Technology as a double-edged weapon

We live in a generation that relies heavily on technology and on the Internet. People spend much time online on the Web, whether for work, school or University homework, for fun or just for social networking. So, for this main reason this issue of excessive use of technology and the Internet is a topic of great interest for all of us. That’s why we decided to do our research project related and based on the different types of websites that are of main interest for the people.

First of all, we will start talking a little bit about the technology and the Internet in general. When we look at any dictionary for the definition of technology they define it as: "the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon industry such subjects as arts, engineering, applied science , and pure science ... ", and definitely, that is it.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified writer

Proficient in: Internet

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Over the years, we have seen the evolution of technology. Technology and Global Change describes how technology has shaped society and the environment over the last 200 years.

Technology has led us from the farm to the factory to the internet, and the impacts are now global. The technology is growing so fast. Now you do not need to send a letter by mail and wait days to be received, you just send an email and it will be received immediately. This is an example of how the technology has changed.

This is a very useful tool and certainly our generation relies heavily on her, especially when we talk about the Internet. This has become the everyday use of millions of people around the world of all ages, children, teenagers, adults, and including grandparents. Use of internet has grown a lot since it was introduced in the world. Used for a multiple things either for the workplace, entertainment or informative. The Internet has brought a transformation in many aspects of life. Nowadays one can access the internet easily, from your computer, iPod, iPad, cellphone, etc. It is one of the biggest contributors in making the world into a global village. Now, let's talk specifically about the websites. It is a connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics.

A website is a set of related web pages that contains text, images, video, audio, etc. It is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network. How many different Internet pages exist? Of course, there are hundreds of millions and all for multiple uses. The Internet is a network of computers that offer access and information to people. To use the Internet, you run many different programs depending on the type of information you wish to view. Our specific research, will be evaluating the various and diverse websites that exist and which are the most used by people either in general or between adolescents that spend a lot of time on the internet. We will also be evaluating their uses and why people consider them as important in their use. Also we will be evaluating and comparing some surveys conducted by Internet and other related by ourselves to the issue of websites.

We will be focusing on three specific types of websites: educational use, social networks and websites of enjoyment and entertainment. In May 2012, McAfee conducted an online survey in the United States to determine which were the favorite websites for teenagers. Youth between the ages of 13 and 17 responded to the survey for a total population of 1,004 responses. The results of the top three were as follows: first place was Facebook, then Twitter and in third place, Google+. But these are not the only ones that was mentioned, in the survey also appears Tumblr, 4chan, Pinterest, and Myspace. When we see these findings, these results seemed very peculiar and interesting and that is why we base our investigation on this topic. As we analyzed these results, we though the idea of ​​doing a simple survey to see if the results of the online survey conducted in the United States in May 2012 by McAfee coincided with our friend’s opinion. Thus, we launched an online survey. What we did? Our first step was randomly select 30 people between the ages of 17-21. We conducted the survey with three simple questions.

The first question that we make was based on how many daily hours the adolescents spend on the Internet. This is because we know that nowadays the adolescents spend a lot of time in the internet and we want to found make a survey that support our opinion. In our survey only two people responded that they were on the Internet just between 1 to 2 hours, by other hand, 12 others said that they spent between 3-4 hours and 16 respondents said that they spent more than four hours on the Internet. This first question not only tells us that most of the people spend more than four hours online, but it makes us think that probably many of these young people just have an addiction in spending so much time on the internet daily. We have to be very careful with this and one important thing that we must keep in mind always is that we must establish control and balance in our time. Excessive use in a computer can become dangerous.

It can affect multiple things: even our sight until we get time to rest or to share with family and friends. Inclusive, according to new research, teens that spend an unreasonable amount of time on the Internet could be at increased risk of depression because they are alone in a computer without a social life. This can also be reflected in the body of the young. Both in the United States and Puerto Rico, there is a big problem of obesity in young people. Many of the conditions blamed for obesity in American teenagers also affect Puerto Rico: families that work more and eat fewer meals at home, in some neighborhoods a fear of crime that keeps children indoors, but mainly, due to the excessive time spent by youth in front of the computer. For this reason, is very important to remain that we all need to exercise and eat healthy to maintain a good body and good health and spend less time in the Internet. We can’t spend all the time in the internet.

