Everyone knows that in order for a friendships to sprout and to really grow, you must spend time with them. To me spending time with them is harder these days, especially to do so without being interrupted by a text or notification. In fact, most teenagers would think you to be an outlier, of this technology decade, if you asked them to refrain from any technology while hanging out with you.
Now, for the contacting part.
Contacting has improved a lot, but I'm only going to focus on the last
few years. Calls have decreased and texting has increased, and has become a
quite common way to communicate. Texting enables you to catch up with
multiple people at once while maintaining a quiet atmosphere. I also allows you to communicate in environments too loud, or just flat out satisfy
your need to communicate, typically with someone who you simply don't feel like
talking to. In my opinion calls are considered more personal because
they take far more time and effort than texting.Some people value calls higher than texts and vice-versa. Personally, I like texting more than calling. This may just be because I'm part of this "techy" generation, or just because I don't like talking on the phone that much. For all I know the result could be a mix of both.Social media has taken up a lot of time. Back in high school I remember being asked how many hours I spend on media per day and that if you have a smart phone with notifications you had to put down 24 hours. I remember my response quite clearly. Just because our phone is connected doesn't mean you're always on it. I have arrived at the conclusion that you don't have to be on your phone staring at your screen for the "time" to count. Whether its just a fraction of a second to glance at that notification that just came in, or a couple minutes scrolling through any social media. No matter the length, it's still time spent on social media. This time spent on social media is time that could be used to do two different ways.
Social media, can be bad way to spend your time. Some of these other things may, or may not be more productive than
scrolling through social media. For example, seeing what that old friend of yours,
who you couldn't care less about but felt bad denying their friend
request, is doing while having a massive pile of things you need to do. This does none other that delaying the process. How about "just checking," your phone that ends up being several hours? I could sit here and type hundreds of bad situations to be on social media but hey you get the point. After all the large majority of us have already experienced it.
Despite what seems like to be an overwhelming number of bad times to be on social media, it can also be good. For example I use it to stay in touch with friends I no longer go to the same school as. It can be a great was to connect with multiple friends or even your team, with features such as group messages. You can use it to see what your friends are up to without having to get into a long detailed conversation with them.
Social media has had many impacts on society that aren't necessarily bad. Many daily tasks have become easier, thanks to technology. One of the many examples include navigation. The majority use google maps to navigate through or to an unknown area. These are great because on most devices you can change the settings to speak to you as you're driving. This helpful feature provides you with hands-free directions, in contrast to the old-school massively sized paper with small font that's almost impossible to read, especially while driving. As a driver I, like most, prefer as much notice as possible when going somewhere unfamiliar. After the map came GPS, however I prefer google maps as it is much more eye appealing and is available on the majority of internet-connected gadgets.Technology has its share of bad effects, however there are also some pretty significant positives. As time goes on technology will continue to evolve and better benefit us. However, I often wonder how it will negatively impact the world.
