Being Connected while Becoming Disconnected
We are living in a world where it seems that technology is taking over our lives. Usually, I would say that it does this “slowly but surely”, but given the latest numbers, it does this “quickly and efficiently”. From the latest numbers collected by Hootsuite and We Are Social, there are over 3.773 billion internet users worldwide, which means a global penetration of 50%. Furthermore, there are 4.916 billion unique mobile users, a total of 66% of the world population. However, we still cannot answer one major question: Can we control the continuous evolution of technology?
Social Media and how it affects mental health
From the same study mentioned above, we find out that there are 2.789 billion active social media users worldwide. This means that there are almost 3 billion people who use social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat and let’s be honest, nobody is keen to post about their failures. Everybody presents their life as being perfect, starting an endless chain of people comparing themselves to one another. This will usually lead to low confidence, isolation and social anxiety.
There have been numerous studies lately that have linked social media with depression. The most affected people are the younger generations, as they are the main users of social media. In the USA, 86% of the people aged 18 to 29 use at least one social media site.
As a young adult suffering from depression, I can say that I felt how excessive use of social media affected my life. And I have noticed that I was not the only one that becomes addicted to social media use, as during week 8, when talking about The Individual, several students admitted to having a hard time not using social media for a whole day.
And this dependency on social media affects the way we interact with each other. From my own experience, I can say that most my interactions with other people now occur via Facebook or WhatsApp. As a result of this, I often end up isolating myself and become increasingly depressed when I see photos of people taking part in fun activities without me. Being connected with lots of people on social media disconnects you from them in real life…
Thankfully, mental health is a subject that is less and less ignored. People have come to realise that mental problems are not to be taken lightly, and therefore numerous steps have been taken to improve the connection between social media and mental health. Aye Mind is an organisation who is “on a mission to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people”. However, we as a society still need to make changes and educate everybody. Tell everyone that it’s okay to not be okay, so that we can open up to each other and slowly overcome hard times.
There are still questions that remain. How are we going to act when new technologies appear? In the end, will we be able to control social media or is social media going to completely control our lives?
The advantages of living in a Digital Society
Now, this doesn’t mean that there are only disadvantages related to the evolution of technology. Technology enabled us to do things our ancestors would only dream of. From being able to instantly communicate with somebody on the other side of the globe, to landing the man on the Moon, all these achievements have been made thanks to technology and some brilliant people that embraced evolution. I believe that we take too much of what surrounds us for granted, without realising that behind those things there are countless hours of work and sacrifice.
Try and think about the major problems our society is facing right now? What comes to your mind? Environmental problems should be up there. And technology is, and will be, used to solve these problems. However, we cannot rely only on technology and we must not ignore our impact to the environment. Here are some ways technology is helping the environment nowadays:
- Renewable energy — solar, wind and hydroelectric power have become more widespread and cheaper; they are also becoming more appealing, such as Tesla’s solar roof;
- Going digital — businesses are using less paper than before, thanks to computers;
- Electric cars — the number of electric cars has risen lately; their price is also dropping, and it is believed that by 2022 they will be cheaper than a traditional vehicle;
- Environmental monitoring — last but not least, technology is used to make sure regulations are respected; this spreads from battling poaching with drones to monitoring big companies.
But if we want to we do not have to think like this about technology. We can just believe that technology is here to steal other people’s jobs. We can believe that if technology was not so evolved, there would have been no Big Brother watching your every action. It is everybody’s choice to believe whatever they want. It is just natural that human race will keep on evolving and as a direct result, so will every single man-made thing. Therefore, it is only up to us to see what we are going to do with the technology.
As Bill Gates said, “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”
Reflection
As a Computer Science student, I have to admit that I took this unit thinking that there will not be a lot of new things that I am going to learn. I was learning a lot about computers already from my course, I knew how to code, so I thought that it will all be easy for me. Now, after 4 months, I can happily say that I was wrong at the beginning.
I have learned so many things from this unit and I have also enjoyed taking it. Never before did I have the opportunity to write a blog post about Kanye West or make a Pecha-Kucha presentation about NASA and be marked for this work. But while doing these assignments I was challenged. I developed new skills, such as attributing images properly. In 13 years of school, not a single time have I been taught how to properly use an image and why I must respect other people’s work.
I also learned that it is not a problem to use other people’s opinion as long as you accredit them. However, I had a hard time with that because I find it hard to use other opinions for my work and always try to make my own ones.
I now realise how beneficial this course unit has been for my development as a person, not only because of the technical skills I have acquired, but also thanks to allowing me to interact with people studying completely different subjects, hearing their opinions, and so, gaining a better understanding of a subject.
Had I not taken this unit, I would have kept on seeing this Digital Society only from the point of view of a programmer, without properly understanding how technology may indeed affect people on a psychological level.
Another big challenge that I encountered was the presentation for the Pecha Kucha assignment, as I am completely terrified of public speaking. I cannot say that I have developed my public speaking skills, but I must admit that I found it somewhat easier to do it when I was speaking about something that I am really passionate about. I will have to keep working on these skills, but if I ever manage to develop it to its full potential, I will certainly remember the moment I had to speak in front of my colleagues without being judged for my lack of talent.
To summarise, this unit was a lot more entertaining than I expected. I have developed skills such as referencing images and ideas, and now I respect intellectual property even more than before. The unit challenged me, I learned how to see this subject from a different point of view, and it allowed me a certain freedom for the assignments. This is actually what impressed me the most, that for the assignments we were allowed to write about anything we wanted, and this helped me realise even more how we really live in a Digital Society, because this technology is found everywhere around us.
