Our Relationship With Technology [#12]

 

Our Relationship With Technology

    The best metaphor I can come up with in tandem for our relationship with technology is that technology is like our little sibling. You cannot get rid of them, you cannot escape them, you hate them at times and love them at others, but you always go back to them. It is impossible to go an entire day with no interactions with technology because between your car, your tv, your phone, and your computer, you cannot get through a day without technology. The world around us has evolved its expectations of what it means to be human in a weird way, like how it's somehow required that we check our emails, respond to texts, know the latest trends.

    To determine if your relationship with technology is healthy or not, it feels like asking a fish is your relationship with water healthy. These days we need technology to live, to make money, to connect that it is hard for a lot of people to find the line, let alone determine where the line is. That fact alone should tell you to start monitoring your relationship with technology. Technology isn't some person who is going to call you a "butthole" to your face, but rather an entity that will take time from your day and turn it negative if you aren't careful.

    Some ways to be aware of your relationship with technology and keep it healthy are 

1) tracking the time you spend on devices

2) create your own guidelines about what you do online

3) turning off notifications

4) setting time limits

5) setting up your notifications in an non-distracting way 

6) filter your own social media platform to make it a more positive environment 

7) buy some blue light glasses to prevent headaches 

8) detox from technology by reading a paperback book or exercising 

9) plan times to use technology

10) worst comes to worst, put it away, hide it where you can't see or think about it 

    Technology does not have to be this evil thing that tears us apart, but we have to be smart so it works in our favor. I would like to think my relationship with technology is healthy, but in a lot of ways it isn't. I use technology everyday to keep up with the news, talk to my friends, and stay updated with my class work and hobbies. I fall victim to not researching news as in depth as I should, I have been working on taking news for more than just its title, but often I still read the headlines and keep scrolling without doing much work. The platform to learn more and grow is there; we have to use it. I worry a lot and more often than not it's twitter that I worry about in terms of fake news and not reading the story. People are so quick to read those 280 characters, decide that is the entire story and move on. It has become an accepted part of the society we live in in a way, but we need to push back misinformation until it gets to a point of no one caring anymore.

    Our society is at a tipping point as of now with our relationships with technology, will we move into a more positive open future or will we be stuck fighting for scraps of knowledge from news sites funded by big name cooperations. Be careful online and be safe. Nothing on the internet ever gets deleted.

Online Presence [#11]

Online Presence  

    I have always considered myself extremely cautious when it comes to my online presence. I did not have a phone or access to social media until I was in 9th grade and I thank my parents so much for that. I was able to grow up relatively away from the pressures that social media puts on kids nowadays. I did not even have a personal social media account with my real name connected to it until I was in 11th grade, before then and still today I use an online alias to interact with the type of content I wish to consume on social media, such as memes and updates about my favorite tv shows. I do not have a Facebook account, but I do have a personal Instagram and Snapchat, that I really never use.

    I also have Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok accounts associated with my online alias, where I frequently am on my toes about any personal information I share. I have never trusted the internet with my secrets and I don't intend on changing. My Mom on the other hand posts frequently on Facebook. Often she posts about us as a family so against my own control information about me does find it's way online and I am not the only one to experience this. In part, knowing that my Mom is so open on social media I do find myself more cautious about what I put out there. My life is private and I would like to keep it that way.

    I have a total of a dozen gmail accounts to my online name. I do not give my personal email to any sites other than professional ones such as LinkedIn due to it having my full first name and last name linked to it. I have an email dedicated to spam sites that want my email for some reason so I can give it to them and not ever read a single email they send me. My phone number is linked to a few of my social accounts, but as soon or if I'm able to I remove it from the system. The most I allow my phone number out there is to important sites as a place of a backup contact if I ever forget my passwords. Being on top of what information you give out, I feel is so important and more people should practice this. The internet isn't your friend. It's a tool that wants to use you so you have to do your best to use it before it can use you.

    Social media as a whole is a blessing and a curse. It brings friends across the country together, but can tear close friendships apart when you see your bestie partying without you. No one is ever really honest with their online posts, no matter what you do to try and ensure that. A photo is one snapshot of one moment of one second of your life, you cannot be put in this box that social media wants you to be in. Be careful online, you never know who you can trust.