Final Blog Post

My Relationship with Technology

Have you ever panicked because you couldn’t find your iPhone, felt lost because it died, or bored on a plane without a cellular connection? I can think of many times I personally have felt these feelings. As generations go by technology is becoming more and more relied on. My generation is known as the digital natives because there has never been a time in our lives that we did not have technology accessible to us. Having these tools at our fingertips has changed the way we were raised. At just five years old I had my first cell phone, granted it could only call four numbers and 911 that were preset on the phone, I still had a technological device at such a young age. My digital footprint started there. Although I like to think I do not leave much of a digital footprint this course has proved me otherwise. I am no influencer and post multiple times a day or even every day but since I was 14 I have had practically every form of social media. 

                        Digital Footprint

Digital footprint, think about how many times you look something up or even just open your phone to an app. There are people acknowledging that activity and adjusting your ads and feed to this stuff. Think about posting a Snapchat of you and a friend in a store or restaurant, there is another way you leave a digital footprint. It is quite impossible in this day to not leave a digital footprint but I have done my best to leave a positive digital influence. When looking up my name I was sure I would find more than what I did. I did not find a single image of me through a google search and only my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles came up. This made me very confident and secure in what my digital footprint was showing to others. Through this class, I have learned how important maintaining a clean and appropriate digital footprint is. My footprint reflects who I am, and shows all the people I have in my life and all the fun and adventurous things I am doing.

Healthy vs. Unhealthy

How do you differentiate between a healthy and unhealthy relationship with technology? Is two hours a day on technology day too much for you or is six hours fine. I think everyone has a very different relationship with technology and it truly depends on how you use it. Personally, my relationship with technology is not the healthiest, I wouldn't go as far to say I'm addicted to it but I do think I spend too much time using it in a day. As a college student, if I'm not using my laptop to do work, I'm on my phone on social media. I have been working on it but it is not easy when everyone around me has the same habits. I do think that my time using technology is too high. It is good for me to unplug and just live in the moment often. I try to allot time to my days to put my phone down and sit outside, or enjoy the moment I am in. This helps with my stress of feeling like I need to be doing something on my phone all of the time.

                                                    Family's technological Impact

My family has never been the type to have all the new technology, in fact, we don't even have the newest phones, TVs, and iPads. We have kept up with the trends but having the newest forms was never something we valued. I see it more in my younger sister's generation of having the newest and best, spending the most time on their phones, etc. On the other hand, my dad picks up his phone for almost an hour a day and it does not affect him. He does watch the news though which is another source for him to get his information. My mom works on a computer all day so she does not have a choice but to use technology all day and then still comes home and uses her phone I would say out of our entire family my mom uses and is affected by technology the most.

Technology's Impact

It is pretty easily seen how technology takes us away from everything going on around us, the beautiful sunset on the beach, hanging out with friends, or going out to dinner. There is always technology around. Is it something you worry about your time using technology or do you accept it as the society we live in? I know there are times that I wish I was a teen in my mom's year and all my mom said was to be home when the street lights turn on and they would just enjoy their time without any expectation of social media. I do believe that social media has been crucial and very good at helping information travel and leaves everyone using technology way more informed than before we had technology as accessible. It is a source to get our information around the world very quickly. A downside of this technological era is the misleading information that gets passed around. It is very easy for someone random to post that there was a robbery down the street, when in reality there may not have been. Word gets passed around much quicker and there is less reliability in some people's words.