Social impact of technology

1. Technology and
Social Isolation
Peter Meher

2. Social Isolation
• Before we begin, we should establish what Social Isolation
actually is. Social isolation is a state or process in which
persons, groups, or cultures lose or do not have
communication or cooperation with one another. You would
figure, as humans with our normal day to day lives, we
shouldn’t have a problem like this. However as time continues,
it seems some are actually starting to struggle. So, let’s
explore why this is happening.

3. Neurosis
• Neurosis is a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused
by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression,
anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical
loss of touch with reality.
• Neurosis can go hand in hand with social isolation. It is created
with stress, coming from a number of ways. There are many
ways stress is caused, these include work, school, social life
etc. The big issue I will be explaining has to do with social life,
stress, and anxiety and how it relates to technology.

4. Growing up with technology
• Technology today has many benefits and drawbacks. However
one thing that is for sure is the fact that technology is part of
the future. Kids will be introduced to it at an early age, schools
will begin to fade out traditional textbooks, and all kinds of
jobs will have a technology element to make the job more
efficient. So, while technology can be used for good, it can
also hinder development and make people less ambitious.

5. What can it do for you?
• So, in the last slide I mentioned technology can make people
less ambitious. What do I actually mean? Well, as I have
grown up I have seen the progression from social media and
smartphones. A great example I like to explain is mathematics
in school. I feel mat is not high on the priority list for most
teachers, but in reality almost every job requires basic math
skills. By introducing technology like a calculator, people rely
on that to do the work for them. So in a way we become more
lazy because technology has replaced a task that we used to
have to do by ourselves.

6. What can it do for you? (cont.)
• With the calculator example I explained how people become
slightly more lazy because the tech now does it for them. But
in reality, it makes us do our jobs better. So a calculator is
really a good thing for people.
• Now let’s transition to social media and what it can do for us.
Social media, from the days of msn messenger, to myspace,
facebook, twitter, instagram, and snapchat, all of these can
make our lives better and worse. For many, it gives people a
chance to connect or reconnect with peers, without having to
be with the person, it allows for immediate contact without
having to make a call. Overall this makes our lives better.

7. What can it do for you? (cont.)
• While social media seemingly makes our lives better and more
enjoyable, it is important we take a look at the other side of
the argument. Social media can make us lazy when it comes
to our social lives, if you can talk with your peer on social
media, why even bother trying to go out with them. It makes
us think that our social lives are great even when they appear
flawed. Thus, causing us to isolate ourselves maybe without
even knowing it. The thing about social media is we don’t feel
alone when we are logged on to facebook or twitter.
•

8. Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ
• This is a short video explaining how being connected through
technology is not the same as being connected.

9. Negative impacts of technology
• If we take a look at a high school graduating class today, you
will find numerous groups of people, but I feel (as a recent
graduate) that I am seeing more and more people falling out
of touch with their friends and peers. Playing more
videogames and going to less parties, watching youtube
videos or skypeing friends instead of going for lunch.
• In my opinion, I see this as a major flaw, because there are so
many great things that technology gives us, but what you
sacrifice to get there is the real problem.

10. Positive impacts of technology
• The positive impacts of technology I feel are very strong,
unfortunately, so are the negatives.
• Technology does a lot for us, it speeds up efficiency in
numerous way in the workforce and home life, just the other
day I had to replace a belt on a John Deere lawn mower. I
could have tried to mess around with it myself, but instead I
looked up how to do it so I would know exactly what to do
before I even went outside to work. 20 years ago, you would
have to search for the manual and look at the sub-par pictures
given to you and work from there.

11. Positive impacts of technology
(cont.)
• That is just one small example, but technology has helped
spread the entertainment industry to an entire new level. Now
people don’t watch tv on their tv’s. As you can just as easily
watch it on your phone or laptop, through your gaming system
and even illegally watch movies and shows through the touch
of a button. YouTube, created in 2005 was purchased by
google, and has made watching videos from anyone on your
phone. 10 year old kids even have YouTube channels, the
largest channel on YouTube makes over 12 million dollars per
year, while entertaining millions of people.

12. Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-11WSLTA70
• This is a video explaining the pros and cons of technology in
our world.

13. Who is to blame?
• So, now that we have explored the pros and cons of
technology, how it helps us and how it hurts us, lets look at
who is to blame for the problem of social isolation.
• Many people believe that social isolation is the direct fault of
the individual, because they did it to themselves.
• Some people believe that the technology itself is to blame,
because as technology continues to get better and better, it is
harder and harder to get away from it.

14. Conclusion
• From personal experience, I have never suffered from this
social anxiety and neurosis, but I have seen it in people around
me. These people are my peers, but I often don’t see them
outside of school or work. They would rather talk to me
online. Some people have a hard time just engaging in normal
conversation with a stranger because they are not used to
meeting new people outside of this technology driven society.
• So, in conclusion I believe that there is a problem with people
over-engaging in technology. However it is very hard to blame
the technology itself, because it helps us in our day to day
lives. It just seems like people start relying in it too much,
causing most of these issues.

15. Thank you.
• Thank you for taking the time to explore my powerpoint.