Last November of 2024, Washington suffered from a deadly bomb cyclone that caused region-wide power outages that lasted for days. With utilities, data connection, electricity and overall technology down, many individuals, businesses, educational systems and communities had little to no information on what was happening outside of their doors.
Extreme weather with strong winds can cause damage not only to the environment but to power lines as well. An example of this would be Bellevue Way, which had a strip of traffic lights that were inoperable during the height of the cyclone. Not only that, but many phone carriers shut down until days or even weeks later, which caused a delay in educational schedules, especially for local colleges and universities like Bellevue College, Seattle University, University of Washington and so forth.
This has led to the questionable dependency on technology, especially in the youth. Why are we so dependent on gadgets? Should this trend continue to emerge and develop over time? What are its negative effects if we become overly dependent?
Smartphones were first developed as exclusive devices that were not as accessible compared to the regular touchscreen phone now. With the incorporation of the online digital world, it raised the number of internet users to 90% of the world having access to the internet from only 7% of the world.
“More and more, life is resembling the chat room. We’re paying a price in terms of our cognitive life because of this virtual lifestyle.”
Since the introduction to this era of the technological revolution, the industry has been rampantly releasing an array of gadgets and mechanisms that all have the common goal of making the average American life more convenient. With brands like Samsung and Apple leading the smartphone industry by a large margin, it has become a well-incorporated item in our day-to-day lives, i.e. mode of communication, entertainment, and learning.
This blend of both online and in-person lives has blurred the lines of how dependent we have become due to the unknowing nature of being too reliant on these gadgets. Now that the American education system has shifted to a lenient hybrid type of class sessions, the majority of both primary and secondary education classes require applications, like Canvas, to be used to submit assignments, contact instructors, manage class schedules and so forth.
Technological dependency is as simple as its definition: A dependence on technology, specifically our smart gadgets. It is not entirely unhealthy to rely on certain materials to make life flow more efficiently, but the over-reliance can cause a decay in mental health. With the recent power outage, many users became disconnected for a moment in time which has led to a difficult effort to get back on track once the power returned. There were schedules that were being delayed and projects that were missed, which caused a cascade of stress and anxiety about how students would be able to move forward. Despite the power returning eventually, there was still instability and unreliability with the system since not all had sudden access back to their gadgets. It is not entirely on the students themselves to develop a dependence on technology for learning, but it is rather the system itself feeding into the overuse of gadgets.
“This is the whole point of technology. It creates an appetite for immortality on the one hand. It threatens universal extinction on the other. Technology is lust removed from nature.”
– Don DeLillo in his book White Noise: Text and Criticism
This post was originally published on here
