Effects of New Media

The Internet is a research resource of unimaginable proportions. It is a locator of long-lost friends and relatives and makes it much easier to stay in touch with loved ones and friends than anything or any service (e.g., U.S. Postal Service) that came before it. On the negative side, I wonder what it is doing to the attention spans of young Americans who’ve grown up texting and Twittering each other. I had come across an article of a brain researcher who was complaining his daughter’s constant use of e-mail, Twitter and texting, even while in her college library, supposedly studying. He said since he’s studied the brain, he knows she cannot possibly be absorbing the information she’s studying while multitasking as technology has allowed her to do. He fears unknowable consequences down the road for her. Also wireless signals are becoming a very real health hazard. The worst effects are as yet unknown, as they stem from the proliferation of invisible wireless signals that now permeate our environment. We could see a rise in all manner of health complications, increases in certain types of cancer, impaired vision or hearing, and so on, and it could take researchers a long time to pinpoint the genesis. Every time I see someone walking the streets with a Wi-Fi receiver in his or her ear, I shudder to think of the possible consequences.

Computer addiction can have a variety of negative effects on a person. The most immediate are social. The user withdraws from friends and family as he spends more and more time on the computer. Relationships begin to wither as the user stops attending social gatherings, skips meetings with friends and avoids family members to get more computer time. Even when they do interact with their friends, users may become irritable when away from the computer, causing further social harm. Eventually, excessive computer use can take an emotional toll. The user gradually withdraws into an artificial world. Constant computer gaming can cause someone to place more emotional value on events within the game than things happening in their real lives. Excessive viewing of Internet pornography can warp a person’s ideas about sexuality. Someone whose primary friends are screen names in a chat room may have difficulty with face-to-face interpersonal communication. Over the long term, computer addiction can cause physical damage. Using a mouse and keyboard for many hours every day can lead to repetitive stress injuries. Back problems are common among people who spent a lot of time sitting at computer desks. Late-night computer sessions cut into much-needed sleep time. Long-term sleep deprivation causes drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, and depression of the immne system. Someone who spends hours at a computer is obviously not getting any meaningful exercise, so computer addiction can indirectly lead to poor overall physical condition and even obesity.

By now, the arguments are familiar: Facebook is ruining our social relationships; Google is making us dumber; texting is destroying the English language as we know it. We’re facing a crisis, one that could very well corrode the way humans have communicated since we first evolved from apes. What we need, so say these proud Luddites, is to turn our backs on technology and embrace not the keyboard, but the pencil.” While “proud” is not an adjective I would ever use to modify “Luddite,” I do believe that to sweep all criticism of the impact of technology into the closet (as if everything technology produces has a positive impact on human culture and intelligence) is behavior as atavistic as the writer accuses Luddites of displaying. I could fill tomes with the way the Internet and technology generally has enriched my life and the lives of everyone around me. That does not, however, mean it is free from negative side-effects, and those of us who would like to explore them should not be dismissed as Luddites, who were followers of the anti technology pioneer Ned Ludd who was against the industrial revolution. Go read some history instead of Facebooking for once.

Here is much debate as to whether technology is a benefit or a detriment to society, and the same applies to cell phones. Although they serve to facilitate lives on a daily basis, they also have more than a few subversive, undesirable effects. Excessive cell phone usage can lead to addiction, especially in teens, as well as time wasted on compulsive communication with peers via text messages and phone calls. The convenience of mobile phones cannot be denied, but neither can the way they have negatively impacted daily living. Some of the effects can be negated if boundaries are set, such as not answering the phone when running errands so time is used more efficiently. The line between work and personal time has practically been eradicated because the phones enable us to be contacted at any time. People can be inconsiderate when using the phone in public, doing things such as talking during a movie, holding up a line at a store and bumping into others because they aren’t paying attention to where they’re walking. It would seem that cell phones are making people generally ruder and more detached from their environment.

