How Technology Affects Us

Technology not only transforms societies, but it also changes social interactions and relationships between people. In light of this, discuss how the following technological innovations may have changed social interactions and relationships among people in the United States:
The telephone, the automobile, the television and cell phones. How have computers, the Internet and email affected your own social interactions and relationships? How would life be different if starting tomorrow, you never touched a computer again?

Technology has had a huge affect on our society. Some of the consequences have been positive and some have been negative, but for all I know technology has changed the way we live today. We see and use technology every day, from the moment we wake up to check our e-mails to the moment we go to bed and set our alarm clocks. I think technology has shaped us to be the people we are today. Technology has its pros and cons, its played an important part in the medical field, but it has also made us very lazy and dependent on technology. I think the telephone has had the biggest impact on technology. We use the phone to place orders for merchants, to dial 911 calls, to discuss business deals, and to communicate with friends and family members over seas. The telephone lets people stay in contact with one another even if they’re three thousand miles away. It lets us keep friendships and relationships in contact. The telephone replaced the telegram and mail which often takes weeks and months to reach someone. I think the telephone has had a positive affect on our society. Nothing negative can be said about the telephone. The telephone has brought our society together because it’s easier for us to keep in contact with one another. The cell phone has taken what the telephone can do to another level. The cell phone has accomplished everything the telephone has done, but now we can take our calls everywhere we go. The telephone doesn’t limit our location to where we can have a conversation. It takes us two-seconds to send a simple text message out. We can send a mass text to our group of friends and discuss dinner or movie plans for the night. The cell phone lets us surf the web, send and receive text messages and e-mails, listen to music, watch movies, play games, and some phones even let us video chat, but unlike the telephone the cell phone can be dangerous. People are texting and placing calls while they drive. Fifty percent of young adults between the age of 18-24 are texting while driving and twenty percent of adults are texting while driving. According to National Safety Council 1.6 million crashes each year are caused by drivers who use their phones and text. Its much easier for us to keep in contract with everyone, but I think we rely on our cell phone too much. The cell phone has replaced personal interactions and limits our emotions to text message. The cell phone is a easy distraction, children and teenagers are using their phones in school and are paying less attention in class.We rely too much on our phones to keep in touch that if were to lose our phones I think that everyone would go into panic mode. No one would really know how to face-to-face conversations. The television also has its positives and negatives. The television has become our source for entertainment and marketing. We get our news updates from TV, we watch movies and television series, sports games, and even shopping. Presidential candidates use TV for their political debates and President Obama uses the TV for breaking news. We have weight loss shows, dancing shows, reality TV, and talk shows. We can even plug video games. The television is the fastest and easiest way to get a point across to the nation. Television has also made us extremely lazy. We can sit down with a bag of chips and watch for hours, which can damage our health. Many children are now staying in and watching TV instead of going outside and being physical. Its been reported that children watch to 3-5 hours of TV each day, but there are some educational programs available for children to watch and participate in. We focus more of our time on watching TV than we do interacting with people.