By Philip Yiga | July 5, 2018

Today, technology has become part of our daily lives and the time we spend interacting with our personal-devices is only increasing since we feel the need to stay connected at all times. Additionally, today it’s nearly impossible to prevent children from interacting with technology and this is greatly impacting their behavior. Although technology has a lot of negative effects on our behavior today, it also has some great positive-effects on behavior if used in the right way. So, below are some of the effects of technology on behavior today;

 

Effects of Technology on Behavior:

1. Decreased critical-thinking: Studies have shown that the increased use of technology has decreased the proportion of daily reading and attention amongst people. Additionally, many blocks of text encountered on digital devices are written in less than 140-characters and this actually hinders children critical-thinking or expansion of thoughts. However, critical thinking can be encouraged by simply setting aside time for reading without any digital-devices daily. On top of that, Critical thinking can also be developed through conversation expansion by referencing to past experiences or things you read in favorite books.

 

2. Ability to identify key information in hidden-characters: Studies have shown that increased use of technology today has greatly increased our ability to identify key-information buried within a cluster of characters and visual-stimuli (advertisements).

 

3. Decreased Attention and Imagination: With the increased use of various technologies today, people are often more distracted and less likely to focus on something else when it is present. Additionally, technology provides a great deal of visual-stimuli and reduces reading-skills which actually impact a child’s development of imagination. However, this can be counteracted by giving children an opportunity to explore old-fashioned imaginative play and even let their imaginations run wild in storybooks.

 

4. Technology is a great communication-tool: The internet is being used to communicate with family and friends today which has greatly improved on the way we communicate today. In fact, some people are using the internet to publish information in-order to reach a larger audience than never before. This has greatly improved on the way people share and access information today.

 

5. Decreased privacy and safety: Although technology has increased on levels of connectedness today, we must also consider the effects that social media can have on children behavior as well as their privacy and safety. In fact, it’s very important to know what activities your children are exploring online and also create an open relationship where children can discuss things concerning behavior that they come across online. This is very important because children today often get exposed to various degrees of bullying online which can have lasting impacts on their social and emotional development.

 

6. Technology is addictive: Studies show that Americans spend approximately 23% of their online time on social media networks and the number is rising daily. In fact, for most people it’s extremely difficult to ignore the impulse of checking on their Smartphones for a new update or an incoming text message. Lastly, some experts believe that soon social media will dominate face-to-face interaction leading to decreased relationship quality and serious issues like Cyberbullying.

 

7. Technology is pushing people to become impersonal: Today, technology is pushing the society to become increasingly impersonal thus causing people to spend less time having face-to-face interaction. This is mainly because the society is relying more and more on text messaging, video chatting and social media sites as means of communication. In fact, most people today can forego face-to-face conversation in favor of digital communication because it encourages more brevity and openness. This actually makes technology a valuable asset to people who have trouble having face-to-face interaction with others.

 

8. It eliminates boredom and loneliness: Social media sites create an illusion of companionship and even helps people develop proper social skills. However, in technology is used in the wrong way then it will increase of depression and loneliness by detaching people further from the real society.

 

9. Technology influences our relationships with families and friends: Although technology has greatly changed the way we interact with our loved ones, it can also destroy relationships and trust. In fact, today people have actually jumped out of a marriage and filed for divorce because of new romantic-lover online. On the other hand, things like online games and pornography are equally distracting healthy relationships because people tend to spend hours in front of their computer screen and forsake their relationships. However, technology has also opened the doors to happiness for many couples that have found love online.

 

10. Technology saves lives: technology has also helped to save a lot of lives today. For example, a suicidal individual’s life can be saved when someone reports their provoking thoughts and messages.

 

11. Technology makes people oblivious of others around them: Today, people think its okay to text in the middle of dinner and in a meeting or classroom environment which is not actually a good habit. As a result, society is becoming more interdependent on technology than fellow people today.

 

12. Increased Cyber-bullying: Cyber-bullying is one of the fundamental issues arising from increased use of technology. In fact, this involves the use of technology to threaten, defame or harm someone and every year thousands of lives are claimed due to Cyberbullying.