Technology Dependency: Brilliant or a Recipe for Disaster?

We have become so technologically dependent that in the 21st century, we cannot avoid the use of technological devices. Both at school and work, it is a required and expected competency to know how to use electronics, but is our growing dependency on machinery and technology a good thing or a bad thing? In this essay, I will discuss and argue that technology enhances our quality of life, but causes us to lose essential memory skills and could be a serious threat to public health.

Technology improves our standard of living. With a few simple touches, we have access to a world filled with gadgets and practical tools that make life easier for us. For instance, entertainment, communication, data storage, moment capture, guidance, access to knowledge, productivity, and security are all wonderful things that we can get from our phones. (Jones A. & Issroff K. 2016). While there are many advantages to using technology, it could also separate us from the real world, which can potentially cause less interest in real-life problems, like climate change. In short, technology is a great and useful tool that makes life easier, but we cannot allow it to become our entire world.
 
All the information in the entire world is stored in our pockets, not our minds. If you want to know something, you could simply pick up your phone and google it and it makes us lazy. The new generation does not need the ability to memorize information and therefore does not retain as much information as we did in the past. Instead of utilizing unlimited access to knowledge as a tool to enhance our learning ability, technology replaces a crucial part of learning, the skill of retaining information. The process of forgetting because one does not need to remember can in the long-term spiral into the end of civilization.  The more we rely on machines to do different tasks for us, the more knowledge that we used to be dependent on to survive will disappear. If any of the machines that harvest the land, change our tires, transport us around, etc. breaks down, we will be in a difficult and unbearable situation that might lead to catastrophe (Tracy G. 2019). Even though we should not rely completely on the Internet to store all our knowledge, the Internet is the most up-to-date source of information something our minds will never be. To sum it up, the access to unlimited knowledge makes us lazy because we know that everything we need is one click away, and it decreases the important skill of remembering.  
 
Good physical- and mental health is threatened by the increased dependence on technology. Addiction to electronic devices is a serious threat to public health causing obesity, disturbed eating, and a variety of mental illnesses. The applications found on our phones are designed to make us addicted. Cognitive neuroscientists have researched the neurological response to the content on our phones and saw that they all activate the same dopaminergic reward pathways that make us addicted. (Haynes T. 2018). Social media addiction is linked with a sedentary lifestyle and those with extensive use of electronic devices have a significantly greater risk of obesity (Aghasi M. et al. 2020). In addition to social media being a threat to physical health, it also has an impact on mental health. The risk of developing serious mental issues such as anxiety, suicidal thoughts, loneliness, and self-harm is associated with diligent social media users (Memon A. et al. 2018). Social media might also lead to inadequate thoughts of life and appearance. The inadequate standards for appearance lead to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating making it a threat to physical- and mental health (De Vries D. 2019). Despite the negative impacts of social media, it is also a place to share helpful information such as fitness advice and coping mechanisms for mental health, these examples might have a positive effect on those struggling. To recapitulate, phone addiction can cause overweight, disordered eating as well as other mental issues resulting in it being a cause for the worsening of physical and mental health among heavy phone users, but it is also a source of useful health information.   

In the end, technology is a great tool in our every-day-life and makes tasks easier to perform, but if one becomes too dependent on its features it may one day lead to a disaster. Devices are also created in a way that makes the user addicted causing obesity, disordered eating, and a variety of mental illnesses. Taking all into consideration, one can conclude that dependence on technology is a good thing if it happens in moderation. To find the balance between using technology as a tool and becoming an addiction is the difference between dependence being a good or bad thing.