Final Blog Post

 When thinking about technology, it is hard to quantify the effect that it had on me. I think it is far to say that it has helped as well as hurt. Technology is a great tool. I use it to do everything from schoolwork to working at a job. Pretty much anything you could think of to do nowadays, it involves the internet in some way. We use our computers for almost every aspect of school now, taking notes in Word and or finals online through Blackboard. It means that we have access to our work at all times and can collaborate with others even if we are not in the same place, through Google Drive. It is a source of entertainment. You can download hundreds of games onto your phone or watch hours of Netflix. But there are also huge downsides to technology. It is proven to be addictive. It can mean an invasion of your privacy. With your information being in he cloud, it could be lost from you forever if something goes wrong. For these reasons, I do not think my relationship with technology is healthy. I think I have become too reliant on it for every day tasks. I think I spend too much time around technology, especially social media. The question of "what is your relationship with technology?" may seem simple to answer at first, but is in fact complex and requires more than a five second thought to satisfy the question. Technology in and of itself seems simple because I grew up with it and it has always been there in the background. However, that is not the case. We are moving towards an increasing digitalized and tech filled world. 

This can be seen as I grew up with the evolving technology. When I was in elementary school, all we had were computers. We would use the school computers to play Poptropica in the library and I remember after school we would fight over who got to play since there were only 5 computers. It was a competition to see who could complete all the quests first and go to the next island. I also had a Nook that I used for reading and playing mobile games. I could go online but it was only really useful for things like email or looking up information. It was not until middle school that I saved up money and got an iPod, and then had full access to the internet. I was able to instantly message my friends through Kik, and not wait on their email to load. Through apps like Kik and iFunny, I talked to people from all over, even in different countries. iFunny was a place for everything. I specifically remember watching full length movies such as Lucy, spending hours watching films for free. Now that I had my iPod, I was able to get social media. I begged my parents and they finally let me make an account on Instagram when I was in 7th grade. I posted all the time, completely random stuff from screenshots of text threads I thought were funny (they weren't) to videos from every event I went to. I tagged my posts with the location often, which looking back was actually kind of dangerous. My account was private but there were still people I did not know well following me. This was back when Instagram still had the map feature, in which you could tag your exact location. This meant someone could go onto my map and find out where I was at each post, down to the exact street, store, or what have you. Once I got into high school, I switched to other social media apps. Mainly I used Snapchat to talk with my friends, but I would still check Instagram a minimum of twice a day to see what people were up to. I had my phone with me almost constantly. I was that person who looked at their phone every time they got a text, regardless of what I was in the middle of doing at the moment. Now that I am in college I have tried to lessen my dependence on my phone. 

In some ways, this has worked. I have not posted on Instagram as much and only have 5 posts currently since I archived a lot of the older ones from middle and high school, keeping only the ones that had some sort of sentimental or other value. I put a 10 minute time limit on using Instagram and Twitter. This keeps me from checking it too often, but I still find myself checking on Instagram more than that, for around 30 minutes to an hour each day. I keep my phone away from me when I really need to get something done, otherwise I will constantly be aware of it when someone texts me and answer the next minute. Sometimes this frustrates me because I feel like I am being ignored. I can answer my friends within an hour unless I am sleeping, even when I am in class or doing homework, so it is hard for me to understand sometimes how they can leave me on delivered for 6 hours. Generally this helps me focus on my work better. I also feel like Tiktok has replaced all other social media for my attention now. I downloaded it around the start of the pandemic since all my friends had it, thinking that I would get bored and delete it a few weeks down the road. That turned out not to be true. I spend more time on Tiktok than any other app. Each day I probably spend about 3 hours watching videos, if not more. I find myself losing track of time because I do not realize just how much time I have been on the app. I think part of this is because of Tiktok's format. Videos can be anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. It is short enough to hold your attention and if you do not like what you are watching, it is easy to simply scroll to the next video. While they have videos notifying you that you have been on the app for a while, it is just as easy to scroll past that too. I would say this has negatively affected me and my ability to do work, as I can not just do it all in one sitting like I might would have in the past. 

Apps like Snapchat, Google Maps, or even Ubereats have access to your location at all times, generally unless you tell them not to. It is automatic, and you have to opt out of this feature rather than opting in. Similarly, websites will make you opt out of cookies instead of you enabling them. These cookies track your activity on the website and beyond, allowing companies to target ads to you with your personal information. With the invention of social media, it is easy to find out information about someone. Depending on how unique your name is, you can have a big or small online presence. When I googled myself, I found that I had a small online presence, which suprised me a bit because my middle name is a family name and thus not very common. Someone could not find out very much information about me as all my social media accounts are private. However, I was shocked that the very first thing that came up was my FULL address on a voting record site. It was also inaccurate, as it said I was 21 and had a drivers liscense when that is not in fact true. This does not seem safe to me since anyone could find it.  There is little other information about me online. Most of what comes up is stuff related to my mom since my middle name is her first name, or about the flower she is named after. However this also means an employer would not find out information they might want to know if they are looking for me and could affect future jobs since my LinkedIn does not show up. 

My parents know more things about technology than I do sometimes. For example, my dad knows how to deal with various computer problems but not social media. My dad did not have an Instagram account until around my junior or senior year of high school. I remember sitting on the couch making it for him as he did not know how social media worked but wanted to keep up with what I was doing on Instagram while I was in college. My mom also has Instagram, but she does not go on it as much as my dad. Every time I go home she complains about my "disappearing posts" (Instagram stories) as my dad will see them and tell her about them, but since it is only up for 24 hours sometimes she does not see it herself. Since I have joined a sorority I have found myself using the story feature of Instagram more to post the graphics they give us for various philanthropy events. I also use it to post about things like a friends birthday, that they may only want to see for that day. 

Throughout this post, it has made me realize just how much we are relying on technology. When I read a book, I do it on my phone. When I watch a tv show or movie, I do it on my phone. If I want to talk to my friends, I text or call them on my phone. When I do school work, take notes, or take a test; for the most part, it is all done on my computer or iPad. This is a huge change from how things were when I was younger, or even just freshman year! My first year here, the majority of my assignments were printed out. I took all my tests on paper. I took notes in notebooks for each of my classes. In total, I would guesstimate that I had around 200 pages of written notes my freshman year that semester. This semester, I could guesstimate 50 pages of written notes, and that is probably a bit higher than the actual amount. More and more, things are moving online over paper- like this blog! Overall I think technology is a positive thing. It can be very beneficial from every day life to accessibility purposes. I think that technology has more benefits than drawbacks, as long as you are aware of the negative effects of technology and can take steps to prevent that from happening. I think it is important to value technology, but also consider at what cost it may come at.