Has Technology Taken Over the Lives of People and Made Them Addicted

In this day of age, technology has become a part of our lives. From the moment, people awaken from sleep we check our Facebook, e-mails, and reply to unread text messages; all in a matter of seconds. For some people technology has over taken over their lives and do not even know it. Since the days of early television to the digital days of the internet, people have become addicted to technology. Hiding in the virtue world of video games is also addicting.

People need to realize how addicted they are, because it has become a serious problem in society. The television, social media, and video games use to be things people own, but now it owns the people.

The addiction to technology could be compare to drug or food cravings. Having the urge get on your laptop or look at your Facebook. Nowadays when people go sit at a restaurant it is not impossible to notice half a dozen people messing with their cell phones.

At times, two people will be sitting across from another and not be talking, but just on their cell phones. People cannot communicate as they use to, they text each other even if they are in the same room together. Teenagers, especially have this bad habit of not talking face to face to someone, they would rather just text them. Technology has gotten people that they cannot even go on with their daily lives without the use of their cell phones. In a Reuters report, researchers at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to give up of their social media habits for 24 hours.

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They had found out after one day many showed signs of anxiety and the inability to their daily routine of life, without their social media (Siew, 2010).

Back to the early days of television was the beginning of the addiction. Today it seems like every family owns a TV. Their use to be usually just one TV in the house, but now everyone has one in their room. Everybody can just go and watch what they want to watch, instead of watching something as a family. In a story called Television: The Plug-In Drug, author Marie Winn states that “A number of research studies substantiate the assumption that television interferes with family activities and the formation of family relationships” (476). Television also has become a free baby sitter for parents. It is easy to put a child in front of the box while a parent is doing a task or does not wish to be bothered with their child. Doing that for over time will dissolve the communication bond between the child and the parent. Which in the end is not a good thing for the child. If the child needs to know something, he or she will turn to TV or the internet; the parent is partially out of the picture. Now kids can just go to their own room and watch what they want, instead of a “family movie”, it really kills the meaning of “family time”. (NY Times’ Science)

Video games have the ability to take a person away from reality and place them in a virtual world where they can become and do anything that they desire. As technology has evolved, video games have truly become an extension to the real world. It has become a popular pastime among children to adults, but has developed into addiction for some people. People who are addicted begin to lose touch with their true lives; instead, they essentially give all their attention to the virtual world. “Individuals who play games to get away from their lives or to pretend to be other people seem to be those most at-risk for becoming part of a vicious cycle. These gamers avoid their problems by playing games, which in turn interferes with their lives because they’re so busy playing games” said Joe Hilgard (psychcentral). They become addicted, playing for far longer than the norm, suffering from real-world symptoms, even going so far as to neglect their children, unfortunately sometimes leading to the child’s death. Surprisingly enough, Video Game Addiction is not classified as a mental disorder even though there are several clinics available for treating it. Video Game Addiction should be listed as a disorder, as it is clearly a very real addiction.

Technology has changed so much over time it may seem very convenient. However, technology can also lead to addictions as well as other harmful health conditions. Addiction to technology is a serious problem. Social media is so addicting that even a person was to force them self to not do, they may have withdrawn symptoms similar to people addict to drugs. As technology advances, more and more it makes it so people do not have to leave their homes for anything. People are able to work from home, pay their bills from home and even do the grocery shopping from home. This is very bad because when people become so addicted to technology they do not have interact with others, which makes them, become depressed and lonely. Television also a problem, some people use it as a babysitter for their kids. A family commination breaker a family of four for example, each person may just want to go into their own rooms so they can watch what they want, no more family time. Lastly, some hardcore gamers addicts to video games neglect even basic needs such as sleep and food. Studies that have been done on the topic even prove that death has been caused from technology addictions from playing video games. The health conditions that result from technology can be serious and in some cases, even life As long as technology keeps advancing people will keep getting addicted to it. Technology can be a good thing but is it really worth one having to go through withdrawal symptoms? Or is it worth becoming depressed or even dying from it? It is up each to one’s own to figure it out.