Technology and Addiction

Technology and Addiction

Technology is around us everywhere; right now we can’t leave it, and we can’t drop the technology, such as social networking, video gaming, TV. Technology like social networking provides a convenient place for interpersonal communication; it’s a realistic society new social mode. In my opinion, the development of science and technology is good for people, but the disadvantage of the technology is many people are becoming addicted to it. Addiction to technology, like social networking, is inevitably exacerbated in some aspects of social alienation. However, the virtual social communication cannot replace the real social. Otherwise, excessive dependence on social networks will reduce the ability of the people to interact face-to-face, especially young people.

  Technology may make the reality of human emotion atrophy and communication ability degrades. In real life, interpersonal relations are very complicated, the exchanges between people are always done with great care, and the social networking society provides us a wide, safe and hidden communication platform. In time and space, perception of virtual social networking, unlimited extension of the virtual social network is easy to make people more distend because. Some people would rather stay at home and use networking software than go out with friends, some people even go all night to play the online gaming at home rather than go out with the family to have a meal. In the article “A New Addiction for Teacher Candidates: Social Networks” authors Cam, Emre, and Onur Isbulan said “With the transition to being a knowledge-based society, the internet usage has become an irreplaceable part of life. As socials networks have come into our lives, the internet usage has taken a different dimension. The process that starts with membership then turns into an addiction. The internet addiction is along with the addiction to social networks.” Although social networking provides us with a virtual social commination, we still should limit the time on technology of social networking or online gaming, because we need holding back this addiction.

  Social networking desalination weakens the ability of interpersonal skills communication, also internet addiction makes it so people cannot distinguish between real life and the network world. Frequent interpersonal communication on social is easy to neglect; we always let it become habit. This can distance us from people physically and psychologically making us alienated from real life, caused psychological loneliness and depression. Some people will become depressed, lose interest in real life and lack energy to study or do other things, People who are always addicted in the virtual world start to lose social skills. Now many, people are beginning to become addicted to social networking; social networking captures people's attention, while learning and work efficiency decreases. This can cause the emergence of narcissism, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, social phobia, depression and other "self-messy" phenomenon. Now, in America people want "social control.", if they do not check the mobile phone they can't feel at ease to eat, sleep. If there not on the Facebook to show themselves, they will feel uncomfortable; when they see their Facebook postings there are many responses or "like" (good / top) they would very glad. Neurology professor Larry Rosen of California State University Northridge thinks: more and more people are showing this phenomenon. Rosen called this phenomenon as "iDisorder." Rosen says the performance of the "iDisorder" phenomenon is due to the trial of high-tech equipment. Compare those two things we can know, although the network is developing, face-to-face is the best way for people to communicate, even though we develop a strong relationship with social networking, the texting or video call still can’t replace face-to-face to chat, also can’t deliver the real emotion, and if people use social networks for a long time they can easily develop an "iDisorder".

University Students have more free time. Some of the university students in the afternoon and evening often chat online or play online gaming. Social networking has high degree of openness and compatibility, to bring knowledge and convenience at the same time, but it also have many negatives. University students’ intense curiosity for new things, and for the things they have no accurate judgment, so if they become addicted to social networking, they become vulnerable to the erosion negative thoughts, and are unable to control their behavior. They make some bad choices, because of the negative impact of social networking; People may imitate each other’s bad behavior, resulting in vicious spiral. In the article “Internet Abuse and Possible Addiction Among Undergraduates” from Castiglione, James, he says “Findings – Anecdotal evidence has been accumulating for over a decade, suggesting that inappropriate use of the internet by college students may lead to adverse educational outcomes; however, very little empirical evidence is available to substantiate the phenomenon.” Compare many violent criminals from college students, we can know weak monitoring in social networking; the university students have low recognizing ability and poor self-control. We should prevent the university students’ technology addiction. We need to provide more to requirements for more stringent rules to guide the social function. To improve social networking literacy, it is necessary to correctly understand use technology.

  In the end, in my opinion, using technology is good for us, but we should limit the time and control the extent. With technology developing we can’t forget the original way for people to communicate is face-to-face. The emotions we gain from it are something social networking can’t provide it. In the meantime, when using social networking, we need to prevent “IDisorder” so we won’t suffer ill effects from social networking.

Works Cited

Cam, Emre, and Onur Isbulan. "A New Addiction for Teacher Candidates: Social Networks." Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET, 11.3 (2012): 14-19. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Castiglione, James. "Internet Abuse and Possible Addiction Among Undergraduates." Library Review, 57.5 (2008): 358-371. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Rosen, LD, K Whaling, S Rab, LM Carrier, and NA Cheever. "Is Facebook Creating 'IDisorders'? The Link Between Clinical Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorders and Technology Use, Attitudes and Anxiety." Computers in Human Behavior, 29.3 (2013): 1243-1254. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.