The human civilization has covered a long way of evolution. Since ages the human race has been evolving and trying to catch up the pace of fast running time. During this, the human race also felt many things lacking in their basic lifestyle that actually gave a way to some of the marvellous discoveries and inventions. And as popularly said that, where there is a will there is way likewise, happened with the mankind, human beings in the search of better and basic comforts and just to improve the life patterns got engrossed in some remarkable researches that further got to be known as Pure Sciences. Science is the invention of some new knowledge, it clears out the ignorance and reveals the hidden truth in a phenomena. Though nothing can be confirmed yet apparently those great scientists who had made different discoveries in science, must have had felt the deliberate need to not only to improvise the life pattern but also to increase the connectivity among the people. The inventions of telephones, radio, gadgets prove that fact to us. After the invention of science and that too including diversified sciences, human race never looked back. And with each passing phase of evolution mankind became capable of making their life; easier to easiest.
Technology has been the greatest of the inventions of science, the human race has made so far. Technology has not only improvised the life of people but has also revealed the huge hidden potential and power of human minds. Technology has made the lifestyle and arrangements much easier than before, now we all are just a push away from availing any of the facility or comfort. This availability of technology has ironically made it costly and expensive as well. However, the point that I want to raise through this piece of writing is that, is it acceptable that technology has fully changed our lives in many better ways but none of the big things are achieved without sacrifices.
With the arrival and interference of technology in our basic lives the privacy, intimacy, communication and secrecy in our personal lives has been lost somewhere. Though with through the medium of information technology we are better connected with the external world, those who seem to be impossible to be approached are now just a call away. We are so finely and easily connected with the people around, sitting in the different corners of the world. It is really amazing to know that technology has helped to increase the relatedness and social networks but what it has made us loose is the relatedness in the internal spheres of life. The close relationships that used to play an integral part of daily lives are now least focused upon. Everyone is now running in the outside world and becoming extrovert. What is lying outside is what fascinates us more in the present time.
In a society each individual is connected with one another through various means and purposes. We all get involved in interactions, transaction of energy, thoughts, materials, attitudes, norms, customs, traditions and behaviours. We all are actually bound together under the roof of a social structure that defines our social relationships and describes the reasons of our relatedness with each other. We cannot stay aloof in a society and we are bound to be a part of different interactions that take place within it. Family is one of a most important agent that facilitates and allows our social interactions.
It is the family where we learn to behave in the outer world and where we get the maximum socialization. Social relationships are basically the connection that we build up with the people outside in the society. We are connected to different people of the society in many ways that I have already explained above. Now, with the interference of technology or it would be more appropriate to call it as advancement at this stage, these two aspects of our lives has got immensely affected. Firstly the interactions and our attitude in our family and with its members have got impacted and then our social relationships in the outer world have also been influenced. Following are the points which discuss the different impacts of technology upon family and social relationships:
Curiosity leading to exploitation of technology: the section that has been immensely affected by the advancement of technology is the adolescents and the youth. Just look around and you will see no youngster without any techno-gadget (as long as they do not belong to the poor or deprived class). This section has got so overwhelmed and amused by the technology that it has become like a food for them. They just cannot imagine their lives without mobiles, games, apps, computers, and other highly specialized gadgets coming in the trend today. There has emerged a strong curiosity in the youngster to know and know more about these gadgets, they want to use them, play with them and want to make them a part of their selves. But this curiosity only, is leading them towards exploiting the same for the sake of mere fun. This curiosity encourages them to get involved in unhealthy and unethical practices like making profane MMS, sending and sharing profane messages with friends which certainly give birth to wasteful and unproductive thoughts and actions. Their curiosity is ironically not moving in the right direction but rather they are fascinated by the other crucial side of the technology. When this curiosity is turned into an addiction, is very obvious to answer.
Weakening consanguine ties: That family is considered to be healthy where its members have a cordial and friendly relationship. But in the recent times the coordination and friendliness among the family members have found to be affected due to the over interference of technology in the homes. Half of the members are busy in watching television and then half of the members are busy with their mobiles and chatting on laptops. No one has time for each other, even after living under the same roof, everyone seems to be engrossed in his/her own world which is full of virtual friends, and social connections but has no place for the permanent blood ties. Couples find solace in chatting to their friends rather talking to each other; on the other hand youngsters in the home feel that no one understands them except the friends and companions on the social networking sites. They find it useful to share the status on the social media or messenger chats but will not share their feelings with their parents. Technology has deliberately trapped each one of us in a web that instead of hurting is comforting us.
Where social relationships are heading to: however with technological advancement many good things have taken place with regard to the social relationships but what is lacking is the spirit of integrity and naturalness. People are however connected with each other, in fact in a better way but their relatedness is more of a mechanical connection. Social values like, friendliness, brotherhood, unity and natural bonding is somewhere missing in those relationships. In the place of natural ways of sharing and connecting, mechanical and technical ways are more preferable now. Face-to-face interactions and connectedness is hardly followed and preferred. People tend to sit in their homes and prefer to enjoy the comforts of air conditioners, television and gadgets but rarely prefer to go out for a walk with neighbour or just to move out to greet the acquaintances for a change. Socialization among youngsters as well as adults has become very slow. Social networking sites and advanced applications have made it so easy for us to connect with anyone just in few seconds. But underneath the fact is that that with this ever increasing comfort of technology the social ties/relationships are losing their intimacy and rather moving towards artificiality and becoming mechanical.
Diminishing verbal communication: verbal communication is also seen to be reduced to a major extent especially with those who are frequently in touch with technology. People are becoming so habitual of technology that they can spend the whole day without talking to someone and just being glued to their gadgets and laptops. Someone might think that this is a good sign because the person is not wasting his/her energy in gossiping or talking uselessly but the fact is that the person who is constantly glued to gadgets is consuming his/her mental energy to the maximum that further results in restlessness, anxieties and mood-swings in behaviour.
Thus, we see that technology advancement has brought distance and mechanical relatedness in family and social relationships. People need to understand that technology is made for us; we are not made for it. Exploring and consuming anything to a certain extent is fine, but when the lines are crossed and when its influence begins to disturb the natural way of life, it surely is a threat to the human race. Human race has forgotten that they invented technology for allowing comfort and facilities in their lives but it was never meant to make us delirious. Here, the social institutions like school, family (elders in family) needs to take the charge for bestowing the right guidance to their children. Social relationships are supposed to be real and natural in fact in the primitive or earlier times people used to have so strong social relationships. There was a sense of belongingness and unity among the people of the community and groups. But today each person possesses a self-created little world that keeps him so busy that he hardly gets any time to build up and improvise his social relationships. A society is enlivened through the means of social relationships and technology is certainly coming up as a big threat for the same. It is only the people of the society who have to set the limits to the consumption of technology else the day is not far when technology will completely transform the human beings into gadgets in human bodies.