The second question in our survey was: what is your main reason for using the Internet? And the results were: 17 people said for social and interaction, 10 said for entertainment and only 3 people said for education. This worried us a lot because these results reflect the loss of time on the Internet youth instead of spending time with their studies. That's why we emphasize again the creation of a good balance in our time. The third and final question was: Which is your favorite website? And the results were: Facebook was the favorite for 21 people, Twitter was the favorite to 8 and only one person said Google. Facebook has over one billion active users, more than half of them using Facebook on a mobile device. This social network is considered like an addiction for a lot of people. Internet addictions, especially to social media, have been well documented. And the truth is that we're feeling like we might have a touch of Facebook addiction.

Is this addiction real, though? In China, Taiwan and South Korea "Internet Addiction Disorder" is already accepted as a psychological diagnosis. Facebook and Internet addiction can have damaging effects, such as a decrease in our attention span. In fact, since 2000, our collective attention span has decreased by 40%. Researchers in Norway have published a new psychological scale to measure Facebook addiction, the first of its kind worldwide. They hope that researchers will find the new psychometric tool useful in investigating problem behavior linked to Facebook use. With this research information, we can conclude that Facebook, like many other social networks, are not only an addiction in Puerto Rico and the United States, but is a huge problem worldwide. It's a double-edged sword for sure.

More specifically, we can see that communication and how society operates and interacts is being largely affected by these changes. These advancements in technology possess not only positive, but negative effects on society, and impact how we communicate and operate with one another. Throughout the U. S. , we can see that the advancement in technology has had drastic changes on today’s society, and how we communicate and operate in our daily lives because of the power of the internet, social networking and the creation of Smartphone’s.

Despite this being the youngest advancement, we can see that social networking has had major effects on the way our society communicates today. The simple fact that a person can just pull out their Smartphone, and begin accessing Facebook, a social networking phenomenon that allows people to share all sorts of information, such as pictures, videos, website links, and most notably wall posts, is making life incredibly quick and easy. No longer do people have to call one another to talk to them, but they can just message them on Facebook.

Our society is moving further and further away from face to face talking, and it can even be argued to say phone calls are becoming a thing of the past. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing is extremely debatable, but it seems to have many benefits in today’s world. Furthermore, the fact that life is becoming faster and faster paced exemplifies the benefits of social networking. Facebook is just one of the few large social media groups. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Youtube are all examples that can be used to support the positives of social networking.

These other various social networking sites allow people to communicate through videos, pictures and short little messages. In fact, social networking allows for everyone in the entire world to communicate with one another and share their ideas and talents with the world. An example of this can be seen if a man were serving in the army and was stationed out in Afghanistan or somewhere far away from the U. S. , he could be able to communicate through any of these social networking sites at anytime.

Something as simple as receiving a picture, video or a message can make all the difference in a family’s life. All of this is only possible because of the advancements we have made in technology. Social networking is a double-edged sword having positive and negative effects on society. In fact, people are becoming addicted to social networking, which in turn leads to less productive people among our society. Statistics show that twelve percent of social media users have to check their social networking site at least once every couple of hours (Dyer).

Social networking is becoming habit forming and a constant worry of the everyday user. This shows that social networking, despite its many beneficial effects can negatively affect our society, how we operate and what matters to us. Social networking is a powerful tool in our society, allowing people from all around the world to communicate with one another, share all types of media and can even make changes on grand scale, such as in the middle east and the U. S. , but it also has the potential to cause problems, such as being less productive and an overall decrease in the private life.

Although, the Internet allows for people to find and post information, many people run into skewed or just false information. In many cases, it can be hard to distinguish whether something is true or not if it is posted on the Internet. For example, the website Wikipedia, which is an extremely popular and useful tool, but is extremely controversial because of its lack of credibility among the professional world. Wikipedia contains information on just about anything someone can want to think of, but because many people can edit their articles, it is considered unreliable or discreditable.

