Final Blog: Technology

The two videos that prompted this blog paired together give a really unique perspective on the uprising of technology. One one had you have the first video that has yet to experience the complexity of technology, but they advertised it as this great thing and got people really excited for what the future brings. On the other had you have the second video that is set in the present time and it's like, well technology is here now and look what it did to us. And really highlights the negatives of technology. I don't feel like I can clearly represent people that have yet to see technology, simply because it is such a major part of my life, so for this blog I will be highlighting the message that that second video tried to tell.

The Mad World video almost felt like a response or even a warning for the people within the first video. The aim of this video was to show people what our society can look like when we get caught up in technology and social media. When watching the video I tried to keep an open mind on what angle I should take for my blog and I knew what I needed to write about as soon as I saw it. There was a section where people were using social media and throwing all of these fake emotes out there while they remained sad in the real world, and it even lead to a point of cyberbullying and suicide for one girl. So to be more specific I want to talk about the addiction aspect of social media and how I feel like it even affects me.

My generation is the first generation to grow up in the age of the internet and social media. It is so new that it is being studied like crazy, yet there is no actually scientific term for social media addiction, but it is believed to be a real problem that many people endure according to NetAddiction.

                                                                                                                                               
According to Net Addiction, these are the five main characteristics of social media addiction:

1. You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planning how to use it.

2. You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.

3. You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.

4. You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.

5. You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your relationships.

Net addiction used facebook as their example, but these characteristics apply for any social media you can think of. I personally feel like I probably use social media too much myself as I can relate to some of the characteristics above at times. I don't know what it is but I think that having social media and other apps have significantly lowered our attention spans and are just an easy think to turn to when there is nothing else to do. I have even personally noticed that I don't watch much TV anymore because it feels so dragged out especially when commercials come on and I go to my phone anyways. I'd much rather scroll through my phone and look at an endless, uninterrupted feed of entertainment instead.

I think the only reason that we even have a prompt that brings up this issue of technology, is simply because people who lived before this lifestyle are still alive. I think that by the time my kids have kids, what we now are referring to as "addiction", will be the new norm. And yes that is kind of scary, but I think it will be so normal that we will find ways to slowing fix the issues that arise.

http://netaddiction.com/ebay-addiction/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwzmQf44hMo