technology control us essay

Is Technology Controlling Our Lives?

Years and years ago, the internet was an escape from the world. Now, the world is our escape from the internet and the abundance of technology.

While technology can be very beneficial, it can control our lives without us even knowing it. Yes, it is nice having the ability to access anything and anyone at any time, but can we go five minutes without our phones?

Eddy Occhipinti, Associate Athletics Director/Marketing & Sponsorships believes that technology has greatly impacted our daily lives and society as a whole.

“In some respects, technology is incredibly helpful and has made many aspects of people’s lives easier and more convenient. In other ways, and depending on what and how, technological advances can be seen as harmful, depending on your perception and point of view. Like anything, if we allow it to control us, it will. I do think technology and its convenience has made us all very dependent on it, for better or worse,” he said.

Technology is eliminating face-to-face communication more and more. Business Insider states that the average person users their cell phone 2,617 times a day, so it’s no wonder interpersonal communication has become a rarity.

As you walk from class to class across campus, students’ eyes don’t leave their phone. Then, once you get to class, more students are glued to their phone, sending that last minute text before the professor arrives, or posting on their Snapchat story, fun phrases like, “I hate this class.”

When was the last time you were asked out in person and not through a text or Tinder message? When was the last time you sent someone a card to wish them a happy birthday instead of a text?

There are clearly downsides of technology, which Sue Starke Ph.D., associate professor of English believes. “We’re beginning to see some of the societal downsides of the ways people use newer personal technology. I believe that people will eventually adjust and develop new codes of behavior and etiquette to respond to and control disruptive aspects of new technologies,” Starke said.

She added that it is important to recognize these problems so that new norms can be developed to deal with them. We have to learn to control technology, and not allow technology to control us.

Technology and social media bring us instant communication, instant access to anything, and tons of entertainment, like Netflix or Hulu. That is exactly why it is so hard to be without our precious little cell phones.

Senior communication student, Elliot McPherson, admits that it can be a challenge losing immediate access to the above commodities.

“That’s why nobody ever wants to lose their phone, because it makes life a little harder. Not to mention that future generations are being brought up more dependent on it than we were. It’s a grey area with the fact that it has real benefits, but real social drawbacks,” he said.

Similar to what Starke said, McPherson also added that technology is always evolving, so we will eventually have to figure out what course of action to take, and what norms to establish.

Until those new norms come to be, it is important to realize that we can survive without our cell phones, and we must take the time to unplug. Believe it or not, unplugging can leave us feeling happier.

When we constantly see others post about their lives, it can leave us feeling lonely, jealous, or unhappy. Maybe your boyfriend doesn’t treat you the way he should, but you see your friend being treated like a princess. That can make you feel unhappy and desperate to find a better guy. Or perhaps you see a classmate’s “transformation Tuesday” post on Instagram while wishing that you had that fit body.

Unplugging also gives us the ability to open our eyes and truly pay attention to what’s in front of us. Go bundle up and watch the sunset on the beach or spend some quality time with your significant other. Engage in meaningful, authentic, face-to-face communication. The moment that you are in, you will never get back, so don’t miss it by scrolling through Facebook or “liking” all of your crush’s Instagram posts.

With finals approaching and winter break right around the corner, try unplugging and see what the world has to offer, rather than using technology as an escape from the world.

Spend some one-on-one time with friends or your significant other. Turn your phone off for a night and go take a hot bubble bath followed by hot chocolate. Remember that there is a beautiful world to be seen when you look up from your phone.

PHOTO TAKEN by Amber Galati

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Do we control technology, or does it control us?

In general, the narrative around mobile technology use is either non-existent or cast in a negative light. Some see technology as a tool to be used, while others view it as a disruption or mechanism for addictive behaviours. 

Theoretical concepts around the impact of technology on human behaviour have two distinct opposing perspectives .

