Book plane tickets? Order a pizza for dinner? Buying clothes? Chances are that you use a smartphone (or a laptop or desktop or smartwatch) for this. In a society that is always online – where we have mini-computers in our pockets at all times that are able to solve almost any problem or desire with a tap, pinch or click – we don't seem to fit the growing role can escape that computer technologies play into our lives. But is this “new normal” all that normal when it comes to your health? Our online life affects our lives in different ways:
Health
Once, when someone was angry with you, they had to express those emotions face-to-face by yelling or gesturing, or by writing down and writing a letter. But in today's “always online” society, we are constantly bombarded with negativity on email and social media. The problem? On the receiving end of constant anger, stress or other negativity, toxic neurochemical reactions trigger in the body. In addition, employees also spend time at home managing email. It makes sense for some people in certain occupations to be on call outside normal business hours, but not for most people – and the stress of having to expect to work around the clock can wear you out.
Relationships
One of the conveniences of terminals is the ability to tap a screen and demand answers to almost anything – math equations, movie options, the meaning of life – in an instant. However, the instant gratification that comes with summoning a machine's response with every keystroke—sometimes giving us an answer before we've even completed the question—can lead us to unrealistically expect people to fulfill our desires just as quickly in real life. give attention.
Empathy
Face-to-face interaction contains a number of non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, gestures and eye contact, but online you are reduced to one medium language. That makes real communication difficult. Only in personal communication can we experience the full humanity of another. Empathy usually disappears at the terminal, where we find it easier to quickly humiliate, ignore, or shame someone else.
Take, for example, the historical medium of letter writing. Putting pen to paper usually involves taking the time to think, clarify thoughts, and practice “role playing” (examining thoughts from the reader's point of view) with the expectation that a letter will be boxed and treasured for years. will be. Email communication degrades all that.
Loneliness
Online shopping and texting means you never have to interact face-to-face with other people. And even group activities, such as attending a concert but recording on a small phone screen while watching, can be marred by technology. Our ability to broadcast every passing thought, desire or emotion to hundreds of scattered individuals is unique in human history and human psychology, yet research shows that at no time in our history have so many people reported being lonely.
One of the problems is that the online environment creates invisibility and anonymity, which lends itself to antisocial behaviour. Another is that while the terminal allows us to communicate with anyone, anytime, the communication it allows is so limited and restrictive. That makes it very difficult to develop an authentic relationship with someone else online. So we communicate more, but we've never felt so lonely.
Privacy
The Internet was originally invented with the intention of exchanging information faster over great distances. Years ago, booking airline tickets, finding a place on a map, or buying music were anonymous activities that left no trace. Because we do these simple activities online, they inevitably leave traces that create a digital profile/shadow. As the saying goes, “on Google you are what you click. You are what you want on Facebook. Algorithms calculate with increasing precision what you are doing, where you are going, how long, what you want, how to get your attention, what makes you sad and how to trigger your pleasure or anger. Cookies, spyware and hidden terms of service can be a recipe for disaster when it comes to your data privacy.
Loss of skills
Back in the day, cards, calculators, cameras and telephones all had their own specific storage place in the house and each required different skills or knowledge to operate them. Today, you carry all of these devices as a single item in your pocket, allowing you to tap or click to perform many different activities.
But would you remember or would your young children even know what to do if they were lost on a dirt road with no cell service and only a map to find the way home? There is evidence that reliance on terminals has caused previous skills to languish. The fewer skills we develop to perform everyday functions, the more we rely on the terminal. And the more we use the terminal, the less proficient we become. It's a vicious circle.
