Technology's Effects On Relationships

In a story written by Brooke Weenig, we learn about a man named Josh Weber. Josh, a student and Brigham Young University, explains his struggles with the dating game saying how “the way [he] was dating wasn’t working. [He] was trapped into people that didn’t want to be dating.” (Weenig). The saving grace for Josh ended up being an online dating site. Because of the bad reputation that the internet and technology in general gets, Josh was clear that he never wanted to use the internet to get into relationships. However, Josh soon learned that the stress of face to face contact while asking people out was gone. People weren’t obligated to say yes so it weeded out those who were only looking for quick hook-ups with those who were really interested

Because of the rapid growth in technology, especially in social media and other communication type apps, the biggest issue question is how technology has been affecting our communication skills and our relationships. Darrell M. West, vice president and director of Governance Studies and a senior fellow at Brooking, provides some background on the issue question by stating that technology has made a lot of enhancements in our societies by providing better health care, faster production, and better living in general. West mentions a survey done comparing American education systems of technology and Chinese education systems, “Americans are focused on improving math and science education, while Chinese are more concerned about developing creative problem‐solving and business skill” (West, 2). This shows how the use of technology can differ in how we use it. American systems focus on the more direct studies while the Chinese are more focused on students using their ability to reason and judge to grow. Both approaches have different outcomes, the American style helps us to understand the working of the world, but the Chinese style can provide us with the ability to safely judge for ourselves and keep self-control because these skills provoke deep thinking and better

Samy S. Abu Naser, Professor in Artificial Intelligence, collects and combines many articles that all come to a similar conclusion, that technology in adolescents causes them to have less face to face communication with friends and families (Naser, 110). Naser also adds that technology can affect the quality of how we communicate and how rumors and negative information can be easily circulated through technology. Often, we hear about these negative side effects that technology has on personal and physical relationships, but too often there is a neglect in providing a solution to the problem. How to we counteract these side effects? Is technology really that bad? Is there anything good about technology? Brian Sutton, a student at the College of Brockport, argues that There are many good things that come about with technology. Sutton lists a few of the benefits of technology being “space exploration took place, vehicles were designed differently, the entertainment world became more entertaining, and medical science made more cures for diseases.” (Sutton, 6). With this many and important advancements in life because of technology, we can see that technology does have its place in the world and it does bring about much good. Sutton also includes how the use of communication devices has made communication possible in instances that normally would have only been