Impact of Technology on Human Connections

Impact of Technology and Smartphones on Relationships

There is the question how advanced technologies and smartphones affect relationships. It is a common query in this age of radical technological advancements. Relationship is a quintessential aspect of human life. The character of an individual is judged by how well he/she communicates with people. Advancement in technology has drastically impacted the way people connect with each other. Thus, it has become a system of privileges in contention with human relationships. Communication is an integral factor in building any relationship in social circles such as with family, friends, and workmates. Technology has provided the new ways of entertainment, leisure and spending time. Unlike two centuries ago, today’s technology has revolutionized the way people think, act, communicate, travel, and socialize. For instance, social media platforms have provided means for individuals to build relationships with new friends and companies to relate with their customers. Technology and connections have become a major topic of discussion due to its relevance in the contemporary society. In regard, different authors have conducted the in-depth research and published informative findings on these issues. This essay investigates how the use of advanced technology and smartphones affect relationships according to the positions of four authors, the contribution of which on this subject matter has revealed many ideas.

Effect of the Internet on Family Life

In an attempt to answer the research question, this essay analyzes the views of Robert Hughes and Jason Hans (2004) basing on the article, “Understanding the Effects of the Internet on Family Life.” Therefore, the family is a basic form of any relationship. Thus, the discussion on the effect of advanced technologies on relationships must focus on home. The significant advancement in technology has been marked by introducing Internet and computers (Hughes & Hans 2004). The web network has led to proliferation of information thus increasing the application of smartphones. According to McDaniel and Coyne (2016), the report from the Pew Research Center has showed a massive increase in the number of adults that have smartphones and use the Internet. In 2014, 80% of adults between the age of 18 and 49 owned a smartphone (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). Hans and Hughes (2004), after consulting numerous studies, have revealed that Internet damages family relationships. They have found out that adolescents and parents mainly use the web network for interaction purposes like sending and receiving emails, as well as communicating via skype with non-household members (Hughes & Hans, 2004). Therefore, Internet diverts the focus of children from nuclear family relationships to unreal relationships established through this means.

Advanced technology and smartphones promote virtual connections rather than real ones through social media. The reality in the modern society is that online networks  have become central to the lives of many people. According to the Global Web Index, social media captures 30% of online time. Another notable fact is that 80% of the time spent in online networks happens on mobile devices (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). As of July 2015, the world population stood at 7.3 billion. Almost half of the people in the whole world use Internet (3.17 billion) (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). These facts confirm that Hans and Hughes (2004) depict sheer reliance of the web by the human race. As a result, families no longer spend the adequate amount of time together. Otherwise, excitement brought about by Internet applications on phones has broken strong social ties in many families (Hughes & Hans, 2004). Even without relying on the data provided by these two authors, it is an indisputable fact that the lives of many people revolve around using smartphones. They act this way in order to enhance comfort as in entertainment, communication, studies, research, and security. For this reason, it is a common scene in any public place, while traveling or gathering to find people glued to screens, either of a phone, computer and television. The authors also have noted about the increased application of Internet from mobile phones. This matter has contributed to an aggressive behavior among adults and children (Hughes & Hans, 2004). This tendency is attributed to a high exposure to violet activities and images as well as an easy contact with dangerous people. Generally, Hans and Hughes (2004) expose a rapid deterioration in family relationships since the invention of the web technologies being largely available on mobile devices.

“Tecnoference”: The Interference of Technology in Couple Relationships and Implications for Women’s Personal and Relational Well-Being

Advanced technology and smartphones can build new relationships, sustain and strengthen existing connections, as well as destroy peace among people. In this article, McDaniel and Coyne (2016) focus on both physical and emotional damages caused by smartphones and other related technologies within many married couples. McDaniel and Coyne (2004) as well as Hughes and Hans (2004) agree on many points regarding the influence of technologies on creating strained connections. While Hughes and Hans focused on the effect of Internet, McDaniel and Coyne were more concerned about smartphones and their interference into normal and peaceful communications. The first ones acknowledge how important mobile phones and technologies are allowing connectivity to strengthen relationships by providing communication platforms. For instance, the mobile applications like Facebook and WhatsApp enable the creation of virtual groups where family members can communicate regularly. Thus, it becomes possible to foster intergenerational connections (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). For example, Internet allows a quick talk with distant family members and maintenance of connections through online games, virtual sex among couples, and as well as an established ties after divorce (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). Therefore, Hughes and Hans show how technologies associated with smartphones have enhanced to build and sustain many relationships in family, friends, and at work.

