Digital Technology and Its Effects, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Technology is decsribed as the application of scientific knowledge and practices which aim at increasing productivity in aiding human life. It is the combination of various processes and methods used in the provision of various services. Technological advancements have led to more connections in the society than ever. However, advancements in technology have contributed positively to the world. There is some evidence that reveals that technology contributes negatively to certain groups of individuals in society (Nowland  pg 13). This arises majorly when overused. Therefore, the topic mainly concentrates on the introduction of new technologies and its effects.

Description of Problem

The misuse of technology may have a significant influences on nonchildren and teenagers. The introduction of technological devices such as smartphones that supports social media platforms has led to massive psychological and physical issues (Bagot et al.,34). For instances, youths and teenagers cannot concentrate on an important task due to distractions imitated from social media. It has promoted poor eyesight among the users due to too much light emission from the smartphone screen. Adults between the age of 19-32 which tend to use social media are mostly found to be suffering from psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

Another problem associated to the new technology is sleeping problems. Exposure to more light emission of technological devices such as laptops and smartphones during bedtime impacts sleep. Screen light exposures stimulate the brain, which implies that the user will not be able to sleep. This leads to sleep deprivation which is not good for health. A study conducted in the year 2014 reveals that lights emitted from the screen of a technological device are enough to disrupt the normal body functions.

Statement of Background

Digital technologies have drastically changed how various processes are being run in the world. Technology has contributed majorly to the development of the world. It has made life easier since the society provides the advancements in technology with a sense of purpose. However, it is the same techno local advancement that harms the society by bringing in certain unhappiness to various individuals, including teenagers. Jean Twenge, who is a psychology professor at San Diego state university, examined the impact of smartphones and other related screen-based technologies. Jean Twenge’s research acknowledges that unhappiness increases among teenagers from the year 2012 due to the introduction of more smartphones in the American states.

Most people in the world compare themselves using the technological devices. Social media platforms encourage such practices since they consist of the data that the friends, family members, and other peers can easily access. For instances, social media may make some people feel inferior. Posting something on social media and receive no likes and comments may seem undesirable to the person who posted. Aspects of depression and loss of self-esteem arises from such. Therefore, the social media metrics have a problematic issue to a variety of users.

Differences between the real-life and what is displayed in technological devices creates a false impression. It leads to the perception that one has a more interesting life, which increases the likelihood of negative interactions. Such perceptions are not good for our social well-being. Work life balance issues have also arisen with the advancement of technology. Work emails have increased worker availability, which reveals that it’s difficult for most workers to relax and get disengaged from work.

It’s generally accepted that people’s happiness is liked and conditioned by the social situations and relationships. It has been revealed that there is an important relationship between the social situations and the attitude of various persons to their surroundings. The most treasure a person can own is the cultivation of good relationships in the society. Therefore, the technology has led to such more connections of people through the use of devices introduced by the technology. A network of social relationships that involves the use of platforms such as WhatsApp, emails, social networks have created a good relationship in the workplaces. However, it affects the person’s happiness, and it further contributes to integrity and trust in other parties involved.

From a historical viewpoint, the relationships between the technology and the happiness have the main area of study by the social scientist. In his book the progress paradox, Gregg Easterbrook said that even though technology is advancing, nearly all the aspects of western life have improved. Still, it is surprising that the same advancements in the technology has made people unhappy in the previous generations. Sherry Turkle analyzed the relationships between the well-being of people and the prosperity of individuals as stimulated by some positive factors sparked by the technology.

It has been estimated that social media content is being shared with the default setting, revealing that they are unsafe for privacy. The main reason for this is that it is due to third-party biases that occur when social media users know that there is a potential risk of data loss. However, they believe that such risk does not apply to themselves. This, therefore, influences their privacy. Most social media users want to port their privacy’s when online. However, the perception on the use of free sites with the disclosure of the personal information tends to be more dangerous than the perceived risk.

Criminals and hackers who want to reach an individual using the social media platforms may prefer to use the family for online hacking of data and online abuse harassments. Therefore, the platforms may allow an individual to encrypt their personal information by providing more privacy options. More privacy options enable the user of certain networks to create strong passwords, thus preventing any personal information’s unsafety.

Digital Technology

Internet and social media platforms enable women to look for images on how they wanted to be. They allow them to look for exercise, diets and other advises which is similar to those of friends and their celebrities. Social media platforms never create problems in women’s, but instead, they intensify the existing problems. For instance, a woman will feel that she is not satisfied by his body, therefore, initiating constants surveillance of the body. Such aspects arising from others’ comparison lead to negative and disordered thoughts, which has serious effects on eating habits. There is a huge difference between eating disorders and disordered eating that is significant in relation to this research. Social media hasan impact on overall body image concerns and anxieties, rather than attempting to arguethat social media is the sole cause of clinical eating disorders, which is not entirelythe case.

Body image is described to be a combination of subjective understandings of the body, including a conceptual understanding of the body as well as an emotional attitude toward one’s own body (Rumsey, 26). Negative body image encourages women to engage in disordered eating and obsessive behaviors to fit a certain beauty ideal represented throughout mass media and through their peers both in the physical and online worlds. Women in colleges who are psychologically normal are becoming more interested in caloric restrictions and more exercises, which reveals that they are different agents at work (Hesse-Bibber, Cult of Thinness, 156).