The first is a social constructivist view. This is where technology is neutral and useful for achieving specific tasks. The user engages with devices within their own personal technical abilities and focussed on how technology and people interact over time.  This view focuses on the dynamic interactions between people and technology and includes how the people use and adapt to technology, at home and work. The socially constructed nature of the use of technology by humans is premised by the view that ‘we make tools, and tools make us’.

The second is a deterministic perspective. This is where technology is given the ability to change and shape human behaviour and social structures. This viewpoint suggests that technology and human behaviour is ‘mutually dependent, integrative, and co-evolving over time’ ( for more information on this perspective, see Orlikowsi & Scott’s work on Sociomateriality p. 443 ).

These two theoretical concepts have a direct impact on what is called ‘ Boundary Theory ’. This is where workers subconsciously or actively create and maintain barriers between their work life and home life. We can either think of technology as a way to accomplish our life and career goals or we can think of technology as a type of master that we are a type of slave to. Boundary Theory has become a lot more important since its first conceptualisation at the turn of the 21 st century, with the now ubiquitous use of laptops, tablets and mobile phones that allow constant access to workplace files and communication.

Remote working has gone even further in highlighting how important it is to manage the right level of workplace technology use during time traditionally allocated to private pursuits and homelife. When remote working, some people have no choice to and some people prefer to integrate their family and work lives. ‘Integrators’ generally use the flexibility that technology allows them to manage home demands while still fulfilling workplace demands. Working while children are in bed or at school and being available in late afternoons for home-based responsibilities.

Other workers prefer to have distinct boundaries between work and home life. This is not so easy to do when remote working from home. Unless there is a separate space within the home to conduct work, it can be really difficult to mentally, physically and emotionally separate out the two life-realms. ‘Segmenters’ tend to get really frustrated and can become quite exhausted when they are not able to create these strong boundaries between their various responsibilities.

A few hints and tips:

If you prefer to segment than integrate different life-realms, but feel forced to due to remote working from home, below are a few potential ways you can create psychological boundaries between the two:

• Use different technology for home and workplace activities
• Try not to upload work emails onto your personal mobile phone. Some people use two different phones (one for personal and one for work use) so that they can switch off the work phone at the end of the working day
• Have a ‘for work only’ notebook that you can leave somewhere easily accessible, so if you have a work-based idea/thought or you remember something you forgot to do, you can jot it down and tackle it the following working day
• Walk around the block at the beginning or end of the working day. This can create a sense of ‘leaving home’ and ‘leaving the office’. It may not be quite the same as transporting yourself to an alternative location, but it can create a more definitive boundary between the two realms.

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• 1. How the internet and technology shaped Americans’ personal experiences amid COVID-19

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As the pandemic unfolded in spring 2020, many Americans saw their lives swiftly reshaped by  stay-at-home orders , school closures  and the onset of  remote work . From video calls with  isolating or sick family members  to  holiday celebrations by video call  amid  canceled travel plans , social distancing recommendations altered major life events and elements of daily life alike. 

Technology bridged physical distance as restrictions continued.  Religious services ,  doctor appointments  and  essential errands  moved online. At the same time, organizations implementing remote work and Americans spending more time online worried about “ Zoom fatigue ” and tech burnout.

Relationships also evolved during this uprooting of typical routines. Pandemic “pods” helped some Americans  maintain connection , but they  complicated relationships  and family dynamics at the same time. In some cases, friendships  relied on technology  to stay afloat. And others needed to find new ways to connect amid  growing isolation . 

With this broader societal context in mind, this chapter explores the ways in which Americans’ lives changed in the pandemic – and the ways that technology was a part of several transitions. Results from the April 2021 Pew Research Center survey show that even as a majority of Americans considered the internet essential to them personally during the pandemic and four-in-ten used tech in new ways, some feel worn out or fatigued from video calls and a quarter feel less close to close family members than before the coronavirus outbreak. The following sections explore these findings. 

