Technology and the Impact on Society Technology Essay

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Impact of Social Media on Relationships
Oftentimes, the world is referred to as a global village, thanks to the advancement in technology that gave birth to the internet. The internet has enabled people from different parts of the world to communicate effectively as if they are in the same physical location. The world with no internet means no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no WhatsApp, and no other social media platform that has ever existed. What a boring life that would be? People use social media to achieve different objectives in life, some even make an income out of it. Some relationships flourish as a result of social media. On the flip side, social media has become a major source of harm to some through cyberbullying, hacking and privacy issues not to mention the addiction that comes along with excessive use of social media. Addiction and obsession with social media can go further to cause health issues such as depression and anxiety. Coupled with other side effects of social media, relationships, be it professional or intimate, stand no chance of endurance or even establishing new ones.
The current society is dominated by new technologies that are both instrumental and fascinating at the same time. As new technologies strive to make the world a better place for human beings, there is a tendency to increasingly depend on it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eMYOZoED","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gonzalez)","plainCitation":"(Gonzalez)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":210,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/4346PRI2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/4346PRI2"],"itemData":{"id":210,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"University Times, California State University, Los Angeles","language":"English","page":"50-51","title":"Technology Taking Over?","author":[{"family":"Gonzalez","given":"Yzzy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gonzalez 1). Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and a few others have extremely fascinating capabilities that naturally attract the attention of any social being. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UO8tzqu5","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Greenwood et al.)","plainCitation":"(Greenwood et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":213,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/KNIIR44H"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/KNIIR44H"],"itemData":{"id":213,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Pew Research Center","issue":"2","note":"publisher: Washington, DC, USA:","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Social media update 2016","volume":"11","author":[{"family":"Greenwood","given":"Shannon"},{"family":"Perrin","given":"Andrew"},{"family":"Duggan","given":"Maeve"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} Greenwood et al. in their research pointed out that a large number of internet users are more likely to be available on multiple social media platforms (8). Presence in multiple platforms means more time on social media. Too much presence in online platforms translates its effect to how people relate to one another. The time spent on social media is the time that people could have spent interacting with one another face to face and building new relationships. With the emergence of new technologies, people talk less than they Tweet, Facebook, Whatsapp or Snapchat, while the all point of making relationships is to talk with one another.
Numerous scholars have strived with empirical evidence linking depression to social media addiction and other factors such as drug abuse and low self-esteem. According to ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"l8Wmz3ep","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mamun and Griffiths)","plainCitation":"(Mamun and Griffiths)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":215,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/YCPA5MQI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/YCPA5MQI"],"itemData":{"id":215,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Psychiatry research","note":"publisher: Elsevier","page":"628–633","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The association between Facebook addiction and depression: A pilot survey study among Bangladeshi students","title-short":"The association between Facebook addiction and depression","volume":"271","author":[{"family":"Mamun","given":"M. A. Al"},{"family":"Griffiths","given":"Mark D."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} Mamun and Griffiths (2019), extensive use of social media platforms, specifically Facebook has a positive correlation with mental health disorders such as depression, “ examining multiple variables, it was found that the symptoms of depression were the most significant riskfactors associated with the risk of FA ‘Facebook Addiction’”(p. 10). Depression can cause a lot of problems in a relationship. A depressed person is less likely to pay attention to their partner in a relationship, hardly get involved, and sometimes may become easily annoyed. Sex drive, which is a key aspect in relationships diminishes with depression. More disastrous consequences of depression can cause hopelessness, shame, and sometimes rebellion, all of which can cause a relationship to stumble.
Trolls on social media platforms amount to a large percentage of cyberbullying. Prolonged exposure to messages of hate instills negative morals and people develop negative thoughts about themselves and others, sometimes escalating to low self-esteem and depressions. Exposure to cyberbullying also can make one to lack empathy. Good morals, empathy, high esteem are all ingredients of good relationships, and with cyberbullying that is prevalent on social media, healthy relationships are very unlikely to exist.
Social media are avenues for fraudsters and social engineering experts. It is very difficult to find someone post an unpleasant picture of themselves on the various platforms. It is full of unreal perfections that do not portray the real picture of the real world. Narcissists are the most likely addicts of the platforms and they are fond of comparing themselves with each other ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"xX3C3u11","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Chae)","plainCitation":"(Chae)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":219,"uris":["http://zoter...