Dependence On Technology Helps Connect Or Makes Us Alone

In today's society, people are seen using some sort of technology all day, every day, at any time and at any place. From walking down the street to a regular day in school, and even at the dinner table surrounded by their family technology is always with you. But, does technology help connect or isolate you? Honestly, technology has helped connect individuals more as a society than isolate us. From things such as Messaging and Calling, Social Media, Entertainment, and Translation through languages, technology has brought society together.

First and foremost, Messaging and Calling can connect individuals from across the globe, it allows people all over the world to interact, communicate, and bond easily and freely. Messaging allows for communication when and where it’s convenient and does not require instant back and forth like verbal communication. When there is a distance between two or more people messaging is very important because it brings those people together like they are in person. According to Andreas Bernström from The Huffington Post “Thanks to advancements in VoIP and over-the-top (OTT) messaging and services, there are now many more ways for family members to stay in touch aside from a traditional phone call.” (par.12) That way messaging and calling is free and easy for anyone's use.

Secondly, Social Media brings can bring individuals together. For a variety of reasons, social media brings people together. Mostly, it let us connect with those people, whom we lost contact over many years and also helps us to find a good job opportunity. Social media has become one of the most essential parts of communication. Social media has become a tool of social interaction and brought us closer together as a community by increasing our communication with each other and reducing the gap between us and people who are far away. It has replaced our older communication tools such as letters, telephone, etc. with the fastest chats, video chats, and calls.

New relationships are being created almost every day on social media. Many people meet online, plenty of people have friends that they met through social media that they communicate with and have gotten to know, this would've been near impossible without social media. Also, thanks to social media, people are able to understand other people's different points of view, their struggles, and what they value. It is also easier to make friends online than in person because the interaction could be at any time and anywhere. For example, If someone travels away from home they may have a feeling of being alone especially if they don't know anyone attending that college, Instead of making friends in person when they get to the campus they could’ve developed a friendship with them through social media.

Through social media individuals can reconnect with old friends or classmates, they can even communicate with new people with similar thoughts and interests and can share their views. Using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, brings people closer when they can’t always physically see each other. Texting someone through Facebook or any other social media tools allows them to be in touch with anyone anywhere across the globe, at any point in time. People can now reach somebody and make visual interact no matter how far they are from us.

The next way technology connects society is through Entertainment. Simple things such as video games could help develop a friendship between two people many miles apart. Entertainment is a key part of most people's everyday life, and it can improve some people's lives if they are going through something. For example, As college students travel away from home they may have a feeling of being alone especially if they don't know anyone attending that college, so they might seek communication through technology instead of communicating in person. According to Vinay Prajapati from Techprevue, “Because of new technology that allows communication and connection between people in the gaming world especially, gamers now have an enormous social support group that they can belong to almost immediately. And for better or worse, virtual friends can be just as valuable as physical ones!”(par. 5) Since developing friendships online is much easier individuals tend to look for friends there instead. More than half of teens have made new friends online, and a third of them 36% say they met new friends while playing video games.

Last but not least technology connects us is by translation through languages. The world is a collection of people from different races, religions, and backgrounds. But a common language and or culture is what brings us together to form our community. According to Eric Miller from The Phoenix Business Journal “If we want to build relationships across borders and cultures, we need to remove the fact that we simply can’t communicate with people who do not speak a common language.”(par.6) Since there is a language barrier it is harder for an average person to communicate with someone else who speaks a different language. Translation services can allow these groups to get to know each other, to build empathy and understanding.

To conclude, Technology has helped connect individuals more as a society than isolate us. In today's society, people are seen using some sort of technology all day, every day, at any time and at any place. From things such as Messaging and Calling, Social Media, Entertainment, and Translation through languages, technology has brought society together.