Final Post- My Relationship With Technology

 Most of the world interacts with some form of technology every single day. It has become a consistent part of our everyday life, so naturally we have grown to have a kind of relationship with it. For most of us, it seems to be more of an attachment, not necessarily to the specific devices or inventions themselves but to the comfort and advancement that technology gives us. This kind of relationship can appear in different ways which we can only really discern by analyzing our own personal relationships with technology. 

I've started analyzing my own relationship with technology more closely once I started this blog. The research I've done while writing each post has really opened my eyes to seeing my relationship with more clarity. While it is isn't the healthiest in the world, my time with technology has become more utilized. I use it more for class assignments or project research rather than basic entertainment or a mindless waste of time. As time passes and technology becomes more and more normalized, I feel as though society has become nose blind to the obvious issues that come with advanced technology such as misinformation and improper privacy online. 

The 'online footprint' is one of the most important aspects of each individual's presence online. Over the past year or so, (especially going into college) I have been much more conscious about my online footprint. I deleted multiple social media apps, stopped posting controversial or sensitive media on my existing ones, and made everything private. My stepfather has worked in cybersecurity for multiple years, so online safety and privacy has always been taught in my house. This is why I found it quite hilarious when I searched my own name online and nothing popped up, but you could find both of my parents on Google. 

Over the pandemic in 2020, people's online presence increased tenfold. With the surge of popularity in apps such as TikTok, more and more people were creating public social media accounts. The impact of an online footprint is very real, as a quick search will show the results of improper behaviors online. 

We've come to a point where we need to analyze our relationship with technology on a societal level as well. It's not just the small computer we hold in our hands everyday but the technology that runs our world behind the scenes. Our agriculture systems, public transit, motor vehicle technology, communication services, and more are all being affected by new technological developments and it seems to be in a positive way. However, we must consider how far we should let technology go; we have gotten to the point where everybody can have their own personal AI on their Snapchat accounts. This is a crazy development: public access to AI technology is one of the hugest things to happen in the last decade or so. The issue comes not with just the tech; the issue arises with how open we are to receiving something so new and unknown. We have no idea the security concerns that could arise with the use of AI technology, especially if security issues with regular social media apps have not been solved. 

With all of this said, my own personal relationship with technology has been a slow growth with many changes over the years. As someone who plans to go into the field of technology, I am always amazed by new inventions and developments. However, I still have my own boundaries set with how I interact with new technology. My overall rule is that I try not to be an early adapter of anything and I will never support technology that advances us at the cost of something else (like our agriculture tech). Even though I set this distance between myself and technology, I still think that it is something beautiful for us to develop and that the possibilities of development are endless.