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Alayna Johnston

Mr. Walsh

English 1201.520

18 February 2021

Technology and Society

As time has gone on technological advancements in our world have for the most part

been very beneficial to humans. In the last twenty years there have been many changes in how

we communicate with each other. With the creation of things such as Snapchat, Facebook,

Instagram, and so many more it’s difficult to look past the many damaging effects of these

advancements. My question is “How has technological advancements affected human connection

and what are the consequences”?

The history of communication devices only dates back about 150 years ago. The

telegraph was invented in 1876 by Samuel Morse who sent the first long distance message from

Baltimore to Washington D.C. and the message read “What hath God wrought”. Following this

invention was that of the telephone only 32 years later and this advancement is the most

profound because before this messages could only be sent through dots and dashes, morse code.

The telephone was created in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell and the first call was made to his

assistant, Tom Watson, when Bell said “Mr Watson-come here-I want to see you”. The next

form of communication invented was radio and although its widely spread use is very different

now the premise is still the same. It was invented in 1901 by Guglielmo Marconi who’s first

message was the Morse code for the letter S across the Atlantic from Cornwall to Newfoundland.

After radio was created and audio messages could be sent, the next logical step would be that of
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video messages, and for that the television was born. Created by Philo T Farnsworth in 1926 but

his first message was made in 1927 consisting of just a horizontal line. Shortly following

television was the invention of the computer just eleven years later, created by John Atanasoff. It

wasn’t until 1974 that personal computers were created and the first model was named the Altair.

In the same year of 1974, the internet emerged and was created by Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn

and all it could do in the beginning was transfer “packets” of data to the right place. All this is, is

a simplified version of what everyone does today! After all of the necessary technology was

invented, it was only a matter of time before it turned into something that the creators never

intended it to be.

There are many negative side effects of technology included mental and physical

examples. In an article by the Medical News Today written by Jon Johnson and titled, “Negative

effects of technolgy: What to know”, they discuss the many consequences of technology. For

example eyestrain is very common issue that is caused by the constant looking at screens that

nearly all people do on the daily. Eyestrain is shown by multiple symptoms but the most

common are ‘“blurred vision and dry eyes”(Johnson). Another physical side effect of technology

is poor posture. According to Johnson, “Many technologies promote a “down and forward” user

position, meaning the person is hunched forward and looking down at the screen. This can put an

unnecessary amount of pressure on the neck and spine” (Negative effects of technology: What to

know). Next, are the psychological effects of technology because these seem to be the most

prominent in society. The first being the feeling of isolation and Johnson states that people with

higher social media use were more than three times as likely to feel socially isolated than those

who did not use social media as often” (Negative effects of technology: What to know). The next

mental side effect of technology is depression and anxiety although these results vary. The
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biggest factor in determining the risk of depression or anxiety is the kinds of interactions that

people experience on social media. “People who had more positive interactions and social

support on these platforms appeared to have lower levels of depression and anxiety”(Johnson).

This article is from a creidble source, Medical News Today, and on top of that, each article on

their site is medically checked by a doctor and in this case Dr. Timothy J. Legg. Although this

source does only state the negative effects of technology, that is it’s purpose and it answers one

half of the research question.

Allen also

addresses that technology has also affected human connection in a negative way by reducing face

to face contact. This article came from a news website and was written by a college professor,

for those two reasons this article is a reliable source.

Another very important question regarding how technology affects all of us, is

specifically asking how it affects children. In the article, “The Impact of Technology on The

Developing Child” written by Cris Rowan and published by the Huffington Post, he speaks of

these effects. Rowan opens by talking about when “children used to play outside all day, riding

bikes, playing sports and building forts” (The Impact of Technology on The Developing Child).

Since that time, lots of things have changed especially in the family dynamics of the world. The

advancement of entertainment has changed so quickly from tree branches to iPads and it has

affected the world in ways that people are failing to recognize. Many families are disconnected
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and the time when families would connect and share stories, dinner time, is now “replaced by the

"big screen" and take out” (Allen). Children now rely on technology for the wide majority of

their own entertainment and this has many negative effects on their creativitys and imagination,

and many would say that those skills are imperative to success. This is one of the examples of

why technology is causing bad consequences on some of its users.

My final source to review comes from the Sinclair Library and it is an academic journal

published by Mark Coeckelbergh. The journal is titled “Technology and the good society: A

polemical essay on social ontology, political principles, and responsibility for technology”.

Although this journal includes much more, the overarching theme is the connection between

technology and politics and the ethics between the two. Coeckelbergh states “ For example, from

an individualist perspective, the good life with robots is a matter of making sure individual

designers and users create and use technology in a way that contributes to the good life of

individuals, and responsible innovation will focus on individual consent”. This quote means that

if society is going to continue to innovate and create new “robots”, technology, that they need to

have consent of individuals to ensure that the new tech is for the good of society as a whole.

Although this journal is a lot to take in and includes many different topics all in one, it is a

reliable source that covers details that I need to include in my final paper.

The effects of technology can be perceived in so many different ways. With both positive

and negative effects regarding all aspects of life, it comes down to individuals and how they

personally handle the available technology around them. Taken in small doses, technology can

benefit a person’s life greatly but too much of it can deeply hurt them. People must determine

what consequences are too grave for them to endure and control their tech use accordingly.
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