My Bitter-Sweet Relationship with Technology

I began using technology when I was about 13 years old. That is when I got my first laptop that had internet. I was so excited, I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it, I didn’t have papers to write or anything to type, I was excited because all of my friends went on the internet all of the time. I had been on the internet before but only to play games, and not for very long. Soon the boom of AIM and Myspace would hit and I would always be on the computer. I felt social; I was able to manipulate my Myspace to make me look older or cooler than I was. I then realized the dangers of technology when my friend got into some trouble, and I since then I have not used the internet as my space. I used to think as the internet as a space where I could write and post whatever I wanted, I was able to make friends and chat with people around the world. Then I realized that this space wasn’t private, but it felt like it to me. I used to use this technology as my private space, and then people I didn’t know recognized me from their friends Myspace and such. It creeped me out, technology was almost like my personal space, but I didn’t filter who was able to see it, now I do. My relationship with technology has changed in the sense that I don’t see it as my personal space; anyone can view what I post on the internet because I know that it is not private.
When I use technology it is generally for school. As I got older my relationship with technology became less social and more educational. I was I began to realize the social aspect of technology can become toxic. It replaces real relationships with people; it makes it way less formal, and people say things online that they wouldn’t usually say in person. I use technology for school because it is so important in education now. Can you imagine not having a laptop in High School or College? It wasn’t always like this, and I think it is very beneficial in education, but how much do we depend on it. I believe our society we have focused so much on technology that if it was taken from us we wouldn’t know what to do. It is embedded in us to use it, when teachers tell us to write a paper we never give them a handwritten paper, we always type it. We assume that is what we mean. We look at a typed paper as more professional than a handwritten paper; we value this technology to make us look presentable. We can make fancy power points and spell-check our papers, but we now tend to rely on this instead of editing our own work or creating our own designs. My relationship with technology is bitter sweet, I love technology and can’t imagine my life without it, but I also feel that it has gone so far as to enable us to be lazy and like I said depend on it for almost everything.