58% of adults say the internet has been essential during the pandemic, and for some groups, its importance grew over the past year

The share of Americans who describe the internet as essential for them during the pandemic has risen slightly over the past year. As of April 2021, 58% of U.S. adults say this,  compared with 53%  in an April 2020 Center survey. 

Americans varied in their reliance on the internet and some of the key differences relate to age, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, income and community type. For example, roughly seven-in-ten adults ages 18 to 49 (69%) say the internet has been essential to them personally, compared with half of those ages 50 to 64 and about four-in-ten Americans 65 and older. 

Additionally, about six-in-ten of those living in urban or suburban areas (61% each) say the internet has been essential to them, compared with a smaller share of those living in rural locales (48%) who say the same. While at least half of adults across major racial and ethnic groups say this connectivity has been essential, Hispanic adults (65%) are more likely to say so than White adults (54%). Some 58% of Black Americans say the internet has been essential in this way.

Several of the groups that are less likely to say the internet has been essential also have lower rates of home broadband adoption and smartphone access, according to  other Center research . For example,  digital divides have persisted  in recent years even as Americans with lower incomes have made gains in tech adoption. And as of 2021, a quarter of U.S. adults 65 and older  say they do not use the internet .

For some groups, the importance of the internet has grown over the past year – especially when it comes to age and educational attainment. The share of adults ages 18 to 29 who say it has been essential during the pandemic rose 10 percentage points between April 2020 and April 2021. Similarly, roughly four-in-ten adults 65 and older (38%) now say the internet has been essential to them, compared with about three-in-ten who said so in April 2020. 

Americans with higher levels of educational attainment are more likely today than a year ago to say the internet has been essential to them during the pandemic. For example, 71% of those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree say this, up from 65% in 2020. This uptick also appears for those with some college experience, while sentiments among those with a high school education or less have remained stable.

Looking at older Americans specifically, adults ages 65 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more education are more likely now to say the internet has been essential to them personally (50% say so) compared with a year ago (39%) – an 11 percentage point increase. By contrast, among those 65 and older who have less education, the shares saying it has been essential are similar between the two time points (27% in 2020 and 32% in 2021). 

Adults ages 50 to 64 with a bachelor’s or advanced degree are also more likely now to say the internet has been personally essential (a 7-point increase since 2020), while there has been no change for those in that age group with less formal education.

81% of Americans have used video calling and conferencing during the pandemic

As Americans increasingly lived their lives from home, video calling and conferencing platforms became a venue for everything from  celebrating holidays with family and friends  to conducting remote meetings or  visiting doctors . 

Roughly eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say they have talked with others via video calls since the beginning of the pandemic. One-in-five have done so about once a day or more often, including 12% who say they are on video calls several times a day. Another three-in-ten have done this about once a week (12%) or a few times a week (18%), and a similar share use video calls every few weeks (16%) or less often (15%).

While there are  many ways  people can spend their time on video calls, the survey finds that working from home is particularly associated with this type of screen time. 

In this survey, 17% of Americans say they were employed full or part time and working from home all or most of the time as of April. 7 Among them, 46% say they have used video calling about daily or several times a day during the pandemic. Another 12% of the full adult population was employed full or part time and working from home some of the time or rarely at the time of the survey. Among that group, 28% say they have used video calling about daily or more. And among the 28% of U.S. adults who were working but never from home, 13% say they are on daily or more frequent video calls. 

Aside from work-from-home status, how often people use video calls varies by several other demographics. Black and Hispanic adults are more likely to have used video calling than White adults. Hispanic adults are more likely than White Americans to have done so several times a day or about daily. Meanwhile, while about two-thirds of adults 65 and older have made video calls in the pandemic,  daily  use is more common among younger adults. About a quarter of those 18 to 29 (28%) and 30 to 49 (26%) say they have done this about daily or more often, compared with 16% of those 50 to 64 and 7% of adults 65 and older. 

