Technology in Society
Technology over the years has faced great advancements and with that comes some issues. One of my favorite sayings is "Every action has a greater re-action," (Newton). This can vastly apply to technology, social media, and various other things the public depends on today. Meaning with these great advances there can be negative outcomes. There is quite often an argument about whether the creation of the internet and social media is bad for you or beneficial. But the answer lies much further than a simple choice between one over the other. As much as I would love to say my relationship with technology is healthy it is not. I take advantage of the resources provided to me, scroll through my phone for hours at a time, and rarely look much deeper than the surface for an hour, and when I do my attention span is quite short. ADHD and Screen Time, statistics show that there is a correlation between ADHD and long screen time, but there is no definite answer to if it can be harmful.
Social media has opened a platform for millions of people to communicate from all over the world. With these communications, there is no doubt cultures, religions, and values, are being shared and expressed by all kinds of people. Social media along with the internet, does have a way of bringing people together and teaching them things they haven't known before. Youtube, for example, they have as many how-to videos as you could dream of, or music, and many others. Social media is another way to keep up with the most recent trends and top influencers. Of course, social media does unfortunately come with bullying, deep fakes, harassment, and revenge porn. So, not everything about the internet is extremely helpful. To further add on, the discussion of politics on social media can be both dangerous and misleading. There are plenty of people spreading information with solely a bias for a certain side as their main motivator. They may believe in the information but that does not make it true. A lot of the time information is twisted online and it spreads like a rapid-fire, which can be very dangerous considering the fact at this point in time the media pretty much controls society and their outlook on the persona of others.
So to answer the question previously mentioned before, is the internet/social media harmful for you or beneficial. It can be either. It all depends on the user and how they are choosing to use this technology. Morals, values, likes, and dislikes, all play a role in social media and can be used to genuinely grow a business or make larger connections. But others may choose to use it to tear down others or commit some sort of online fraud. In fact, according to, www.sciencedirect.com, " fraud over the internet has increased dramatically resulting in an annual loss of billions of dollars of customers and service providers worldwide."
With this new advancement, it is so much easier to commit fraud and statistics show it as well. Artificial technology specifically, has been overlooked for quite some time and is just now gaining popularity and controversy. AI has been used to create deep fakes by using it to copy the voices of others, or edit a face onto another, but enough to make the public believe something is real, not only is that a risk for fraud for national security. Forbes states,, "It does not require much imagination to grasp the harm that could be done if entire populations can be shown fabricated videos that they believe are real...imagine U.S. soldiers committing atrocities against civilians overseas; or of President Trump declaring the launch of nuclear weapons against North Korea." Not only is this harmful to security but it is a prime example of misleading information. A young kid, or politically naive, could see something like this can go into immediate panic sending it to those they know and sending that piece of fake information off into a vicious cycle that leads to anger and confusion.
But recently, a lot of this has become accepted. People have practically come to terms with the fact that there is always going to be that one "hater", photoshopped supermodel, or funny fake video. But when does enough become too much? This acceptance has led us to question the media as well as the effects new advancements will have. TikTok for example, is currently one of the most popular apps today, https://hub.jhu.edu/ "Basic information such as the locations of users of the app can be used by foreign actors to determine whether someone works in a facility that may be of interest, such as a military or other government facility. 
While this all may seem overwhelming and navigating your way through the internet and use of technology can be hard, being critical and leaving behind naive ways is the best thing you can do. Those who are naive let the hazards of technology become dangerous and ruin the good aspects of it.
Despite the risks, technology is truly allowing our society to continue to grow and make more improvements when it comes to our way of living. It has helped dramatically in the medical field, marketing, and business field. It plays a major part in our consumerism-based economy and is a major linkage institution. This means that our economy relies on the people continuously buying products and a linkage institution is what connects us to what is going on with the government on a day-to-day basis. Without it, we would have a hard time getting further in advancement and continuing the neverending learning of our society.
With current situations, our society no doubt has an attachment to social media/the internet, but specific users make the ultimate choice. Learning can be unique and fun, and the internet is just one way to access thousands of resources. So choose to learn and be open to what danger the internet can have, and learn to have a healthy relationship between the good and bad. Try to balance. Bancling entertainment vs news is just one way you can adjust to the vast entrapments and entertainment of our technology today.
