Technology: More than just a Distraction

When I think about the ways technology influences my life day to day, the first thing I think of is distraction. Heck, even right now it has been. Its been 20 minutes since I sat down to write this post, and I’m only just getting the first few words down. I think this is more likely due to the massive amount of entertainment apps that we have a constant instant access to it. I know all of us, everyone reading this, has had at least one time where they sat down to do some important task just to get sucked into Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, or any number of other apps. Its a problem, and there’s absolutely no argument against it. But I feel like thats what everyone talks about. People talk all the time about how much of a problem this is, and they’re not wrong, but its not often that we talk about how a lot of the time we spent looking at the screens isn’t about entertaining ourselves.

I know the time I spend on entertainment on my phone, laptop,  or tv is much higher than the time I spend doing productive things, but that doesn’t make the other time invalid. The first thing that comes to mind for me is communication. I have plenty of friends, but since high school especially not many of us have lived too close to each other. Its hard trying to find time to see friends, or family, when you have work and school for each of you to work around just to hang out with a friend two towns away. And that’s not even mentioning the gas prices. Being able to text and catch up is great, but there’s something about apps like Snapchat and Instagram that let you send pictures and videos quickly and without real thought that helps you connect a bit more. Everyone likes seeing a video from their mom doing some goofy thing right as it happens as opposed to hearing them talk about it later.

Then think about things like work and school. As much as I don’t love taking a fully online class (no offense), I enjoy having my homework and classwork all posted online. There’s something about having the work I need to do along with discussions about lessons all on UR courses neat and organized is really helpful to me. Being able to buy or rent textbooks online is great too. And I can grantee you without having due dates on homework listed online, I would have a lot more late homework. Then there’s the added bonus with that homework in that you can turn in assignments from home. Instead of having to wait till I drive across down to the university to hand in a paper, I can just submit it online right when I’m done. I may be rambling on about homework a bit too much, but its been on my mind lately. One more thing that technology makes my life easier, is the ability to contact professors or coworkers or whoever else I might need to talk to at any time rather than tracking them down in person.

But with all these positives we can’t forget the negatives. How easy it is to get sucked into any activity on your phone while trying to do something else is a pain. I think the key to using technology anywhere is to keep your head focused on what’s important. After all, there’s no harm in scrolling Instagram on the bus ride home, if you miss a due date because you were watching Netflix, there’s no turning back time