Temps et technologie

                        Benali

Rania Benali

Positive Psychology

Melanie Doyle

October 18, 2020

Time & Technology

My experience with technology

        Technology does make me feel more alone, in some way, as well as less alone. I feel like people nowadays are driven to their smartphone or mobile device in order to connect with people that are out of their reach, although I feel like they miss out on the people that are actually physically next to them at that moment. I myself am guilty of having this behavior, even if I try to be mindful of my cellphone usage everyday. When I find myself absorbed in the technological world that is Netflix, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, I feel alone. I am often alone in my room, scrolling through social media. This exploits my energy, although I have done nothing. Then, when comes the time for socializing, I am already so exhausted by my multiple online encounters that I feel like I do not have the energy to see people in real life. On the long run, I spend most of my days alone, communicating with people through a mobile device, which makes me feel even more alone, that is, the distance between me and people. Most of my friends have a mindset like mine where when we are together, we do not use our phones too much. I know people who will stay on their phone the whole time they are with someone, although me and my friends value time spent with one another, as we do not see each other often. We try to spend our time as connected as possible to one another, although it does happen at times that we are either feeling low or tired, so we would rather scroll on our social and send each other memes or talk about interesting stuff coming up on our screen, but to be frank, it does not happen very often. I do find myself guilty of staring at my screen with certain people that I find boring or uninteresting. I feel bad for it, as I could try and cultivate mutual interests or a relationship with these people that I do not consider as much as others. One day, I think I will understand the importance of socializing with people you do not know or are not keen of, although right now, my cellphone is kind of my bubble of protection for people I do not want to communicate with.

        I feel like documenting the things we go through can be beneficial as it can be detrimental. Some people will document absolutely everything they go through, until they are more on their phone at that given moment than enjoying the present moment. Some people will simply not document anything because they feel they only need the memories in their head and do not wish to be bothered by their cellphones, which is fine too. I personally document memories moderately; I like enjoying the present moment, but I love memories. I love to look back at what I did and feel this spark of joy that I felt at that moment in time. Therefore, I always try to put my phone away when doing a pleasurable activity, but will sneak it out a minute to take a snap of a gorgeous landscape or something that brought me happiness. Then, I’ll put my phone back down. This is how I keep my memories, as when I’ll look back to the picture, I will have visual and sensory stimuli from my phone and mind. Therefore, I do not feel like my phone usage prevents me from living in the moment. Although, I feel like some people really forget to live in the moment because of their phones, and I find it unfortunate, which is why I put so much effort in letting my phone down.

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