The Changes Caused By Technology

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The Changes Caused By Technology
The human ways of living have had a notable change due to the advancements in technology. The current way of living is very different from the manner in which people used to live in the traditional days. There were no communication devices, and everything had to be done manually such as writing letters. Konnikova and Restak point out various ways through which technology has resulted in differences in the way people interact with one another, the ability to pay attention and the acceleration of time and place dispersion.
The availability of devices that can access the internet has resulted to a behavioral shift in the manner in which people interact with one another especially the social media. The internet has created a virtual world whereby a person can have a lot of friends but only meets a few. “There is no doubt, Dunbar agrees that networks like Facebook are changing the nature of human interactions” (konnikova 236).The social networks allows a person to keep track of individuals that would otherwise disappear in their lives if it weren't for social media. I have kept in touch with some of my cousins who live abroad for a long period of time through Facebook. The absence of Facebook would mean that I might never see them again. On the other hand, a world without tradition only allowed a person to keep a small circle of friends. In most cases, family members and a few neighbors would be the only people that a person kept in touch with. “Despite the inefficiency of multitasking, the brain is able to deal with more than one thing at a time” (Restak 383). Hence, it becomes possible to maintain both the real world and the virtual friendship. Technology has both positive and negative impacts on people's lives. On the positive side, people keep in touch and are able to help one another regardless of the distance between them. On the negative side, a person might think that they have a lot of people to depend on in times of need only to realize that a few of them showed up. Therefore, through social media, technology has resulted to a group of individuals living on a virtual fantasy when it comes to socialization.
Technology has also led to a change in the ability of the human's brain to pay attention by enabling it to respond to simultaneous stimuli. The human brain responds to the stimuli surrounding it such as cell phones, televisions, computers and the internet. This is evident by the large number of people that a person can have in their social group. “While the group sizes are relatively stable, their composition can be fluid” (Konnikova 236). The composition of such groups depend on the kind of influence that a person gets from their surroundings. Therefore, this means that technology has enhanced the functioning of the brain because, before the invention of technology, the brain would only respond to the human activities around it. An example is the case of crawlers that are made to display other news such as impending threats and the occurrence of a ...