National
Connected and dissatisfied Researchers find connectivity brings with it slew of social problems By: David Farrow
T
he youth of today haunt the wake of the information revolution. The specters of the preceding era—landlines, dial-up, letters—still linger, yet, to many, they are hesitation marks, representatives of the slow movement towards seamless interpersonal integration. Despite the rapid adoption of these technologies, an underlying dissatisfaction with connectivity persists. As people continue to become more and more connected, meaningful relationships and interactions have binary and mechanical. Technology provides innumerable avenues for conversation, enrichment, and discovery, yet the result of technological integration is the disintegration of real social bonds. In the past 15 years, the percentage of households with Internet access has jumped from 18% to 71%. The march of progress only continues as the Internet becomes incorporated into everyday interactions through cell phones and tablets. Frank N. Magid Associates, a research and consulting firm, finds that in 2013, 74 percent of US mobile phone owners possess a smartphone. Tamyra Pierce of California State University finds that the usage of social media and interactive technology “may be serving as a substitute for face-to-face communication” as teens specifically avoid confronting social anxieties through burying themselves within technology. When applying these statistics to UNC, students maneuver campus with phones and tablets on hand, fixated on the digital world while ignoring the real world. Technology, in this way, has empowered escapism as opposed to connection, offering a window to another world instead of a window to view another person. The reliance on technology not only caters to social anxiety, but also further amplifies it. Constant connectivity places an enormous stress on individuals through offering many The Hill Political Review April 2014
avenues for connection, while imbuing a sense of futility about the relationships formed through social media. Mediated by technology, a “digital veil” is enacted that causes individuals “to develop a disconnect from others, and even from themselves”. Investment within the digital world overall dissociates the user from the real world. Researchers at the University of Michigan argue “the size of people’s Facebook networks [and] their perceived supportiveness” do not significantly change the fact that “the more participants used Facebook, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time”. Despite all of these tenuous social connections, a lack of responsibility or obligations towards these “friends” fosters quick but shallow relationships. While connectivity is just a click away, value can’t be found liking a status or retweeting a joke. The usage of social media as a means of improving social interaction still perplexes users. The self-serving nature of technology contaminates conventional interactions. The Pew Research Service reports that 42 percent of 18-29 year olds in serious relationships find their partner distracted by their mobile phone while they were together and 18 percent of 18-29 year olds think that their partner spends too much time online. Significant others must now compete with their partners’ phones for time and attention, and the interactions of couples are increasingly funneled through this digital medium. The information revolution has been a boon to modern society through facilitating conversation and integration. Sherry Turkle, professor at MIT, argues technology runs the risk of providing “the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship”. Technology must help us to shoulder those demands, for those demands fundamentally are the burdens of our humanity. Communication ought to be enhanced, not truncated by technology.
Connectivity by the numbers
71%
Percentage of households with internet access
74%
Percent of mobile phone owners that own a smartphone
42%
Percent of 18-29 year olds in a serious relationship that find their partner distracted by their mobile phone while they are together
18%
Percent of 18-29 year olds in a serious relationship that think their partner spends too much time online 15