Technology, no doubt, has greatly benefited us. We live in a world where we can contact our friends and family from our computer screens. Computer and internet technology has revolutionised the way we process information and do business too. More people today rely on information from the internet and smartphones. Yet there’s a negative side to social media. We are increasingly becoming isolated from each other because of a false sense of connection. Technology has the potential to leave us feeling lonely and disconnected, unless we understand it’s true purpose. Communicating by technology has the potential to ignore the human element of how relationships are really built. Without face to face contact, there is no non-verbal information that normally would give us an idea of the intention, emotions and values of the speaker. Without this we are left to fill in gaps of what people actually mean rather than what we project onto the message. Emails, mobiles phones, texts and social media are valuable methods of communicating information. But beyond that we need to meet with people face to face so that we can truly connect. Without it, we can be left lonely without others truly understanding us. We use texting, emailing and chatting to connect with people down the street or across the table. How often do we see people engrossed in their mobile phones while in a restaurant with friends or family? The danger here is that we start losing touch with the people in our lives because we simply won’t get off the phone or take off headphones to talk and give the other person our time and attention. Teenagers and growing children are more ar risk of developing narcissistic tendencies, language difficulties, psychological disorders and antisocial behaviour due to prolonged use of technology. Teenagers, highly occupied with social media in time are more likely to develop sleep deprivation, depression and low grades in school. Social networking sites often encourage children to be self obsessed beings who are constantly craving attention.
