Are We Addicted to Technology? (Erin Qian Yu)

In Jessica’s article “Are We Addicted to Technology”, she points out that nowadays most people own cell phone, IPod or laptop. Many people’s life is based on these technology gadgets. We are supposed to master the technology and not let it master us. However, we are abusing its power. Based on CNN’s poll recently, more than 70% agree they could not live without either their cell phones, PDA or IPods. This is a huge number, and proves people are heavily relying on technology and if it disappeared tomorrow we’d be more than a little disoriented.

She also mentions teenagers, which is Generation Y are addicted to technology. Texting is taking over actual conversation among teenagers. Additionally, she states that spending hours on computer surfing the web is not necessary considered as Internet addicted. It’s just a new way to get information. By the end of the article, she summarizes for our decade we have been exposed to more technology and innovations than society had ever seen before, which means technology is indeed part of our life, but it shouldn’t take place of the need of the real social development and human touch.

I think whether we are addicted to technology is just like anything out there, which is that there are many degrees and it’s not a simple black and white issue. There is a grey zone.

For one extreme is that I’ve seen people that practically will get a panic attack without their phone/PDA with them or can’t get off the smart phone for 10 seconds while dealing with the waitress or cashier. On the other hand we have people who intentionally avoid mobiles/internet just because they think it doesn’t worth to spend time and money on it. The latter apparently don’t like the rapid technology revolution.

To be honestly, most of us are in the middle, which is the grey zone. We use smart phones for emails; watching 52” plasma tvs; using super thin notebooks and somehow we didn’t even realized how much the technology has changed our daily life. Just think about all those old days: burn mix cds, taking out dics from Sony discman and staring at the heavy and clumsy CRT monitors.

I personally agree with Jessica that technology has made us worse at the thing that it supposed to promote: communication. We are just too busy to play around with the gadgets that missing out all the good time hanging out with close friends and families. Abusing technology apparently will not make use better as human beings. Overall, we are supposed to let technology serve us and not let it master us.

Posted by: Erin Qian Yu---512110