Hunter Row

English Comp 1

MWF 11:30

2 November 2016

The Effect Technology has in Today's Society

What would happen if the world lost touch with technology? Would you feel lost

not knowing what to do? Would you feel like you see life differently? No one actually

knows because we havent actually lost touch with technology world wide. Technology
plays a huge role in todays society. Many people need to know the advantages,

disadvantages, and communication problems in todays setting.

Although many people see technology as a problem, it has many advantages.

Technology can be found almost anywhere and everywhere. The most popular

technology device in my opinion would have to be the cell phone. Cell phones have

changed so much over the last few years. In the past, the cell phone was only used for

making calls, and sending text messages. Times have changed a lot. The percentage of

people in the world today that are very dependent on their phones is outrageous. Today

the cell phone allows people to have access to the internet, see each other through a

feature called facetime, and a feature called siri who you can give commands to. Cell

phones have made life so much easier and more convenient.

Since the first cell phone, there has been a consistent market push for the

introduction of more sophisticated features. The modern smartphone is an

evolution of cell phones that combines their usual functionality with that of music

players and even computers. Smartphones offer an array of features including

games, music playback, email, Internet browsing and document editing (Laurel

Storm).

Cell phones have made a huge breakthrough in our society. Could there be in any risks to

having accesses to them at any certain time with all the features the cell phones have
today.

There are some disadvantages when comes to having access to a cell phone. With

having all these cool features, people want to be using them all the time which can be a

bad thing. The cell phone can distract you from so many things. One of the biggest

problems in our world today is texting and driving. People are so obsessed with their

phone that they have to look at it every five seconds and they don't even care if they are

behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

According to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the risk of

being involved in a car accident rises dramatically when cell phones are involved;

the lives of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists are endangered daily by irresponsible

people who are too distracted by their phone to pay attention to the road (Laurel

Storm).

This problem has gotten so out of hand, that Oklahoma passed a law on November 1,

2015 saying that texting while driving will be banned, if caught, the fine would be one

hundred dollars. Texting and driving is not the only downfall in having a cell phone, face-

to-face communication is becoming a rare thing these days. All the kids want to do now

is text each other and not have a real conversation. Having a face-to-face conversation

shows real emotion and you can really understand what the person is saying. While

texting, people can misinterpret what a person said and take it the wrong way and hurt

someone's feelings.

For example, if two people are involved in an escalated conflict, and they each

assume that the other is going to be aggressive and hostile, than any ambiguous

message will be interpreted as aggressive and hostile, even if it was not intended

to be that way at all. Our expectations work as blinders or filters that distort what

we see so that it fits our preconceived images of the world (Erin Stewart).

I agree with what Stewart said, people get to worked up about what someone sends them

without even realizing it was not meant to be harmful. Cyber bullying is also a main
concern. Teens today are so mean now because they can hide behind their technology and

bash people and not worry about conflict that might occur if you were talking to someone

face-to-face. Cell phones are the main source of some of the major problems in our world

today. People have become obsessed with them and other technology devices. People

depend on their phone so much that they cannot function without it anymore. Its sad to

say that there is now a phobia called nomophobia. It means that people start to get

stressed out and have the feeling of fear when they are not in hands reach of a mobile

device. What has the world come to? Kids today will never know what it's like to live in a
world where technology does not exist.

The majority of the population with cell phones are teens and young adults. The

reason for this is because the older population was not introduced to cell phones until

their adult lives. Most adults were raised the old fashioned way and they like to keep their

old habits. Most of the young adults and the younger population were born into the

evolving world of technology. Mostly everything they were taught to do involved some

sort of technology device. To get around in the world today, many people almost have to

use a cell phone or something technology related. The main source of communication in

the world today would have to be by text message.

First the obvious finding. Age relates to big differences in how many text

messages people send and receive each day. Young adults rely on text messages

but older adults send and receive substantially fewer texts. In the over 50 group,

more that 80 percent send and receive fewer than 10 texts each day. But young

adults are texting much more every day. Interestingly, we found no difference in

the number of cell phone calls made and received. Nobody is making very many

over 90 percent in every age group made fewer than 10 calls each day(Ira

Hayman).

Technology is also changing the teaching techniques. In almost all the classrooms, there

is an ipad, a computer, or a smart board. It is very rare to see a chalk boards anymore. If
we lost touch with technology, what would the world be like?

If the world lost touch with technology, everyone would be lost. Technology has

and will forever be changing the world in many ways. With technology playing a huge

role in todays society, I believe that people will not let technology die down, which I

doubt will happen. People need to keep coming up with new ways to fix all the

disadvantages the world faces with the use of cell phones. Who knows what the world

will be like in ten years. Al I know is that the world's society is changing and changing

fast.

Work Cited

Drago, Emily. "The effect of technology on face-to-face communication."The Elon

Journal

of Undergraduate Research in Communications 6.1 (2015): 13-19. 30 Oct. 2016

www.elon.edu/docs/e-

web/academics/communications/research/vol6no1/02DragoEJSpring15

Ira Hyman, Ph.D @PsychToday. "Cell Phones Are Changing Social Interaction."

Psychology Today. Jan 26, 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2016

 www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201401/cell-phones-are-

changing-social-interaction

Laurel Storm."How Cell Phones Have Changed the World." Our Everyday Life. N.p., n.d.

Web. 30 Oct. 2016 http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/cell-phones-changed-

world-1856.html

Stewart, Erin. Does cell phone use really affect our communication skills? lhslance.

org http://lhslance.org/2013/features/cell-phone-use-really-affect-communication-

skills/. Accessed 30 October 2016