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Marian Calinog
Professor Star
English 114 B
26 April 2015
Disconnecting the Plug to Reconnect to Life
Through generations today, individuals often rely on technology to get through their daily
routines. Throughout the years, technology has definitely become more advanced that it allows
easy access for the public. The Internet is a popular form of technology, which is constantly
being used by individuals throughout their entire day. With the use of smart phones, people are
able to access it the internet and social medias sights in applications that can be easily
downloadable. Technology has become a huge impact in society that it decreases individuals
social communication in reality.
Individuals who use smart phones are impacted with their constant need to be connected
with the media rather than reality. Through my own experiences, I am guilty of being involved
with social media sites such as twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and I am able to understand the
constant need to refresh my newsfeeds. Although being constantly connected with social media
sites can be often hard to turn away from due to the bad habit, social media provides easy
accessibility for individuals to communicate to each other. When life get busy and complicated,
people may realize that it is hard to find time to keep in contact with one another. With the use of
technology people are able to text and email each other. In the article Couples, the Internet, and
Social Media by Amanda Lenhart and Maeve Duggan, they explained that technology can
provide a source of support and communication by stating 41% of 18-29 year olds in serious
relationships have felt closer to their partner because of online or text message conversations..

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The constant need to be online can come with complication in life as well. In the article
Couples, The Internet, and Social Media, the writers Amanda Lenhart and Maeve Duggan
provided statistics that demonstrated how repetitively staying connected online can affect
relationships and individuals. By stating 25% of cellphone users in a marriage or partnership
have felt their spouse or partner was distracted by their cellphone when they were together,
Lenhart and Duggan explained that people are so drawn to their phones that it decreases their
ability to stay connected to reality. Social abilities get affected when people are constantly
browsing their phones because instead of verbally communicating with one another, they find
themselves glued to their phones and unable to actually create and keep their conversations
going. Although online applications such as Twitter and Instagram allow people to communicate
through alternating messages, the act of communicating online versus in person can be quite
difficult to adapt to. Many teenagers are able to communicate with one another behind a message
board, exchanging risky messages, sending pictures, and sending likes and favorites back
and forth, but when they are in a situation where they are right in front of each other they can not
communicate as easily as it was online.
Most teenagers in our generation today are so involved with technology that when it
comes to reality they often find a difficult to transition from an online social state, to a verbally
social state. People hide behind the keyboards at their fingertips forgetting how dangerous
pressing the send button may be. Cyber bullying is a problem that many teenagers starting
middle school face. Children are so exposed to the media that they are judgmental and harsh to
one another especially if they are given a device that is easily accessible to post information on.
Many children who have easy access to technology do not understand the risks that are involved
with signing up to a social media account. When information or even pictures are posted online,

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they are never deleted regardless if you press, delete. Information is stored onto a hardware
that can never be erased no matter how hard you try to get rid of it. When children post hurtful
things online, others get hurt and can easily engage in self-harm and self issues due to lack of
self-esteem. Technology should be used carefully regardless of how severe the problem may
seem to people.
Young children are often the main users of technology. It is often seen that some parents
are too busy to constantly distract their young children from making too much noise or being
misbehaved. Instead, many parents turn to devices such as their own cellphones or tablets for
their children to hold and watch videos or play games to distract them from getting out of hand.
In the article Facebook Generation Faces Identity Crisis by Dr. Tyagi, he explains that children
are being losing their ability to learn social abilities by being brainwashed into the world of
technology by stating children cannot imagine a world where you cant go online to talk and
apply the same principles to real-world interpersonal communications.. When children are
adolescents, they begin to develop their social skills. When parents give them videos and toys to
keep them quite instead of communicating with them and bringing them to other children to play
with, they are taking away a crucial period in their life where they can start to develop new skills.
If they are restricted on their physical and verbal communication with others by constantly
watching videos and playing games, they lose their opportunity to speak and practice their
sentences and learning new words.
Through technology, media can be a positive way to improve someones life. Although
many people may say that technology can damage an individual and fully take away their social
skills, the article The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective by Manual
Castells explains that media can actually increase sociability. Not everyone has the time in their

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day to connect with their family members or even stay connected with their businesses. Many
people are able to find their own personal loved ones or even their personal identity through the
media. Dating websites and online surveys that are easily accessible to the public allow
individuals to explore their life virtually. In Castells article, he explains that many people can
browse the internet to find strengthen their personal lives by stating social relationships are
being reconstructed on the basis of individual interests, values, and projects. Not everyone is
capable of knowing how to work technology, but for those who do and who have a positive
outlook on the internet can benefit from all the advantages it has to offer.
The internet and technology has many advantages and disadvantages to the controversy.
Personally, the internet is useful to me because it provides me to new knowledge and information
I can access and an easier route to communicate with my friends and relatives online. I see
technology addiction as a controllable as long as someone does not abuse it. People have to
ability to either turn on and turn off their devices, the amount of self control that person has can
decide how much it can really affect them. Being connected to the media can be a good or bad
thing all depending on how much you choose to use it.

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Works Cited
Castells, Manuel. "The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective." Technology
Review. Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at
the University of Southern California, 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.
Lenhart, Amanda, and Maeve Duggan. "Couples, the Internet, and Social Media." Pew Research
Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. N.p., 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.
"'Facebook Generation' Faces Identity Crisis." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International,
4 July 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.