Technology's impact on culture might still be evolving

Everyone uses digital technology. Okay, maybe not everyone, but it's not that crazy to say that technology use may be one of the very few things that nearly everyone has in common in 2020. Millennials are still leading the way in technology adoption, but it's pretty steady across all generations, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to be more creative than ever when it comes to "spending time" with relatives and friends.

While we can all agree that technology has made life easier in one way or another, "technology dependence" has become a very real issue in the United States that may threaten our ability to innovate in the future, according to Johansson (2018). The cultural impacts of technology dependence could be even more far-reaching than we even realize at this point in time. Because users are constantly connected, and some might even suffer from anxiety when they are separated from their devices (Johannsson, 2018), the expectations of mass media outlets have increased as they are expected to satisfy the 24/7 needs of users. Mass media outlets continue to feed these expectations, afraid that failing to do so may have serious repercussions on their audience size, which in turn validates that "I can't put my phone down or I'll miss something" feeling.

It's a vicious cycle that we may be stuck in culturally for a long, long time. How could we possibly get out of this? Johannson (2018) suggests that we individually limit the time we spend engaging with technology and consistently "acknowledge the destructive and limiting potential of technological dependence without demonizing technology altogether" (Finding the balance: individuals and groups, para. 2-3).

Sounds easy enough, right? 

References

Johansson, A. (2018, July 25). We need to reduce our dependence on technology if we want to keep innovating. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/07/25/we-need-to-reduce-our-dependence-on-technology-if-we-want-to-keep-innovating/.