Technology and Anti-social Behavior
December 2, 2022
Does technology make us anti-social? The simple answer, in my opinion, is: yes, it 100% makes us less social. But unfortunately, an opinion isn’t fact. So let’s look at some research to back up how I perceive this very prominent issue.
According to, Technology: Is it making kids anti-social? by Morgan Hampton, a study performed by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda took a handful of students and had them disconnect from all technological devices for 24 hours. These said students reported feeling extremely lonely and not sure how to fill up their time.
“The majority of today’s rising generation is not learning to expand minds without the use of technology and social media.” (3).
Interacting with people face-to-face is inevitable and quite healthy. Being glued to a screen will not help with your social skills. It brings down confidence and gives people the leeway to not speak to others in real-life situations. If technology wasn’t already making a full plunge into our lives before the year 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t help matters. We all become so dependent on technology to live that we forgot how to exist without it. Granted, the circumstances didn’t permit us to be out interacting with the rest of the world.
In The Internet and the Pandemic by Colleen McClain, Emily A. Vogels, Andrew Perrin, Stella Sechopoulos, and Lee Rainie, they say “In addition, 72% of parents of children in grades K-12 say their kids are spending more time on screens compared with before the outbreak.1” (5)
MCHS sophomore, Ava Minor, was asked these questions:
- What technological devices do you own?
- How many hours a day, would you say, do you spend on your devices?
- Do you feel that being on those devices makes you less social?
She says, “I genuinely think I developed an anxiety disorder in middle school because of how much I was alone on my technology.” Minor owns an iPhone and a desktop computer and estimates that she spends about six hours a day on them combined.
She also added that she struggles to talk to people in public. “If I could text the waiter at the restaurant, I would.”
Sources:
pewresearch.org
