How Technology Disrupts the Way We Socialize

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How Technology Disrupt the Way We Socialize
Introduction
Even though technology has enhanced the manner that people can gain access to information, it has also been utilized by various regulators such as the government in impeding the spread of ideas by preventing information from being disseminated mechanically. Governments have censored news media outlets which have only resulted in misinformation of the public. The introduction of smartphones has been beneficial to teenagers as it has enabled them to stay in touch with their friends quickly and also communicate with other individuals on various issues. However, smartphones have only led to severe mental health issues on teenagers. Before the introduction of such telecommunication technologies, people interacted differently with their friends and families which strengthened interpersonal relationships among teenagers.
Communication technologies and smartphones have huge benefits, however; the consequences of using such technologies have led to detrimental effects on its users. Additionally, issues of teenage suicide have skyrocketed as some users have developed mental problems such as depression and isolation issues. It is therefore clear that technology mainly social media has significantly disrupted the tenets of most of our democratic institutions. It has placed people at risk of losing their sense of identity and cohesion. Technology has disrupted the manner that people in the society can connect and also share on important issues affecting their lives.
The paper will highlight the manner that technological devices such as smartphones and mediums such as social media have disrupted the foundations of existing democratic institutions such as news outlets. This will be done from the analysis of the articles: In the article: ‘It's the (democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech’ by Tufekci, Zeynep and also the article: ‘Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?’ by Twenge. Jean. It will also draw parallels to the manner that mental health issues, cyberbullying and various other consequences that emerge from the use of smartphones among teenagers.
How technology has disrupted the manner that people socialize with each other
‘It's the (democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech,’ Tufekci, Zeynep stated that: “In the 21st century, the capacity to spread ideas and reach an audience is no longer limited by access to expensive, centralized broadcasting infrastructure. It’s limited instead by one’s ability to garner and distribute attention. And right now, the flow of the world’s attention is structured, to a vast and overwhelming degree, by just a few digital platforms: Facebook, Google (which owns YouTube), and, to a lesser extent, Twitter.”
With the flow of public attention highly structured through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people have continuously spread false information concerning the real world issues that significantly affect them. Facebook and YouTube have been created mainly for optimizing engagement without the element of the user being physically present to connect with other individuals outside this virtual world. Since 2016, there have been reports of top fake election news stories that have received excessive recognition from networking sites such as Facebook compared to the critical election stories for the large news outlets combined in the United States.
Tufecki stated that:”Back then, every political actor could at least see more or less what everyone else was seeing. Today, even the most powerful elites often cannot effectively convene the right swath of the public to counter viral messages. During the 2016 presidential election, as Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg reported for Bloomberg, the Trump campaign used so-called dark posts—nonpublic posts targeted at a specific audience—to discourage African Americans from voting in battleground states. The Clinton campaign could scarcely even monitor these messages, let alone directly counter them. Even if Hillary Clinton herself had taken to the evening news, that would not have been a way to reach the affected audience. Because only the Trump campaign and Facebook knew who the audience was.”
Social media sites have regularly targeted and delivered important user information to other users in the spirit of sharing information. Tufecki highlighted that:” All this online speech is no longer public in any traditional sense. Sure, Facebook and Twitter sometimes feel like places where masses of people experience things together simultaneously. But in reality, posts are targeted and delivered privately, screen by screen by screen. Today’s phantom public sphere has been fragmented and submerged into billions of individual capillaries. Yes, mass discourse has become far easier for everyone to participate in—but it has simultaneously become a set of private conversations happening behind your back. Behind everyone’s backs.”
With the availability of smartphones teenage individuals spend numerous hours on a daily basis frequenting social networking platforms which consequently has a negative outcome to their health. Teenagers perceive that since smartphones are readily available, it is highly normal and necessary to utilize such devices exhaustively especially through checking and updating their social media status. This is done without the complete knowledge of the effects that such social media sites c...