Technology has become such a big part of our everyday lives. Most of us tend to use it in almost everything we do. Marshall McLuhan explains that every time a new technology comes out, we immediately focus on how it can benefit us as individuals. We tend to look past how these technologies really affect our culture as a whole since we are usually more focused on how these technologies can benefit us at that moment.
With this, we as a society are overlooking the bigger picture of technology and its influence on the world. Our sources of information and research mainly come from different uses of technology.
So, how can we be so sure that technology is changing our society for the better?
Cultural Reset
When technology was born into our world, our culture as we knew it was reset. Instead of relying on things like newspapers and television, we started relying on social media for information and updates about the world. To many, this seemed “convenient” and “easy.” With this, it became more “convenient” and “easier” to spread false or opinionated information to the public. As a result of this, divisions in our country have been created and false information is spread daily. We are more divided now than ever since technology has continued to become more biased and opinionated to the public.
Technology is also always taking the information of its users to create biased news articles based on user interests. Since technology is widely popular among young teens, this shift is affecting them the most. Their minds are not fully developed and they are constantly being fed lies and opinions on the internet. This is because social media is all they know in regard to receiving news and information. As stated by Chris Gilliard, “When it comes to getting news content, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and native apps like the Apple news app are currently the most common places where the teens and young adults in our focus groups encounter news.”
This in itself greatly affects our culture since social media forces us to believe information that may not be true and relevant. It creates a sense of diversity and gets rid of the idea of unity within our society. Even though technology may seem “convenient” and “easy” to use, that doesn’t necessarily make it a “good” component of our world today.
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