Overuse of Technology Essay -- Technology, Health Risk

Everywhere I turn, I see someone on a cell phone, either talking or texting. Every car next to me in traffic has a GPS on the dashboard, including my own. It seems that everyone needs some help from technology on a daily basis. It both surrounds and intrigues us. Technology can be helpful, fun, and entertaining. Much of technology is created to assist with making projects faster or daily tasks more efficient. However, the collaboration of technologies in our lives has a few negative effects and I think we need to scale back a bit on our use of these much adored technologies. The over-use of technology is creating an impatient society and it is also diminishing once-valued personal interaction with others. More often now days, people would rather let a machine take a message instead of answering a call; missing the opportunity to have a personal conversation. Many of us would rather have the instant gratification of watching a movie instead of reading a book or sending a text or instant message instead of meeting with a friend for coffee and conversation. Therefore, society is becoming increasingly impatient and impersonal with interactions. Those types of behaviors create lonliness in our lives despite our â€Å"constant connection† with others through things like cell phones and Facebook ®. This way of life is also more common with the younger generations within our society. For instance, my sister is eight years younger than me and we had a visit with each other about two months ago. I don’t get to see my sister often; she lives six hundred miles away. When I do get to see her, it is a short visit and I cherish the time we may get to spend together. I have not lived close to my sister in ten years. So, it is disheartening to me th... ... portable so there is no reason not to! Another health risk that technology contributes to is obesity. In the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity. It is not a coincidence that the increase in technology and obesity is happening at the same time. The graph shown from the February 2011 issue of Scientific American Magazine illustrates the increase in obesity from the 1970s. The obesity rate is rising right along with our use of the internet and everything else technological. I must state that I am not against technology as a whole. I love technology! I just feel that we should be aware of the different risks that every new technology comes with and avoid over-exposure. When I start my own family, I will teach my children to be friends with technology; however, they will not be so dependent on technology for entertainment or otherwise.