Many students in our society struggle to find other ways of find information that doesn’t come from the internet, Furthermore, it can be said that our society has become dependent on the internet, and without the internet life wouldn’t be as quick and easy as it is now. Not only has the Internet affected our society’s way of obtaining information, but it has also changed we communicate. With the Internet people can instantly message each other, voice call or even video chat with one another anytime and anywhere.

The effects that the Internet has on communication within our society are positive and negative. With the Internet one can keep in touch with people everywhere, but our society is becoming less and less used to direct communication. This isn’t a positive effect and as the Internet continues to become more and more of a natural part of society, it will only get worse. Face to face communication is important because it is a valuable skill, as well as a beneficial contributor to the human psyche.

A study completed by George Mason University shows that communicating in person leads to more trust and understanding with one another, where as online communication is driving our society into a deeper divide (Luscombe). Furthermore, people need to communicate with one another directly in order to live a healthy lifestyle and be empathetic towards one another. Our society needs to find a balance between communicating virtually and in person, in order to maintain our humanity. Consequently, the Internet is continuing to shape our society, and is affecting it in many drastic ways.

Having a dependency on the Internet isn’t good, nor is losing the comfort and benefits of direct communication, but the Internet isn’t going anywhere, and society will continue to adapt and change as the Internet grows larger and becomes more of a natural part of society. Finally, the Smartphone can be discussed, which is the most constantly changing technological advancement of the three, but it is the advancement with the larges effects on society. Smartphone’s have only been around about six years, but they are becoming the norm in our society and are extremely powerful tools that are affecting the way our society communicates and perates.

For example, with a Smartphone people are capable of using the internet, social networking, texting, video and phone calls, as well the use of apps, which are designed programs for Smartphone’s, these included ITunes, web browsers, games, and the list goes on. With all of these capabilities, the Smartphone has many positive and negative effects on society, someone who has a Smartphone can communicate with people in just about anyway, and they have the ability to do so instantly in the palm of their hands. Furthermore, Smartphone’s are making daily life move at incredibly faster and more efficient ways.

With this, many people get lost in these devices and the masses seem to always be looking down into these powerful tools. Everyday people walk around with Smartphone’s in hand, not paying any attention to what is happening around them. This alone is causing our generation and future generations to veer from direct communication and awareness of the world around them. Although, Smartphone’s are causing a problem in the way our society is functioning in a social aspect; it does provide benefits to everyone who partakes in using Smartphone’s.

With the power of a Smartphone, a working student or adult can be able to keep track of and do just about all their work needs, as well as recreational activities. Studies show that eighty percent of the world’s phone users are using Smartphone’s, which is an amazing amount of Smartphone’s (Singh). So many people have switched to using Smartphone’s because of the ease they present to daily life. Because of this fact, Smartphone’s are changing the future and how society will operate.

Bank accounts, shopping, web surfing, video watching, news articles and so many more types of tasks can be completed on a Smartphone and the simple fact that it is just a phone is incredible. In order to keep with pace life is moving at, the Smartphone almost seems necessary to function in our changing society. All in all, the Smartphone is a device that is not going away, and despite its few negatives, the benefits are just too powerful to lose. As a result, the major advancements in technology over the past few decades is having profound effects, of both negative and positive manner, on the way our society is communicating and operating.

From the effects social networking, the Internet and Smartphone’s are having such as changing how our society is communicating and what is becoming the norm; to how and what people’s daily lives revolve around to accomplish their daily needs. Consequently, all of these advancements bear with them negative side effects on society. For this reason, many people strongly dislike these technologies and the power they possess and what they are doing to society, nor can they see the benefits. Despite all this, there are vast majorities of people that can accept the fact these advancements are necessary for society to move forward.

That is why we must be careful. This does not mean that all social networks are bad or should not exist. Only we want to create awareness among people and be realistic. Today we all have access to technology, the Internet and multiple websites, but we only want to emphasize that we must be careful not to fall into addiction. All this can be a great resource and a great help to our education, academic preparation, in the work, and to socialize, so let’s make our own balance in the use of them. Besides the Internet, there are many books that can be of great help. All resources are always there. It is in us to use them as an advantage and not allow them to become our double-edged weapon.