Technology and its affect on social interaction

Name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
Technology and its affect on social interaction
With the explosion of technologies that are overcoming the obstacles of not only time, but also space, an individual would think that technology tools would be used to meet people across the world, communicate effectively, maintain and strengthen relationships, help people become more socially adept, and make people gain an understanding of culture. However, some technology tools can cause destruction only if they are over stressed. A large number of people are involving themselves in abundant relationships through the advancing technology, but sometimes the level of the associations leaves individuals feeling qualitatively empty. Perceptibly, technology has had impacts either negatively or positively to the economic, social, and spiritual lives of people. The use of social networks has both negative and positive impacts. It is surprising how people can find a long-lost friend via a social media, thus enabling them to reconnect again.
The use of modern technology such as Television has mixed reactions with regard to the social lives and social skills. For example, spending a limited time watching programs on the Television screen strengthen family relationships and friendships. Other group of people believes that spending time watching television contributes to the negative social values in the society. It seems that a number of people spend less amount of time with other people in the community than they always do with the people they watch television daily.

The case is likely to suggest that televisions tend to be the passive media that requires little skills and thoughts on our part. It is therefore right to say that television gives little opportunity for the right interaction while watching. Television watchers simply sit and ingest what is meaningful to them without having to react or respond to another person, and this can lead to serious effects on the social skills of individuals because watchers are not practicing how to interact and deal with each other. Also, exposure to what is being viewed on the televisions can have different effects on the individual’s social lives. For instance, exposure to television broadcast sexual content that may escalate the chances of teen pregnancy in case they practice what is being showed in the television (McGrath, p. 10-14).
In addition, technology has led to negative impacts to people’s lives. Some people watch sex, violence, and all other kinds of lasciviousness on the televisions. Through watching such kinds of shows, there are high possibilities for the people to mimic the behaviors and think that the behaviors are acceptable in the society. When everyone who is accessible to technology copies the social behaviors portrayed in different technologies such as televisions, our society would run out of morals and many young and innocent lives will be destroyed socially. Bad posture and neck pain are also caused by the advancing technology. When we maintain proper posture is important for any time that is spent in front of technology, but the variety of us do not practice a good sitting posture. For example, computer screens and desks can be optimized for a good posture. Maintaining a good posture while interacting with technology will help in reducing neck and back pains.
Furthermore, technology has led to isolation of many people. Frequently watching screen with ear buds keeps us cut off from our friends in the immediate world around us. The willingness or inability to connect to our real people around us leads to isolation, and isolation is a recurring problem for people who cannot disconnect from their technology. The relationships can either form or grow online, but online communication is a far crime from the real relationship. The advancing technology has also led to sedentary lifestyles. For example, obesity is becoming more pronounced in our society due to lack of physical exercise. The more time we spend in technology rooms playing video games or scrolling in the Facebook feed pages, the less time we go out for physical exercises, and we understand better that a sitting lifestyle is not a good lifestyle since a sitting lifestyle encourages obesity (McKenna, p. 5-7)
However, the advancing technology has played positive values in our lives especially on education. Technology has impacted the research, globalization, education games, distance learning, and web seminars. For example, of the school library is outdated in the selection of titles, the student might find it hard to compile the research for the research work. Through technology, students get it easy to carry out their research. Technology has played a chief role in the globalization and distance learning since students can connect to each other globally (Psyhogyios, p. 432).
In conclusion, it is apparent that technology has not only positive, but also negative impacts on both social life and social skills. People are not communication and interacting through the use of technology. Technology has led to improved relationships through social interaction. The same technology has led to isolation of people, obesity due to large amount of time spent while watching, and adoption of bad behaviors such as violence and sexual behaviors that can lead to teen pregnancy.
Work Cited
McKenna Y. A. K. & Bargh A. J. The Internet and Social Life. New York University. New York. 2004. Print. http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/articles/Internet_and_Social_Life.pdf
McGrath S. New Media Technologies in the Household. Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth. 2012. Print. https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sites/default/files/assets/document/SiobhanMcGrath.pdf
Psyhogyios J., Vasilleios C., & Gerostegiou K. Positive and Negative Aspects of New Technologies In Lifelong Education. International Conference on Engineering Education, Heraklion, Greese. 2008. Print. http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2008/crete/education/education70.pdf