Technology: Bringing Us Together and Keeping Us Apart?

In the last few years - everything has been online. From shopping, to work, to keeping up with family and friends. Even before this time there was talk about the effects on technology usage and how that connectivity attaches to us. The human experience is wired to the ability to connect, so surely being so online would have negative effects right? Not entirely. Especially since the lockdowns from COVID-19, the online world we navigate has become more nuanced than what it was before and originally thought to be. That nuance comes from the context and how people use the technology, it's how you use the technology just not the fact that a person uses it. Using technology to scroll on social media for an hour has a different effect on a person versus spending that hour to video chat and connect with family and friends.

Since the dawn of time, each new technology or 'thing' has received backlash from the general population for it's unknown effects on people, with high focus on that of children or adolescents. Books were once thought of the same way TikTok is today. However, frequent connectivity helps with psychological well-being and sometimes even physical health. Current and new media being created each day can help people create new relationships and strength the ones that they have. Though it is true that being more online could take you away from those connections in-person.

With the creation of new technology and technology applications, it's good to think of the population as a whole, along with those more vulnerable communities, like the elderly who may find technology hard to navigate at first. This population of people have seen more communities shrinking from reasons of those going into retirement or others passing away: new media like Social Networking Sites could be a way for them to stay connected to those friends and family. But by joining later in life, it can be more isolating and frustrating to understand. Layouts and designs can change while usage and motor skills and make it harder and harder to use applications. It's been linked though that in the older communities that more usage on different technologies lead to a higher connection to cognitive functioning, so there's good research into getting the older generations onto social media, besides the push from family and friends to join.

Whether part of the 'old crowd' or a 'digital native' there are both pros and cons to usage of social media and other technology. But focusing more on the why of technology rather than just using it in general could help research in the future really get a good picture of the full benefits and affects.

Resources

1. Armstrong, K. (2020). Technology in Context: The Surprising Social Upsides of Constant Connectivity. Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved from Technology in Context: The Surprising Social Upsides of Constant Connectivity 

2. Fingerman, K., Birditt, K., & Umberson, D. (2020). Use of Technologies for Social Connectedness and Well-Being and as a Tool for Research Data Collection in Older Adults. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Use of Technologies for Social Connectedness and Well-Being and as a Tool for Research Data Collection in Older Adults 

3. Gloria, K. (2020). The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology. Aspen Institute. Retrieved from The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology - The Aspen Institute 

4. Hage, E., van Offenbeek, M., & Boonstra, A. (2020). New rules of engagement: How adaptation to online media changes older adults’ social connectedness. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(2), 182–197. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1093/jcmc/zmz028

5. Media sources: rainbow group | woman on tablet