McDaniel and Coyne (2016) have also discussed the other side of reliance on smartphones and other technologies. They point out that individuals develop an addictive and problematic application of devices to such an extent that their overuse starts taking a toll on their relationships (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). These gadgets can be very interruptive during interaction by their notifications and sounds produced. Such breaks are annoying especially during romantic moments. The survey conducted by McDaniel and Coyne among143 married or cohabiting couples has revealed some captivating facts. For instance, 70% of women declared that smartphones often interfered with their psychological connection with their partners and the levels of concentration (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). Moreover, 62% of them mentioned interference into their leisure time, and 35% noted that their partners would definitely pull out their phones with the sound of a notification even if they were in the middle of a serious conversation. It should be noted that 33% mentioned that their men continually checked their gadgets during mealtime with their family, while 25% of them expressed some concerns about their partner texting other people. At the same time, they could have the very same conversation with their partner. (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). These revelations confirm the points proposed by Hans and Hughes that smartphones provide alternative sources of pleasure thus eroding health of relationships that are no longer being a priority for most people.

Your BlackBerry or Your Wife

Advanced technology devices and smartphones substitute the role of real relationships in human life. These gadgets make people settle on wrong social priorities. In the article published in The Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Bernstein (2011) mainly suggests the following facts. When the whole family is glued on screens, it is a high time to try tech detox. Elizabeth raises an alarm on how the use of technological devices such as laptops and smartphones has become a major addiction. It comes to light that most individuals have substituted the fun of beautiful relationships such as family outings for the entertainment with smartphones, TV, and laptops. While the first two articles mainly present the data and findings on how these technologies interfere with relationships in the family and with friends, Bernstein provides the real life examples and experiences to depict the extent of deterioration. For example, the case of the researcher who banned the computerized entertainment for one week is used as an important analogy. Ms Broadnax decided to prepare a favorite dinner for her family. After organizing everything, she realized how much the family members were devastated and decided to skip meals. For the human connectivity, electronic devices play a big role in keeping individuals apart. Texting leads to misunderstanding; and TVs make people tired, lazy, and distracted to have sex (Bernstein, 2011). The recent research by an Italian scholar has indicated that couples that have a TV set in their bedrooms have sex fewer times compared to such ones that do not have it (Bernstein, 2011). Technology is one of the main catalysts for divorce and unstable relationships because of negative options and priorities that give people a chance to end up with mere illusions.

Edging Out of the Nest: Emerging Adults’ Use of Smartphones in Maintaining and Transforming Family Relationships

Caroline Marchant and Stephanie O’Donohoe highlight the way smartphones are bound up with a complex network of family consumption and communication practices across generations as well as geographic boundaries. It becomes clear that technology highly contributes to paranoid parenting, also known as helicopter parenting (Marchant & O’Donohoe, 2014). This view implies that the indigenous concept of family relationships is faced out as teenagers use smartphones to attain independence from authorities.

On the other hand, smart families utilize technology and gadgets to build a community practice thereby strengthening connections within families. Besides, the bonds of family identity, enforced by common positive disposition towards Apple, the activities such as exchanging tips and offering advice to one another on its usage, have become a connecting agent among families (Marchant & O’Donohoe, 2014). Various forms of technology have created some ways for students to share course materials and ideas while work mates have a cyberspace where they can consult one another and work together from long distances. Thus, O’Donohoe and Marchant illustrate the power of advanced technology and smartphones in fostering relationships leading to positive outcomes.

It has been mentioned that Internet damages family relationships by taking away the focus of home members. Moreover, smartphones lead to prioritization of virtual connections over real ones. They also affect the health of many relationships through disturbances and substitute the role played by human communications for the entertainment with different gadgets. In addition, it is a catalyst for divorce whenever there is a communication breakdown. Nevertheless, technology has in many ways also created, sustained, and strengthened many bonds for smart users. Indisputably, the world would still experience some advancement in technology and increased use of smartphones. In order to maintain healthy relationships in the contemporary society, it is important that persons achieve a high level of discipline not to prioritize gadgets over their families and friends.

Maintaining constant closeness among family and friends is very important and technology makes this easier for most people. The introduction of mediums such as; mobile phones, computers connected to the internet among other modern equipment has helped people communicate more often. However, as much as this technology has helped connect people, it has also drawn them apart emotionally. The need to be together with family and friends becomes and non-existent and some people adopt a new personality when chatting with friends. This has proven to be quite a problem for the current generation as this has been their main way of communicating. Hence, this has led to the emergence of the argument revolving around whether this technology has done more harm than good. Therefore, this paper is going to focus on whether this new technology detaches us from the real life and makes us less human or not.

Constant communication through a technological medium does not make up for the intimacy shared between people. Intimacy is more based on the emotional, spiritual and mental aspects of relationships, which needs physical contacts and shared experiences rather than simply see pictures and blogs on the Internet. With the development of technology, especially after the prevalence of Internet, we have fewer physical communications and connections with our friends. Looking at the old generation, they had to physically approach their friends if they wanted company or needed anything, however, times have changed and the situation is approached rather differently nowadays. Physical contact is not necessary as one can easily get in touch with their friends through the phone or the internet and talk about anything. By simply logging into sites such as; facebook, My space among others one can easily find out where their friends are and whether their busy or not just by looking at their updates. This is a trend that has been growing for a long time and looking at the statistics collected most people are enjoying these services and more are enrolling each day. In addition, thanks to the convenience of Internet, not only does it reduce the opportunities for us to talk to each other, but also it cuts time to sit together and share experiences. As Nevada (4) says in the Las Vegas Review,”Intimacy requires time to emerge and grow. We make that time possible with constancy and commitment.” So, we need time to build our intimacy.

