Vargas1 Daniela Vargas November 30, 2012 English 1, 8:00- 10:10am D.

Meyers The Over Use of Technology Do you think you can go at least a day without technology? It would be a day without making a call, sending a text, using a social network, or using Google to answer your questions? Imagine how you would communicate with someone if you could not go on a social network, use your smart phones to make calls, send text messages, or find your way to a location? How would you find information if you could not go on Google? It would be very difficult to not be able to keep in touch with the people who are not near us, or to find our way to a location. Yes technology has helped us in many ways, but it also has its negative sides, and has affected us. Many Americans who use technology do not see how technology has harmed us. Technology has hurt us in many ways but sometimes we are so addicted to it, that we do not see it or we do not want to admit that it has affected our relationship with our love ones, our health, and the use of our brains. One of the most important things that technology has affected us has to be the relationship with our loved ones; it has damaged friendships, and most importantly our relationship with our family members. The article How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Social Networking Sites shows a study of how Americans spent 63.5 billion minutes on social networks/blogs. Most of the time Americans spent time talking to their friends through social networking; instead of meeting up with in person, and having a one on one conversation. Even having to go out on a beautiful afternoon to eat lunch with a friend, you most likely find them

Vargas2 busy on their cell phones instead of communicating to each other and enjoying a good afternoon. Social networking is known for building friendship stronger, reuniting and for meeting new people; but meeting new people is one of the most risking and dangerous things in social network cites. Most of the time when your on a social network you upload a new picture, update your status of maybe how your day went, and even put the location of where you were. And it becomes easy to have a stranger having an easy access to you. Accepting people you have never met can be jeopardizing, because you do not know if that person is nice, a rapist, serial killers, etc. The article iacpsocialmedia.org assures that the CITU investigates cases in which the offender uses a computer as the primary instrument to commit a crime (pag4). In many situations, there have been cases of girls/boys being friends with someone they do not know in social networks like Facebook, Myspace, and just to name a few networks. They add a stranger, start talking to them, they later become friends with that stranger, and they decide to meet in person. When the victim gets to meet the stranger, the stranger is not really the person they said they were and in many cases the stranger does terrible things to the victim like rape, killing, etc. Cases like is have been seen on the news, newspaper, and have been made into movies to warn us, like the movie Trust, is a fictionalized account of a true story, the film is about a teenage girl who becomes a victim of sexual abuse when she befriends a man on the Internet. Is a movie to demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of teens make safe choices online and know how to avoid or respond to these kinds of situations. Sadly there are more event in which social networking can be harmful. Social networks have not only been easy for rapist to find a new victim, but it can also be an easy access to scheme or to defraud innocent victim. In the article fbi.gov titled The FBIs Efforts to Combat Cyber Crime on Social Networking Sites Gordon M.Snow says the same technology, to

Vargas3 include the surge in the use of social networking sites over the past two years. Has given cyber thieves and child predators new, highly effective avenues to take advantage of unsuspecting users (parg2). The article also testifies four of the most cyber crimes that are cause by using social networking sites: social engineering, fraud schemes, phishing scams, and data mining. Before technology, families gathered around a fire to talk about a hunt or a new berry patch. The family provided entertainment and information, and communication. Today, people turn to technology to keep them informed and entertained said Donna Eigen. Technology has not only change the way we communicate with our friends, but it has change the way we stay in touch, and the way we connect with our family members. At dinner we spent more time looking at our devices then look at our family members faces; we spend more time typing a text then making a conversation with our relative while we have dinner. The blog psychologytoday.com titled Is Technology Fracturing Your Family? by Gray Small engages that technology is affecting family quality time, before family found dinner relaxing after coming home from, work, school, sports, or finishing homework; dinner was relaxing. Now, dinners turns into arguments telling kids/adolescence to but their devices away (parg3). We can not enjoy a meal with our family member because we want to get to our electronic devices. Gray Small goes by saying Many family members tend to eat quickly and run back to their own computer, video game, cell phone or other digital activity (parg6). It is sad to find people that rather spend time with an object like an iPad, iPod, X- Box, Nintendo than with a human being who is your family member. Technology just causes us to spend less time with our families because we are so busy doing something else like sending an email. The website ehow.com titled How Does Technology Affect Family Communication? supports the idea of how technology has torn family apart by saying dad is on the phone, mom is on the computer, and the kids are watching

