college institutions. By the year 2010, the site got an impressive 70% increase in users was 115 million new additional users. He undertook a non random sample survey where he interviewed 445 participants. The students were sourced from Saint Cloud State University where all student levels participated. Open and closed questionnaires were used to collect the information. The questionnaires were aimed at assessing their academic performance as well as personal development (Tham 2011, 4). Based on the findings, 70% of the respondents confirmed they used social networks for more than 6 hours a day. 69.2% of them agreed that the social networks had no positive effect on their personal development. The author noted that majority of the students favored online networking as opposed to the traditional face to face communication (Tham 2011, 6). Dr. Christina Pikas is a doctorate holder in Science (Physics option) from the University of Maryland. She has much interests in science communication, informetrics, qualitative research and social media. The author has 15 years of experience in academic field and has consequently published 43 articles. Presently, she is a lecturer at the University. Based on Pikas information technologies has changed informal communication even in the scientific field. She noted that most of the physicians and mathematicians frequently use emailing as their mode of communication. In a 2003 research conducted in European countries, it was noted that 99.7% of the scientists communicate through emails as opposed to face to face interactions (Pikas 2006, 12). She noted that technologies have made people scientific researchers to be more efficient. Based on her meta analysis, the traditional difficulties in sharing mathematical equations and images has consequently been improved through the use of technologies in modern times. The scientists report emailing has simplified the issue of geographical distances. The challenge of touring visiting scientists around the laboratory for brainstorming purposes, analyzations and debugging problems; has significantly been simplified by the use of technologies. Emailing has extensively been embraced to enhance the process. Technologies have enhanced collaborative experiments among scientists, even through the existence of dispersed geographical locations (Pikas 2006, 21). Conclusion Technology has been discussed as having positive and negative effects towards human interactions. There have been mixed reactions in the social and academic world. There are reports that technology has hindered normal conversations; but in the scientific world it has promoted the process. Therefore, the issue of technology cannot be generally evaluated as having a negative impact towards socialization but it should reviewed according to a particular context. References Brown, C.,(2013). Are We Becoming More Socially Awkward? An Analysis of the Relationship Between Technological Communication Use and Social Skills in College Students. Psychology Honors Papers (40), 2-76. Wang, Q., (2011). The Effects of Social Media on College Students, MBA Student Scholarship,(5), 2-10. Tham, J., (2011). The usage and implications of social networking Sites: A survey of college students. Journal Of Interpersonal, Intercultural And Mass Communication, (2),1: 1-10. Pikas, C., (2006). The Impact Of Information And Communication Technologies On Informal Scholarly Scientific Communication: A Literature Review. (1), 2-23. Read More