Is the pleasure of the body appearances considered normal and standard in society as a whole? It is especially prevalent in young women in their early adulthood as they attempt to form their identities (Rumsey 455). It is common for women in this demographic to experience negative body image issues and self-esteem fluctuations regarding physical appearance. Therefore, it is also more common for females in this age group to experience disordered thoughts as a result of those insecurities.

Social media helps shape the women’s beauty ideals by showing certain body sizes as beautiful and desirable (Rumsey 217). Now, it can perpetuate images through a variety of distribution vehicles and can more easily set the cultural standard for appearance in society. In today’s world, women can browse on the social media platforms to look for the shape of the body they are desirable with. Two authors, Vickie Rutledge Shields and Dawn Heineken, in their book, Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image, looked at how mass media, specifically advertising, impacts how women feel about their bodies.

The term troll and trolling have an uncertain origin, and the time when it was taken into use is obscure. A common view among scientific articles is that the use of the term trolling, originated from the fishing practices regarding the use of the internet. Trolling has often been compared or linked to cyberbullying, especially in the media and this conflation of terms creates a problem for understanding what is meant by trolling. Trolling and cyberbullying do share some aspects, such as being forms of cyberharassment. They are influenced by anonymity, and online disinhibition

Warrants need to differentiate between trolling from other antisocial behaviors that are run online, such as cyberbullying. Trolls target strangers anonymously and are rarely personally invested in what they say, unlike in cyberbullying. The perpetrators are in very many ocassions known to the victims in real life, making trolling different from cyberbullying. However, the use of trolling as a term is also dependent on culture and can appear differently in other countries.

Trolls that create complexities on the internet are often seen, but because of the protection that the encryptions provide them, they are not known unless they are caught or reveal themselves. The majority of trolls remain unknown, and only a small number of them are exposed. Studies so far have suggested trolls as being born by having predisposing personality and biological traits to trolling. It is impossible to verify precise demographics, because trolls do not reveal information that could lead to identifying them, and they can pose as being different gender.

Considering the gender of trolls, it is mostly said to consist mainly of male participants partly because men have historically been more involved in negative behaviors online. Men’s are rank higher in overall internet use and in antisocial behaviors online. Studies have revealed out that men were engaging in trolling more than women while doing her research on trolls, only encountered a mere handful of female trolls, supporting the view of trolling being a heavily male-dominated activity. Social online spaces have, according to been historically more masculine, and to participate in them has required to perform masculinity, thus strengthening the masculine ideology.

Attention has often been considered as one of the main reasons for trolling, both in media and academic studies. Trolling being entertaining to trolls is another more widely expressed reason to troll. The primary objective for trolls is not to hurt their victims but rather just have fun at their expense. Trolling is a response to feeling threatened when the white, straight, and masculine internet spaces are challenged by diversity.

Even though computer-mediated communications provide many benefits, it is also accompanied by negative aspects such as disinhibition, dehumanization, reduced ability to interpret intentions, etc., as well as the negative effects brought by anonymity. The Internet provides people a way to find online spaces and people that match their interests, even if the interests are of a small niche. Antisocial people can also connect with like-minded people and find ways to express themselves anonymously.

Online spaces that do not require showing identifying information are often said to be more attractive to trolls. However, studies have also pointed that anonymity itself does not always lead to deindividuation. Even when there is no requirement to use their real names, members of an online community were treating each other as individuals with unique personalities. This shows that interactions are not truly considered anonymous even when there is no identifying information available.

Conclusion

People who experienced a drop in life satisfaction think they should search actively for a job. Thus, they report doing so, but in reality, they do not change their search behavior because that in itself generates dissatisfaction. And there might be a difference in dissatisfaction related to being unemployed and dissatisfaction related to active job search. There is a difference between life satisfaction measured as a general feeling and momentary satisfaction related to specific activities. Employed workers are more satisfied with their life and with various specific activities than unemployed workers. Nevertheless, since unemployed workers have more time to spend on activities that generate a higher satisfaction when weighting overall activities, there is no difference in total life satisfaction. Individuals are unhappy because they are unemployed, but on the other hand, they are happy to spend their time in more satisfactory activities. When considering life satisfaction, individuals have a different reference framework than when they consider specific activities. Unemployed people consider being employed as a desirable state, but they do not value the activities that would sufficiently speed up the transition to this state. Job search is among the activities which are not very popular.

Work Cited

Bagot, K. S., et al. “Current, future and potential use of mobile and wearable technologies and social media data in the ABCD study to increase understanding of contributors to child health.” Developmental cognitive neuroscience 32 (2018): 121-129.

Gailey, Jeannine A., and Hannele Harjunen. “A cross-cultural examination of fat women’s experiences: Stigma and gender in North American and Finnish culture.” Feminism & Psychology 29.3 (2019): 374-390.

Lewis?Smith, Helena, et al. “Efficacy of psychosocial and physical activity?based interventions to improve body image among women treated for breast cancer: A systematic review.” Psycho?Oncology 27.12 (2018): 2687-2699.

Nowland, Rebecca, Elizabeth A. Neck, and John T. Cacioppo. “Loneliness and social internet use: pathways to reconnection in a digital world?.” Perspectives on Psychological Science 13.1 (2018): 70-87.