My Technology Growing Up
When I was a kid, I used to play outside with friends and kids in my neighborhood, read quite a bit, and played with toys like any other kid my age. The technology I did have was very innocent, as it was not connected to some bigger network like so much is today, and it was all for entertainment. But technology was never a priority or something I always wanted to use when growing up, as I had other things that I enjoyed doing more. When I was 12 years old my parents got me an iPhone for the first time, and the main reason I got it was because I was spending more time doing things where I being left alone or going places more often without parents and needed a way to contact them. I had rules set by my parents for what I could and couldn't do on my phone, in addition to them being able to check it whenever they wanted. Once I did get a phone I still used it mainly for entertainment, playing games on it, watching YouTube, but still, it wasn't something I valued using over other activities that didn't require a screen. Social media entered my life when I was 14, I downloaded Instagram, and started to use my phone more, scrolling through Instagram, and keeping in touch with my friends. My parents and school always drilled into my head the idea that social media is a good way to connect with people, you have to be careful what you say/post, as it could come back to bite you. When I was going into my freshman year of high school, I got my first laptop, with my parents buying it so I wouldn't take up so much time using the family computer for homework. This is when I also started to consume media like movies and TV shows more regularly through streaming services, and I would occasionally have restrictions on what I could and couldn't watch. My parents did this in an effort to stop it from desensitizing me to certain topics that would've had a negative impact on my mental health growing up. I realize now that my parents were apart of a generation that had lived without and with modern technology, and they were apprehensive to just pushing a screen in front of me. They didn't think that constantly being stimulated by a screen was a good way for someone to grow up and mature. Which I think made me less dependent on technology as a kid, and even today I could live without it if I had to.
I never had the desire to join Facebook, as I thought it was mainly for older people. But when I was playing rugby in high school, a private Facebook page was the main way my coach communicated to us outside of practice, so I had to register on Facebook and create a profile, out of necessity. I don't use Facebook outside that, but it speaks to a growing issue with technology and social media, that there is no escape from it. In our society there is an ever-growing need for technology to do more things in our lives, and you're bound to use if you want to keep up because so much of our lives is connected to technology.
My Use of Tech Today
In the past year and a half I joined Tik Tok and Twitter, and while I read and scroll through those apps daily, I rarely post on them, but I am conscious about what people are able to see on those apps. Both those profiles are public, but on Tik Tok one could only see who I follow, and on Twitter the same is true and they are also able to see everything I've "liked". I know to be mindful of what I do and post on social media, as in some cases not only can the site see it, but everyone else can, and what I say/post could negatively affect me later in life. When someone looks at my page for the first time they get a digital first impression of me. So, when I see something on Twitter I "like", but could be taken the wrong way, I think to myself, would I want someone to see that as the first thing about me, and that could be how they judge me, and if the answer is not a "yes, I'm okay with that" then I "unlike" and ignore it. The same goes for Instagram, I don't post much, but I don't want people to see what I've posted and take it in a negative manner and that be what they use to judge me. I am careful also on what I believe on social media, as I know that I have created different echo chambers on each one. My Instagram and Twitter are more focused on entertainment news and Formula 1, and Tik Tok is more focused on memes and entertaining videos. I have also unintentionally created different echo chambers for general news on Instagram and Twitter, with Twitter being more independent leaning news, and Instagram being a mixture of conservative and liberal news, varying based on which side I viewed more of each time I use it. I didn't know I was doing this, but since I noticed it I try to look at both before forming opinions on certain topics.
Since graduating high school, I have used technology more than ever, as there is some type of a screen running for a majority of my day, either for school, work, or entertainment. Working as a mover when at home, I use the Maps app on my phone everyday to get to the job sites. I also use the Maps app to go anywhere I don't fully know how to get there. I know that I am essentially inviting my phone to track where I'm going and when every day, but I don't mind as it helps me get where I need to go. I also wear a fitness tracker, a Whoop, which I have been constantly wearing for about a year and a half. It continuously tracks my heart rate, calories burned, and sleep, logging it all in my account. I think that technology has reached so many aspects of our lives that it is almost impossible for us to live our lives disconnected and keep up with the world around us. I use the internet and technology to order food from the university's restaurants, sign up for the gym at home, order things from Amazon, make appointments, and watch movies and TV.
The Impacts of Tech on Me
I think that overall social media has had both a positive and negative impact on me. I think that in theory, social media is a very good idea. A way for people to stay connected when otherwise never know they exist or lose contact with someone is a great thing. But it has drawbacks, with the biggest problem being privacy. I think that what social media allows me to do is a good enough reason for me to sacrifice my privacy on the app. I know that for my generation we grew up with this technology and there is almost nothing we can do now to get back what we have lost and other apps can track so much more data so a little more can't be much worse. I've known that those sites track what I do to advertise products to me, and that does bother me, it is the society we live in, and we can try to fight it with some type of potential legislation, but right now we have to accept this is our reality.
I also believe a key to a healthy relationship with tech is how we consume it, or how we take the information it gives us. The saying that too much of a good thing is a bad thing rings tru for social media, as we see people take breaks from social media to "recenter" themselves mentally. I've only taken breaks from social media when I had no way of connecting to the sites, and after the first day it did feel good to not constantly wonder about what was happening on there. Technology and social media are an integral part of our society, but it's important to remember that it isn't everything in our society. More and more people are walking around with their head buried in their phones, and as we saw in the animated short, this can lead to an apathetic society only concerned with the digital world.
With the grip that technology holds on our society, I think that anyone with a healthy relationship will have problems with their tech, but there isn't much one can do without getting left behind if they were to quit their tech. After looking back at how technology has been in my life, and how I've come to regard it, I think I do have a healthy relationship with it in terms of how I consume the content and how much access I give it.
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