The Defects of Technology Professor Ramos Blog

The Defects of Technology By  Anthony Biondi  (The Cascade) The rise of technology has greatly improved our society in many ways. It affects how we speak,how we listen, and how we use it for our own personal gain. This is fantastic because technology has created many life changing opportunities for people yet, I begin to question how we are using technology nowadays. I understand that the entertainment industry and game development has grown exponentially. However, I believe that these developments cause important issues that aren’t really being discussed, such as: less interaction with one another, addiction to technology, and unnecessary aggressiveness towards enjoyable topics in which no one should be fighting about. Since the beginning of time, humans have always had some type of interaction with one another. As the ages went by, we begin to interact differently. We started by basic communication which involved speaking. Then later, we started to write down messages sent to one another which took time but not as much time as before. Nowadays there is no need for waiting, because we have advanced in technology and do not really need to leave our home to speak with one another or send messages through the mail. This caused less face to face interaction. Some people may say that facetime is the exception, but in reality you are looking at a screen that reflects the image of the person your talking to. So, what would happen if the internet would just turn off? One would be left with a blank screen in front of them and no one to talk to. Technology has additionally began to affect relationships in both positive and negative ways. An article I found explains how relationships in 2012 were greatly aff ected by technology because people would judge each other faster and lacked the courage to end the relationships which lead them to vanish, also known as â€Å"ghosting† that person (Morris). This article would continue to describe how even the use of social media tends to make the partner more insecure, which may cause them to communicate less. It also talks mentions another fact about how â€Å"scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences [have] found that the brain chemicals of people who habitually used the Internethad abnormal connections between the nerve fibers in their brain,† which basically means that a person is developing an addiction to technological devices, that will be discussed further in the next paragraph (Morris). Video game addiction can be â€Å"described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling† (Our Mission). In other words, technology has revealed a new type of addictions that we have never seen before and one does not need any kind of substance to activate this addition. As reported by the University of New Mexico, â€Å"recent studies suggest that 6 to 15 percent of gamers exhibit signs that could be characterized as addictions† (Video Game Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects). Perhaps the people who are becoming addicted to video games are the ones who play online games. If you did not know, there are two types of games. There are single player games, that do not involve other gamers, or and multi-player games that provided the optional setting to play online. Most research also shows that online gamers that tend to play those types of games are more hook to them. After looking into the article a little more I found the game is designed to make you want to stay on it. However, when developers wanted to introduce games into education, they had to ficugure out â€Å"‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ develop educational games and integrate them into the curriculum† (Squire 2011). This got me to think about how bad, addicting games are very popular and how good educational games are games that are not so popular but they do give you the option to stop and leave the game. Unlike a bad game in which it was designed to keep you locked up or hooked to your tablet or game system. I feel that people should be more aware about what their getting into or even their child. Since the majority of gamers are young kids or adults, who are wasting time during high school or college. I could relate since I understand very well because I was one of those people who would play from the minute I was home to about one or two o’clock in the morning. Ye t, I thought it was okay because I never truly thought of it, I only cared about having fun. But after becoming more aggressive toward my games, I really didn’t understand what I was doing. I was getting very emotional towards a game which had waste most of my time, I got more frustrated than anything. I think my personal experience shows how easy someone can get addicted to video games and what addiction can cause. After doing research, I found that â€Å"video games elicit powerful emotional reactions in their players, such as fear, power, aggression, wonder, or joy† (Kurt 2003). If game’s really have the power to give off these kinds of emotions, I fear that game’s are more of a tool to confuse young people. To be honest, children cant comprehend what theyre walking into. Yes games do have age limits, but it does not stop them from playing what they want to play one way or another. Games do not stop kids, or even adults, from throwing fits and being aggressive toward people. They tend to get annoyed with people who stop you from playing. In my perspective, video games, in a way, could be set as a trap for people. It’s not right that games play with your emotions in the first place. I feel that you need to be well educated about games, or should be more aware of what it could do to you. I remember becoming more aggressiveness toward my family without really caring , at the time, and caring more about the games than anything at one point. I am glad I eventually gained perspective on what video games really do to a person and how one can easily be influenced negatively by these games. In conclusion, video games are becoming more popular in todays society and isn’t right how they are not really promoting how addicting they can be and the effects one may gain from playing. Becoming addicted toward something that isn’t going to help, isn’t healthy for anyone. And finally, the last straw is becoming aggressive toward a game or people that are trying to get you to do your work or homework shouldn’t be discarded like nothing. But in all fairness, I feel that people should be more aware about what games could do to you. Work Cited Gee, James Paul. What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Computers in Entertainment (CIE) 1.1 (2003): 20-20. Morris, Chris. â€Å"Is Technology Killing the Human Touch?† CNBC, CNBC, 15 Aug. 2015, cnbc.com/2015/08/15/gy-killing-the-human-touch.html. â€Å"Our Mission:† Video Games Addiction, Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery an Affiliate of Unitypoint Health, addictionrecov.org/Addictions/?AID=45. Squire, Kurt. Video games in education. Int. J. Intell. Games Simulation 2.1 (2003): 49-62. Squire, Kurt. Video games and learning. Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age (2011).â€Å"Video Game Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects.† PsychGuides.com, 2019, psychguides.com/behavioral-disorders/video-game-addiction/.