The Ugly Truths B By Kaylei Fear o truly understand technology’s potential and looming approach, we must come to terms with our entanglement with our devices. As college students, we are on our laptops and cellphones constantly. Whether it is for homework, talking to friends or mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, life for many would come to a screeching halt without our trusty sidekicks.
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Documentaries like “The Social Dilemma” and others bring attention to the benefits and pitfalls of technology being all-consuming. These documentaries uncover society’s ugly truths and our faults with technology,
but are we willing to face them head-on? Dr. Susan Stewart, sociology professor at Iowa State University, focuses on our intimate relationships within our human lives. A massive disrupter to our intricate relationships is the technology itself and, more so, social media. While social media allows us to be connected to those far away, it keeps us miles and miles apart from those sitting right next to us. “It’s a whole new world. It’s different from the automobile. It’s different from the telephone, and I guess that’s what is the downside. These
social platforms have been created to keep us addicted and on there as long as possible and it’s hurting intimacy. It’s hurting friendships, romantic relationships or even just between colleagues. You no longer get the full threedimensional experience,” said Stewart. This lack of intimacy and newfound infatuation with social media and technology is harming us. Evolutionarily, we as humans were meant to interact and depend on each other. Technology and social media were never a part of that evolutionary code. These documentaries call attention to how
