The Effects of Being Constantly Connected

Our desire to want to be constantly connected to the online world has a way of creating negative effects for the offline world. Smart phones allow us to be readily available to information in an instant. Wherever we go, people will always fill the void by being glued to their phones. People have a tendency to be engaged with their smart phones while walking to a destination, waiting for a class, eating food, or even while driving! It’s frightening to think about how dependent we are on this technology. Knowing this, I believe that this technological fixation and this desire to not want to miss out on information are causing us to be detached from the world around us. It’s beginning to get more and more difficult to have a genuine conversation with someone without being distracted by our phones. I always make an effort to never have my phone out whenever I’m conversing with someone. There was a time where we were able to live without smart phones; now I wonder if there will ever be a time in the future where we won’t be so dependent on them.

To look more on the social media aspect of instant gratification, I agree with the fact that the use of social media is reinforcing this concept. Social media allows us to consume a lot of information quickly, even if it’s meaningless to us. In the long term, I don’t believe we retain everything we read on social media. We are able to quickly look through our news feed and not even remember what we read by the end of the day. This fast-pace environment is enabling us to want to multi-task. Multi-tasking may make us feel productive, but it’s actually hindering our ability to focus all of our mental energy into one task. I will admit that I struggled a bit to write this post, because I was distracted by social media. After reading the articles and understanding the content from my view point, I see the combination of instant gratification and technology as a deadly combination. I don’t think this need to want to be constantly connected is healthy for us. We need to take breaks from our devices, and just enjoy the world around us.