Our Relationship with Technology

        With technology influencing more and more of our everyday lives it can be good to think about our relationship with it. During my lifetime alone my phone has gone from something I would use to call my parents to something I could use to send emails, interact with hundreds of people, order at fast-food restaurants, and even start a small business. After all the U.S. did get to the moon with less advanced technology than what today's average phone contains. At this point, it is almost impossible to ignore our relationship with technology and for most people my age, they probably interact with their phone more than any other real relationship they may have with a friend, significant other, or parent. So, what are the implications of our relationship with technology sometimes being our strongest one?
         
        One major consequence of technology frequently being talked about today is the effects of social media. One important thing to note right off the bat is that 77% of all Americans own some form of social media proving that this is a nationwide concern. Melissa G. Hunt, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, did a study on the effects of social media on mental health and got some shocking results. She found that no matter their baseline results, the group that cut down their normal social media usage all became happier in terms of self-esteem, loneliness, anxiety, and more by the end of the trial. They also found the more depressed the person was at the beginning of the trail, the bigger the difference in the change of their mood by the end.
           
  I believe the reason why social media causes depression in people is due to social comparison. Social media was designed so that people could post all the fun things they are up to. Over time, people have begun to take social media more seriously and this is the problem. Everybody only wants to post what makes them look good. So everyone posts their best outfits, memories, pictures, etc. As a result of this, users are constantly on social media comparing themselves to the "perfect lives" of other people. When in reality, all the negative aspects of the user's life are just kept from the social media spotlight. I think this sees the snowball effect as people suffering from social media-induced depression feel obligated to "fight back" and try to build up their online persona as well. In-time, everyone is posting to make themselves look as perfect as possible and no one stops to realize how lonely and isolated we have become substituting real-life experiences with online interaction.