9/29 Reflection

The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.  A quote by Andrew Brown which kind of sums up how I view technology. In today’s society almost everyone has access to some sort of social media. It’s our main form of commination now and we abuse it as much as we can. In one of my readings on social media and its effects on society, Sherry Turkle says how people have become so lonely yet they are talking to everyone. The internet has given us this great power to basically do whatever we want and we mainly use it to tell people about our day so we don’t have to do it in person. She says how people don’t even know what’s going on around them anymore. People are completely ignoring others because they are more worried about what the world thinks about them instead of the people right next to them. I feel like people have become too reliant on the internet now. We are constantly on it trying to find something or telling someone something and we will eventually become aware that we won’t be able to survive without it. Turkle makes a good point when she says we should have times where we are not allowed to use our technology so we can actually see what’s going on around us. As an engineer I spend a lot of time on my computer and fully believe what Turkle is saying. If you don’t get out every so often then you will become in out of tune with the rest of the world you won’t be able to keep up with it. When Facebook first launched back it 2004, it changed the way people interacted with each other. As of 2 years ago 1.2 billion people have used Facebook at some point and this number is very scary. That’s 17 percent of the human population and 42 percent of all people with access to the internet. 20 years ago only the richest of the rich could afford a computer with an internet connection. It’s become so readily available now that half the world can get online now. This has enabled people to do almost anything they want. Many crimes today are committed online some of which are anywhere from hacking into someone’s accounts to drug trafficking and prostitution. This is not why I dislike the internet though. These things were expected to happen when the first computer was created. The reason I dislike the internet is because of things like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and snapchat. Society makes you feel like you need to have an account on each of these so you can be connected with others. There is so little communication outside of social media today compared to 20 years ago. It’s almost like social media has become our lives now and South Park Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone captured this perfectly in their latest episode. It opens with what looks to be a girl about to jump off a bridge and end her life. But she pulls out her phone and writes one last tweet before throwing her phone off the bridge. The next day at school everyone completely ignores her like she isn’t even there anymore. They treat her like she actually ended her life because she got off of twitter. This example shows exactly how social media is today in society. If you’re not on it then you don’t have a life. This should not be the case it should be the exact opposite. People who are on social media all the time should be the people who are considered to not have a life.