However, the Internet is famous for high-speed processing, which intends to shorten the time we contact to each other. Even though the frequency rate of texting to each other increases, the total time we spend on the communications with our friends is reduced. For instance, when our friends encounter some difficulties or in bad moods, it is sarcastic that we simply see their diaries and post 20-words comment to encourage them. Nothing can be compared with the experience that you and your friends sit together and cheer them up via face-to-face talks. The smiling and tones can be their power to go on. When cyberspace is created and popularized, the decline of traditional patterns of communication make the intimacy an instant closeness.

The virtualization allows people conceal their identities or use their imaginations to create different identities. Because of availability of Internet, people are free from the physical connections to real life and allow themselves to create a virtual existence that may have no relation to the real world. This results in the decrease of communications with others in physical world. The anonymity and freedom in virtual world give them a sense of security. They prefer making friends on Internet, which draw them away from the friends in real life. In the long run, these people who are satisfied with the virtual world will develop an autistic characteristic. It is common that when asked whether to hang out by some friends during a short holiday, a person will prefer to stay at home surfing on the Internet and refresh the websites every minute. So actually, the Internet makes us lazier to try to communicate with real friends in physical world. So the virtualization of the Internet reduces the interaction in the real world and destroys the intimacy between their true friends.

The anonymity of the Internet makes it easier to quickly form connections and relations with others, even though we may not even know much about the other side such as gender, occupation, education etc. That trait of Internet gives people a false sense of intimacy because people use numbers or words as various identities, which create multiple”poker faces” for people on the Internet. The anonymous identities provide camouflages for such a group of people who utilize it to get any information from you and even harry you. In the long run, people lose trust in social networking and build a”wall” to protect them. Losing trust makes it more difficult to build intimacy between each other. However, Melinda Blau (3) says,”There’s always someone we can turn to for advice, information, solace, validation, a good laugh, a thought-provoking suggestion–and there’s always someone listening.” It is more convenient for us to talk to someone for encouragements or advice, but before we start the conversation online, we have to ensure the”someone” may not let any private information out. We have to ask ourselves,”Can we trust them?” (Blau 6) Even though you always have good communication with the anonymous person and he/she may show you kindness, it does not necessarily mean that you know the person at a humane level. Think of no better example to illustrate this idea than the TV series Gossip Girl. The”Gossip Girl” is an anonymous person who sets a website to reveal, spot and spread the secrets of others. The program revolves around how the anonymous person discovers people’s secrets and posts them on the internet for the whole world to see. Although the Gossip Girl is a virtual role in the fiction story but it is created according to the reality and can reflects some aspect of the reality. Hence, one can always learn from this to be quite careful when interacting with people whom they do not know personally.

The openness of the internet provides platforms for people to express their opinions freely disregarding the respects to others, which makes people narcissistic and aggravates the individualism. On one hand, people could ruin other’s privacy. For instance, MySpace is about”me” and ask people to look at”me”. Someone may complain about their friends or post rumors or secrets shared with friends, which may be very embarrassed. However, some people may argue that our lives are made abundant by the stories posted on the websites, which raise different discussion topics that promote the interactions between classmates, friends or even strangers. As Melinda Blau argues in The Relationship Revolution; The Internet as a new way of life,”Some 40 percent of adult users are also “content producers,” who shoot photos, and produce videos and music for their own and others’ enjoyment…”(Blau 15) She acclaims that the Internet obscures”the lines between private and public”. Although it is true more and more users are participating in the cyberspace actively and enthusiastically, since the Internet is a space open to the public. One’s privacy may be at a risk of being violated at any time since other people may post your videos or photos without necessarily having to ask for permission. As a matter of fact, in the current society, we should keep our eyes on privacy instead of mix up the public and the private. On the other hand, in some cyberspaces, people pay more attention on what they care about with no tolerance for disagreement. As Sandy Bank (par.6) says, the technology”has also promoted a cultural shift that inflates a loudmouth’s self-importance and stokes a mob mentality.” In term of Internet, on some BBS, for instance, when a person gets a comment that argues against his/her opinion, it is common that the discussion will finally ends with a quarrel with a lot of offensive words.

In general, the emergence of technology that boosts our communication has been quite helpful to most individuals. The fact that it saves time and one can still maintain communication with their friends is highly appreciated considering the busy nature adopted by most individuals. However, there have been various discoveries concerning the emotional turmoil that the technology steers in most people. People tend to get more detached from reality and venture into this virtual world created by the internet. With time people get less human although it happens gradually, the result is usually discouraging. Therefore, as much as technology has introduced an easier lifestyle for most people, one should be careful not to detach themselves from reality.