Ashton Radvansky Journal #6

When I walked into our first class on Tuesday, January 17th, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and I was unsure of the path that this class would take. As we began our discussion on technology, I was immediately thrown off-guard when people began to argue the negative effects of technology in society. I never looked at the argument from the other side, and I never thought about the potential complications that technology has placed on our everyday lives. I thought to myself, “How can technology be a negative, when we think about how we use iPhones in our daily lives, or with the advancements that have been made in medical and surgical uses?”. I maintained this thought process until this past Monday, February 27th.
As I walked to my 12 o’clock class of MATH 192, I had a vibrant attitude because the weather was nice and it was a beautiful day to be outside. As I was looking around and enjoying the scenic views of Bucknell’s campus, I also noticed something quite alarming. Everywhere that I looked, I saw people walking around campus staring at their cell phones; ignoring all forms of communication with their peers, and separating themselves from their present surroundings. Additionally, the first move of people just leaving their classes and walking out of an academic building, was to reach into their pockets and see what alerts they had missed during their 52-minute class period. I was shocked to see that this was everyone’s first action upon getting out of class; it was almost an instinctive reaction for people.
As we watched the first episode of Humans in class this past Tuesday, I thought about what I saw while walking to class on Monday and I began to realize that as technology becomes a larger factor in our lives, we begin to slowly forget about the day-to-day interactions with others that makes us inherently human. Why should we go through the awkwardness of talking to someone about a difficult topic, when instead we could just text them and avoid the interaction all together? We have come to value the latest and greatest iPhone over human friendship, and that is unacceptable. During my grandparents’ childhood, all the kids in the neighborhood would be outside, playing games, and having fun. Now children will stay inside and play video games, most of the time alone and against a computer-generated player. Sure, children are still playing games, but it is completely different because they are missing out on what is necessary for their growth into successful adults: interactions with others. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and analyze how exactly our society has been impacted by external forces, and I believe that time is now. People need to truly realize how much time they are spending on their phones and other devices, when they could instead be spending quality time with the people that matter to them most: their family and friends.