Foundations of Technology

TED Talk Project

Maxine Asmussen & Renee Brogan
3 April 2018

Topic: ​Social issues caused by the Internet/Computer usage/technology addicts/Cyber

socializing

Guiding Question:​ What social issues has the use of the internet and possession of computers
caused?

Thesis:​ The availability of computers has become easily more accessible to people around the
world, which have developed social issues.

Outline

1) Raise your hand if you have snapchat, instagram, or facebook

2) Raise your hand if you spend the majority of your free time on social media
3) Raise your hand if you have a smartphone
4) Raise your hand if you use social media as the main method of communication

● Notice how more than half of the people raised their hands
○ Social media and the internet plays a huge role in our everyday interactions
○ One study claimed that people spent at least 25% of their time on social
networking sites, if not more. Infact 85% of the adults are on the internet and
95% of all American teens are on the internet
○ There are different uses for the internet

● Story 1: One women, Gail, used the internet to help her deal with her husband having
Parkinson’s disease. She lived in a rural town and didn’t have many people to contact if
she had any questions. She used the internet and found a Parkinson support group on
the web.
● Story 2: In 1993, ten year old George Burdynski went missing. This case has yet to be
solved but it is assumed that he is dead. This case is linked to two men who lured boys,
using the internet,to hook up with boys for sex and pornographic photos.
● SLIDE 2
○ Showcase how vulnerable children are on the internet
● For a safe environment on the internet people need to be educated on the social norms
that coincide with social media and internet usage
● Guiding Question + Thesis
● SLIDE 3
● Lack of Social Interactions
● Here’s a question: have you ever gone out to dinner and spent most of the time on your
phone? If you haven’t have you seen something like that?
● SLIDE 4
● A lot of people are taking advantage of the internet and social media to stay connected
with people
○ A recent study from Pew research found that 71% of the adults use facebook
occasionally and 45% use it everyday
○ Some people think that it’s making more people social but these online
relationships are only superficial.
○ It’s easier to maintain an online relationship because you’re not face-to-face.
○ According to Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at CA State University,
connecting virtually isn’t real-world bonding. He states there is a difference
between communicating and connecting
○ But we are getting distracted by these online connections and ignoring real life
relationships.
○ There are people who have developed relationships through games and social
media, but have never actually met
● lack of family communication
● Ex: family out to dinner and every member is on their phone
● -defamation of character
● Ex. lying, drop in grades, sleep loss, bad behavior, change in mood/attitude
●
● Online Addiction
○ Average person spends about 2 hours on social media per day
○ SLIDE 5, 6, and 7
○ According to CNN, an article in 2016 states that about 8.5% of children that play
video games in the U.S are addicted
○ The amount of accessibility is less than 70% in the U.S
○ In South Korea, between 2010 and 2011, at least 1 in 20 adolescents had severe
internet addiction
○ Most likely due to the fact that roughly 90% of the population in South Korea has
high-speed internet, and again, the availability is what's making the problem
worse. In any case, you can’t get addicted to something if you don’t have access
to it. In places like South Korea, it is easy for them to get it, and not much is
stopping them from getting addicted.
● ​Challenge
○ What is the longest you haven’t looked at social media?
○ Explain the challenge we did
○
○
 ● Statistics
● I would always look at my phone, expecting an alert. I would check it like 50 times a day
at least. I relied on social media and it absorbed my life. Especially in more bad ways
rather than good. I would compare myself to others and their lives, which made me feel
insecure
○ An ongoing study in Minnesota has found incidence of anorexia increasing over
the last 50 years only in females aged 15 to 24. Incidence remained stable in
other age groups and in males
○ Another study found social media use is linked to self-objectification, and using
social media for merely 30 minutes a day can change the way you view your own
body
○ Approximately 7 in 10 women and girls report a decline in body confidence and
increase in beauty and appearance anxiety, which they say is driven by the
pressure for perfection from media and advertising’s unrealistic standard of
beauty
○ Connect social media use to eating disorders and how it makes this social issue
worse
●

Worse, we don’t even need a beep or vibration to distract us anymore. In one study of
more than 1,100 teens and adults, my fellow researchers and I found that the vast
majority of smartphone users under 35 checked in with their electronic devices many
times a day and mostly without receiving an external alert.

Anxiety drives this behavior. As evidenced by a rash of phantom pocket vibrations, our
constant need to check comes from anxiety about needing to know what is happening in
our virtual worlds.

In one study, we monitored anxiety levels of smartphone users when we wouldn’t let
them use their phones, and found that the heavy smartphone users showed increased
anxiety after only 10 minutes and that anxiety continued to increase across the hourlong
study. Moderate users showed some anxiety, while light users showed none.