Millions of people worldwide visit the Second Life site; 2.5 million are registered users. Through the online game they explore their fantasies by creating their own “avatar”—a user’s idealized persona that embodies the physique and personality of his or her dreams. Want to be better looking, have more money, live in a mansion, travel to exotic places, have the wedding and honeymoon you felt you never had? Second Life makes all that possible in the virtual world. It costs real money in the real world to play this game, but there may be another expense: the cost to players’ real lives. Some players would rather spend more time online in this virtual world than living their real lives. Imagined lives in a virtual world, where users can make their dreams come true — what could possibly be wrong with that? For some, a lot. The fallout of a fictional virtual life can have far-reaching repercussions for their real lives. Again this helps feed our fantasies and prevents us from normal socializing ad potentially has the ability to make elements of the shell culture even more far reaching.

Technology can change our sense of common purpose. For millions of years, mankind has been used to doing everything for themselves. For a long time peoples’ main concerns were survival. To survive means to go out into the woods or forests and shoot animals for the food which the family needs to eat for the day. People of modern society never think about hunting for food or clothes. Now, it is all brought to people instantly through a new standard of survival. The new standard for survival means making money to go to a mall or supermarket and getting everything a family needs. A family can get food and clothing at these places without ever having to go into a forest or a lake. This thought is ever so frightening. When a person from modern society goes into a supermarket and buys a pound of fish, he or she doesn’t even think of the process that went into the arrival of that piece of fish. He or she didn’t need to go to a lake, all that was needed was to drive to your local supermarket and buy it. No fishing or hunting was necessary. Humans are losing their sense of common purpose. “But what ‘revenge effect’ will this have? The technology- resistance movement begins by pointing out that we are cobbling together virtual communities while our real cities crumble, at least partly because our sense of common purpose has frayed.

The question of progress, what is the relationship between technology and progress? Technology has become a central element in progress and development. The overpowering sense that technology is instrumental in moving cultures forward towards a state of perfection or as frequently stated by Dr. Ben utopia. By this logic it seems that more technology equals progress equals a better way of life. To say that these problems should be simply being considered to be wrong and dismissing them as such is a back step. Working with these problems cultural studies recognize and criticize their power in shaping the role of technology. When working against these problems cultural studies recognize the role of technology can change partially by changing the elements of the debate. Those who have studied culture and technology seem to accept that technology is not neutral, that technology does not cause cultural change and the other way around in a simple way that neither we nor technology is slave or master of the other and does not represent progress. If so then what? There seems to be an obsession with society that seems to insist on theories that challenge current practices and attempt to reshape our behavior.

The mobilization of media devices such as hand phones and music players have resulted in the forming of the so called shell culture. Why this is problem is that it leads to a lack of socialization. But that is just one. Think about it. A very big part of what it means to be human and just one reason as to why we have come so far is the fact that human beings need to interact with their surroundings. When we are in a shell we not only disregard other human beings but we tend to disregard our environment as well. When we plug in to these devices our ability to be observant and see and perceive the world around us becomes limited. We will find ourselves caring less or not at all about the things that go on around us. We will disregard the interesting things that happen around us as we have cut ourselves off from it. Think about it. When was the last time you stopped to appreciate the nature of your surroundings. Did you even notice your environment? No we simplify our lives. No things are not getting complicated. They are being simplified because of technology. We see no significance the things that go on around us. Simple everyday scenes that have inspired songs, stories or the like. It would seem that we are becoming less and less creative and artistic.

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Ever since the Industrial revolution, technology has been changing at a fast pace. People are always wanting a better lifestyle therefore there is always something new arising so humans can cope with their physical environment. One of the most important breakthroughs for technology was the agricultural system. The agricultural system was the basis for the technology of the future. The agricultural system brought on the need for transportation, workers and even, battles over land. The need for transportation brought vehicles into the market. The need for employees brought mechanical robots into society. Battles over land brought on the need for sophisticated weapons. The agricultural system brought on a revolution. The invention of the television brought media and other forms of entertainment into your house with video and audio combined. Before 1950, newspapers and radio were the only ways to bring media or entertainment into the house. Mass production and other job opportunities brought many people from the suburbs and farms into the city. We can now have forms of electricity directed into our houses for heating and light. Humans are more reliant on technology then ever before. All of these technological advances sound great; however, there is a negative effect to all this technology. Technology can serve to actually harm humans rather then help them. Competition between companies or even cities can sometimes make lives for humans even worse. Take for example when a city builds better and more roads to attract tourists. This actually creates more traffic, not less. New inventions such as the personal computer and machines can change our lifestyles.