Final Post

     For as long as I can remember technology has always been a part of my life and has brought me a lot of joy over the years. More specifically, I spent a lot of my childhood playing video games with my friends and family.

    When I was younger my relationship with technology was unhealthy but not terribly unhealthy, I would spend more time watching television or playing video games than I would being outside. That's not to say I was a hermit or anything, but I preferred to spend my time inside.

    Technology most definitely consumed more of my time than it should have while growing up. I missed out on a lot of great moments because I chose to stay inside and play games. Having said that, my relationship with technology has gotten significantly healthier as time has gone one.

   Today, I spend significantly less amount of time on the internet and on technological devices as I noticed over time that it was taking a toll on my mental health. What made me notice this was during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. 

    There was an incident with then New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees around the topic of kneeling for the national anthem. He had stated that he would never kneel for the anthem because he views it to be disrespectful, in return led to him receiving a lot of backlash on the internet.

    This was when I was first subjected to the kind of terrible things in store because of technology, you can't even let people express their beliefs without people attacking them. I have found that in today's world if one does not agree with everything you have to say they will begin to lash out at you.

    Realizing this two years ago was honestly the best thing for me because ever since then I have deleted twitter and Facebook. Now I do not spend much time on Instagram or any other social media for that matter. If I find that I am spending too much time on these apps I will delete them for some time and focus on other real world problems.

    The older I have become the more it has occurred to me just how negative of an impact technology can have on people. However, that does not mean everything about technology is negative there are still many positives that come from technology. 

    A lot of the information that I have learned over the years has come from the internet and I am grateful for the fact that in a second information can be brought to me. That does not mean that everything on the internet is truthful, which unfortunately a lot of people do not seem to realize.

    I am grateful for the fact that I was able to prevent technology and social media from taking over my life, hopefully other people being to see that technology can do more harm than good. If they do not the world may quickly turn into something similar to the "Tears For Fears" video we watched in class where everyone is so engrossed in their phones that they lose out on everything going on around them.

    Unfortunately for many, technology has become a major part of our everyday lives which makes it difficult to use only in moderation. I believe it is important to learn to be able to do so as the real world has a lot to offer and, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.