It should be no surprise to anyone reading this that as a 20-year-old college student, technology and social media are heavily involved in my everyday life. I would say my relationship with it so far has had many ups and downs. As we all know, there are many positives and negatives to the world of social media. Throughout this class, we have talked extensively about how much all forms of media and technology have an effect on the government, news, politics, and the world. In this blog, I want to take a break from addressing the media's effect on the world and take a deep dive into my personal relationship with technology.
Before writing this blog post, I decided to watch multiple videos and read tons of articles describing other people's experiences and feelings in the age of social media. The first video I watched was the 1964 World's Fair in New York — called FUTURAMA Video. This video however slightly accurate, made me laugh. I think it is interesting how people from back then really glamorized technology and a world of internet advances. Although I can't imagine my life now without it, I don't think it is fair to say it always has a positive effect. This is especially captured in the second short film I watched titled Tears For Fears. It shows a darker side to our generation of internet-obsessed individuals, which is very important to talk about.
So how would I describe my relationship with technology, and is it healthy? As I said before throughout my life I have had some ups and downs with technology. I first got an iPhone when I was in the 4th grade. At the time, of course, I was super excited and thought nothing of it. Now looking back on it, I had absolutely no idea of the dangers awaiting me. I immediately downloaded Instagram as the first app on my phone, and it wasn't long before I already was having problems. My first mistake was putting the town I lived in in my bio. I will never forget my mom sitting me down and telling me a friend of hers saw it and texted her to warn her I was putting my personal information out there. So I quickly removed that and learned my lesson. However, I still think now that I was way too young to be online, and at the time it was not healthy for me.
Growing up in a generation where everyone was online is quite strange. From a young age, my main form of communication between my friends and me was through some sort of social media. I actually really regret this now that I am older. I was never pushed enough to go outside and make friends the "old-fashioned way" as some call it. Also, I was vulnerable to the effects of social media influencers and beauty standards while trying to grow into my own young girl at the same time. This was most definitely an unhealthy effect technology had on my life at the time. However, the older I got the more I realized social media and the online world weren't as important as I once thought it was.
Although I am older and much wiser now, I still would say my relationship with technology could definitely be improved. I still unfortunately make the mistake at times of clicking on fake messages or DM's or even clicking "accept all cookies" without having a clue what I'm accepting. This has led me to get my account hacked once, and a fake Instagram page made of me another. But overall, nowadays I think I have a decent balance with technology.
One way I keep a healthy balance with technology is in my relationship. I have been in a relationship for the past four years since I was 16 years old. From the start, we decided we didn't want the extent of our relationship to be defined by technology. Throughout the day, sure we will text here and there and send a few snapchats, but compared to most we really don't. However, at the end of every day, we will call each other for about an hour or so and catch up. We also like to keep our relationship mostly private. Of course, we have posted each other throughout all this time, but we don't feel the need to post about every date we go on or every fun memory we make. I truly feel like these traits in controlling our use of technology between us has really helped our relationship thus far. I would definitely say this is my healthiest relationship with technology.
Another way I feel technology and social media have a positive impact on me is by being able to connect with people from across the world. One of my best friends I met through club volleyball a couple years back, unfortunately, lives in Arizona now. However, with the use of technology, I am still able to easily talk to her every single day. I also can easily keep up with my friends and family back home while I am here at HPU. I also am grateful for the instant access I have to virtually any facts and information I could ever need. Technology has also allowed me to meet new people some I never would have met without it. I definitely think technology has had many positive and healthy benefits to my everyday life.
Overall, like I said, I can't imagine my life without technology. This is mostly because I have never gone without it. However, I am grateful to be born in a generation where we are fortunate to have access to so many things and people so quickly. After writing this, I have brought some parts of my technological relationship that need some work to my attention. Like limiting what information I give out, and being more careful about what I click on. But I have also realized how in some ways I do really good managing my screen time and limiting the control it has on my life. While I have definitely grown tremendously from the 4th grader who was obsessed with her online status, I still hope to continue to grow and live a life using as little technology as possible and never let it control me.
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