"Social Effects of Technology" http://www.rit.edu/~flwstv/techeffects.html#freedom

Working on my Scrapbook Evaluation for this blog, I became so frustrated because I was at a loss of words. I knew how I felt but no matter how hard I thought I couldn't find a way to put down my thoughts. I was a little distracted, I guess, with the band Switchfoot playing on my CD player but I turned that off and sat at my computer, staring at the computer screen.
"Come on think el stupido!"
I decided to type in random words associated with my study and I came across a very well written website on the "Social Effects of Technology."
The first sentence states, "The interaction of technology and society may be the one thing more than any other that gives society a meaning and defines is as human beings."
I kind of giggled to myself because I thought of how ridiculous it sounded that technology, which could be anything like a microwave or an electric toothbrush, "defines us as human beings." I felt the opening sentence was strong and controversial but I digressed and read on. The website had wonderful support on the advancements and advantages of technology relating to everything. The author had a top ten topic list:

Ten Effects of Technology
Technology's Effect on Commerce
Technology's Effect on Social Systems
Technology's Effect on The Environment
Technology's Effect on Individual Psychology
Technology's Effect on The Rate of Change
Technology's Effect on Institutions
Technology's Effect on Individual Freedom
Technology's Effect on Our Perception of Reality
Technology's Effect on Our Mutual Dependence
Technology's Greatest Effect

Not to catch one off guard, I have to say that most of the reasons this person listed on why technology is one of the greatest effects on life, I agreed with. I am using this website as an example to clarify what exactly I am preaching about. I am trying to convey that the issue in society with technology is not technology itself but it is the decisions people make when using technology and the effects coming from those decisions. I realize one may think my earlier blogs are contradictory to what I am saying now and that is because it has finally come clear to me what I was actually looking for.

In this artifact I did not find a negative effect of technology that seemed important and that is because people don't want to look at the pessimistic view of technology and write about it. If you look at it from one perspective, there is no negative part of technology. The negative or "downfalls" come from the users of technology. The downfall is shown in people who abuse/take advantage of technology, depend on it unnecessarily, and use it for morally wrong reasons.

The Downside of Technology

I have decided to change my research topic to the downside of technology instead of the impersonality of society. My first topic, impersonality, was very specific and I had trouble researching and finding good information. In most of my sources, the data was all leading into one issue: America's dependency on technology. I decided that I would, form here on out, study the downside of technology and use impersonality as an effect of it.