Vargas4 their favorite program on TV. And no one is talking to each other. Psychologists are concerned that technology is breaking down family communication, because it steals our attention, and is often an individual pursuit (parg2). Most people assume that teenagers are the one who spend most of their time using technology but adults/parents are as guilty as teenagers/children. The newspaper nytimes.com by Brad Stone titled Breakfast Can Wait. The Days First Stop Is Online talks about a family that would sit together and chat while they had breakfast, and would read the newspaper and maybe watch television; but that was before. According to nytimes.com today, Mr. Gude wakes at around 6 a.m. to check his work e-mail and his Facebook and Twitter accounts. The two boys, Cole and Erik, start each morning with text messages, video games and Facebook (parg2). The article goes on by saying how the wife was the only one complaining that technology was eating into family time, but ultimately even she partially succumbed, cracking open her laptop after breakfast (parg3) The Gudes finally realize the damage technology had done to them so now during the weekends they shut their devices down to increase family time. We should take advantage of each minute and spend it with our love ones, because the video games, the text, the emails can wait. Technology has help us stay connected with the ones we love, with our family, friends; who are far away and we can not drive to see them. It is easy to video chat with them; send a text or an email to see how they are doing. A social network has helped us to stay in touch with friends who we have not seen in a while. Cell phones have made it easy to have a conversation with a family member who is maybe in a different state, or country; but it has made it easy just to hear their face by just a click of a button. Yes, technology has helped in keeping in touch, but we have overused that ability of technology. We use phones to call the person who is in a different

Vargas5 room, text the person who is next to you. People use social networks to hurt people not just to keep in touch with friends/family members we have not seen in a while. People rather spend time on Facebook, Twitter, or other sites instead of meeting your friend in person. We have known how to use technology; it is understandable to call the person who is mile away, but not to call the person who is in the next room when you can walk to them. Our heath is very important if we want to live longer, and with people using technology 24-7 it is hard to maintain a good health. We get easily distracted with video games, social networks, television, and etc; that we lose interest or we do not have time to do exercise. It has also become hard to pay attention when we are on the road when our cell phones are buzzing, and has cause peoples lives. Technology is one of the reasons why obesity is increasing in America, and according to debate.org titled Is technology responsible for the increasing obesity rates? reported that 62% percent agrees that technology is responsible for the increasing obesity rates, and 38% percent members disagree. The article explores how technology indeed takes a big part of the increase of obesity rates. It talks about how technology does it all for us, We do not even have to think anymore We do not even have to move anymore. With a click of button we already have everything done (para1). The article also mentions how people are using more machines to perform labor. Since at work they have machines doing their work they do not have much to do just sit down and gain weight. We also spend too much time sitting down watching television, watching you tube videos, playing video games that we lose interest in being active. The article interexchange.org titled YMCA Research Says Children Dont Get Enough Exercise informs that new research show that many young children do not get enough physical exercise to stay healthy due to a number of factors related to technological advances. According to the article,

Vargas6 The study found that the parents of sedentary children are not always without blame 52 percent of parents polled spend time playing video games with their children, and many encourage kids to entertain themselves with computers or television. This deference to technology often occurs when parents work long hours and dont have the time or resources to ensure that children are being supervised and playing safely when outside the home (para4). Parents find it easier to have their kids playing video games, but then come the consequences, which leads to obesity. Not has only young kids been affected by obesity because of technology, but adults are also the reason of why obesity rate are increasing. An article titled The Modern Technology Adds to Worldwide Obesity Woes: Report by Robert Preidt engages that the time that people spend using computers, playing video games and watching television, has been increasing; and that it is a major factor in rising rates of obesity. According to the article more than 500 million adults world wide are obese, and that United States has the highest percentage of obese adults with nearly 34 percent. Technology has not only caused obesity, but it has also cause violence in people. In the article humankinetics.com titled Technology can have positive and negative impact on social interaction shows a study of how negatively social impacts of some video games. One study tested whether high exposure to video games increased aggression over time. It was found that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physical aggression in both Japan and the United States- for boys and girls (para10). One of the worst illness their can be and that they have not yet found a cure has to be cancer, and technology is one way you can get cancer. A lot of humans spend their time on cell phone, to talk to their kids, friends, and mates. They just love using their cell phones to communicate, but do not realize how harmful it can be. The article cancer.gov titled Cell

