My parents run their own software company, so a reliance on technology has never not been an option for. I grew up in the world of computer programming, and therefore learned early on both the positive and negative impacts of technology on our daily lives. Even though my parents spent a good chunk of time on their computers, I never really relied on my phone or computer for entertainment until high school. Technology is their main source of income, but I was always expected to spend my days outside - be that walking the family dog or helping take care of the horses on Aunty Karen's farm, I was never addicted to my phone in the way that many of my friends are. That being said, my parents running a tech-based company taught me very early on what a healthy relationship with technology looked like, so I've never really worried about my own screen time. Like anyone else, 2020 and Covid lockdown rolled around and I spent all day, everyday in zoom class or on TikTok.
As seen in the Futurama video, modern technology has vast benefits ranging from limitless information at the touch of a button to effortless buying and selling of goods. Programs like WeChat offer free messaging services with automatic translating options to allow communication with those in other countries (my family uses this app frequently to communicate with international students we've hosted, as well as their families).
Despite the many benefits technology has provided, it's important to acknowledge all the downsides and negative side effects (although unintentional) we experience because of our dependence on our tech. Although not a trademarked term, I think we're all familiar with the "Snapchat Generation". I categorize them as young gen z-ers who likely started using social media far too young, and have developed their entire personality around it (or in my opinion a lack of personality). We're a generation of people who genuinely never learned to communicate face to face - we relied on Snapchat and other means of online messaging to stay in touch with friends. This is demonstrated brilliantly in the Steve Cutts video remixing "Mad World". This animation also touches on the impact social media has on mental health - including a shocking visual of a girl jumping off a building after a video of her dancing was shared online and used to poke fun at her. This goes to show how detrimental online communication can be, as people are comfortable saying things they might never in person when hiding behind a screen - resulting in increased rate of cyberbully, and snowballing in greater youth depression and suicide rates.
Moving on to my own relationship with technology: as mentioned earlier I grew up very close to technology, but never felt a strong dependency on it until high school, so I feel as though I have a fairly healthy relationship with my technology. I'm a social media and digital communications major, so naturally I do spend quite a bit of my time using social media - however this is mainly for the purposes of maintaining a media presence for my photography business. In looking at my tracked screen time, I spend and average of 30 or so respectively minutes using Instagram and Snapchat.
My parents always stressed that I shouldn't post anything online that I wouldn't want my grandmother to see, so luckily I seem to have a pretty limited digital footprint. When typing just my name (Margaret Szczygiel) into a Google search, the first thing that comes up is my photography Instagram page. The only picture of me that comes up is my profile picture on the "our team" tab on the MJS Live website (the production company I work for). Other than a statement put out by my high school, including a few pictures I took at an arts field trip, nothing too notable comes up. When adding my hometown to the search, my facebook profile and a monthly news letter from the church I attended confirmation classes at - in which my name and birthday are highlighted at the end - are the first two results.
All in all, I think that the immediate benefits of technology tend to outweigh the unintended consequences. We see these side effects in terms of negative impacts on mental health, cyberbully as well as physical conditions like texting-spine. However we also see incredible advances being made, be that increased access to information and education, cost effective communication, access to tele-health and so many more. Over all, like anything, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing - and we can clearly see that an excess use of technology can have disastrous results. But technology, in mediation, is an incredible advancement and asset to anyone willing to take the time to learn to use it properly.
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