Vargas7 Phones and Cancer informs us by saying, cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non- ionizing electromagnetic radiation, which can be absorbed by tissues closest to where the phone is held (pag1). Besides getting cancer, obese, and violence by technology; it can also affect a baby who is inside their moms belly. It is hard to believe that a child, who is still not born, can get affected by technology already. According to healthysoul.co.uk Is technology affecting our health the article made a research in California in which they found that children who mothers lived near cables or pylons when pregnant or even used microwaves and hairdryers are more predisposed to have asthma. The article also mentions other illness that technologies have caused. The article says that natural health advocates believe that at best electro- radiation saps our energy, leading to redness, lethargy and depression. The article advises to sleep in rooms with mobile phones or wireless networks. The best we can do as individuals is to switch everything off at night, and not have the mobile by the bed as an alarm (parg6). It advises that before going to sleep because most people before going to sleep check their wireless devises, and before they know it they get lost of entertainment, and lost interest in sleeping. They end up sleeping late, and it is not until the next when the consequences come; by not paying attention in class/work, and too tired to do a good job at school/work. Technology has not only caused problems with our health but peoples lives. The rate of car accidents has increased, and most of the reasons are because the drive was to busy either sending a text, checking their emails, or making a call. The article nsc.org titled National Safety Council Estimates that At Least 1.6 Million Crashes Each Year Involve Drivers Using Cell Phones and Texting by Kathy Lane informs NSC estimates that 1.4 million crashes each

Vargas8 year involve drivers using cell phones and a minimum of 200,000 additional crashes each year involve drivers who are texting (parg1). It is understandable that people enjoying playing video games or watching television because maybe for people it takes away the stress away and it can be enjoyable, but their has to be a time a limit of when to stop. Also for small children they learn from television shows, and games but having a time limit with electronic devices and having young kids join support and being more active can help them too. Cell phones are very useful, and handy but do not abusive that the ability of cell phones and call for everything and anything when we are cable to tell someone in person, because it can cause cancer. Another important advice is to know when to use electronic devise, so we could prevent accidents, and peoples lives from passing away. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This especially includes your health care said Dr. Andrew about health, so lets use technology wisely; spend less time on electronic devices, to maintain a good health. What would people do if all of the sudden technology disappeared? If it was gone by the time we woke up? People would defiantly go crazy, and that is because we have become too dependent toward technology; that we do not make our brains work. It has become so easy to go to the internet instead of making the effort of thinking. The website kurzweilai.net titled Are We Too Dependent on Technology? explores that we are placing too much trust in technology instead of doing it ourselves, instead of lifting our heads, looking around, and thinking for ourselves (parg1). The website describes an extreme case of a woman who blindly followed her cars GPS directions to cross train tracks and was almost struck by train. That is just an example of how we immediately do things because we trust technology, and we do not think about, and it can cause consequences.

Reword this sentence

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Yes, technology has made live less complicated. (It has become easier to find a location with the use of GPS, to know the time so we do not have to be late to work, or school). Thanks to our smart phones we now know the days are going to rain, and we can prepare ourselves for the rain. It can also tell us where traffic is, and we can take a different route, and do not have to go through traffic. Technology has made live un-troublesome, but god gave us a brain, lets make our brains
Woah! Keep god out of this. You are not work.speaking to a private church audience, but to a public school teacher.

In all technology has been a very helpful tool for many of us. It has helped keep families in touch, even when separated from each other by miles of land and water, and it has reconnected friends who have not seen each other in years. Television, videogames, etc. have been ways people have kept their minds away from work or school, helping them to relax. It has made live less complicated by finding a location, by telling us where to avoid traffic. Technology has made life easy for us, but what makes it dangerous is the way we use it. We spend so many hours on social networks talking to friends and family members who are not miles away from us, but are only blocks away from our homes. We spend our days sitting down, being busy, and playing video games, leaving us no time to do a sport. Technology has made us too dependent of it, that if technology were to disappear we would go crazy, not knowing what to do. Sometime we are so addicted to technology that we do not see that it has negatively affected our relationships with our loved ones, our health, and the use of our brain.
*added negatively to restate your position on this topic

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http://www.barna.org/family-kids-articles/488-how-technology-is-influencing-families

http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/is-technology-tearing-apart-family-life.aspx

http://socialnetworking.procon.org/

http://linchikwok.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-much-time-do-americans-spend-on.html

Vargas12 iacpsocialmedia.org

fbi.gov

ehow.com

nytimes.com interexchange.org nsc.org http://www.doctorbob.com/famoushealthquotes.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGI8S1tVUow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvgbthJBQN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JaDiBiAnv8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjDJXdeh_mA&feature=endscreen&NR=1