Frequency of video calling varies by education as well. About a third of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree say they have done this at least once a day, compared with smaller shares of those with less formal education.

In their own words, Americans describe how they have used technology or the internet in new or different ways during the pandemic 

As the severity of the pandemic grew, some Americans were faced with performing everything from their social interactions to their work or schooling online. Four-in-ten Americans say they used digital technology or the internet in new or different ways compared with before the outbreak began. Still, an even larger share – 59% – say their tech use has not changed in this way.

As is the case with  digital divides in internet use  and  tech adoption  in general, those with more formal education and higher incomes are more likely to have had new or different experiences with tech in the pandemic. For example, 56% of those with at least a bachelor’s degree say they have used technology in ways new or different to them, compared with 37% of those with some college experience and 29% of those with a high school diploma or less. Similarly, 46% of those with higher household incomes say so, compared with a smaller share of those with lower (38%) or middle incomes (40%).

Women are also more likely than men to say they have used digital technology or the internet in new and different ways (43% vs. 36%), as are adults under 50 (46%) compared with those who are 50 and older (33%). 

When asked to describe what these new and different ways are, 43% mention encountering at least one form of video calls or conferences new to them in the pandemic. From weddings to funerals, church meetings to calls with family, some of these adults report their lives moved largely onto video platforms:

“We now hold bi-weekly family meetings on Zoom to make sure we are all doing okay. Before we just had individual phone calls with family members. We used Vimeo for my mother’s funeral so people could watch her funeral mass. She died of COVID-19. I used Zoom for work meetings.” – Woman, 57

“[I have had] Zoom meetings [and] Microsoft Teams meetings. [I’ve had] increased FaceTime family meetings. [I had] job interviews via the internet.” – Man, 46

“[I have been] teaching writing classes over Zoom [and I] dated someone over FaceTime for 3 months. [I] attended various online events.” – Woman, 24

While about a quarter of Americans who have used tech in new ways mention video calls generally, roughly one-in-ten (8%) referenced the remote work aspect of video conferencing specifically:

“Most of my work-related meetings are no longer in-person, but on Zoom or Teams. Instead of attending professional conferences in person, all of them are now virtual meetings. It took a bit to get comfortable with such drastic change.” – Man, 63

A similar share (8%) talk about using video calling to connect with family and friends, or attend social events or “video holidays”:

“It has opened me up to using video chat to connect with physically distanced friends. I have people that I used to only see on Facebook or in person two times a year but now we do a group video chat once a month and I am closer to them than ever.” – Woman, 39

Smaller shares discuss the move to online learning and the use of video platforms (5%) or using video calls for telehealth (4%):

“[I] had to learn how to use Google Classroom to help my son with his hybrid learning. I also did my first tele-visit with my GP doctor and I am disabled so it turns out I’ll be able to continue to use that technology once the pandemic is over to make it easier! … Not to mention, I’ve attended various social gatherings that, due to my disability, I wouldn’t have been able to attend under normal circumstances!” – Man, 28

Aside from video calls, 16% of Americans said they have used technology or the internet to obtain groceries, food or other essentials, or to perform services like banking or document signing:

“Shopping (especially groceries and home supplies) online through various different places, permanently eliminating the need to physically go to the grocery store for most shopping activities.” – Man, 42

“Ordering groceries, ordering tags for my car, doctor’s appointments, paying insurance premiums, paying bills and keeping in touch with family and friends.” – Woman, 78

In addition to those who mention remote work and online learning in the context of video calls, another 13% mention using technology in new ways for remote work and another 7% for online learning:

“Before the outbreak, I was the typical pen and paper type of middle school math teacher. After the outbreak, I have become a much more proficient virtual math teacher who has embraced many new platforms [that] have made my job easier. I have recently become fully vaccinated and returned to the brick and mortar school environment, but will maintain many of the new skills which I learned virtually.” – Man, 62

“We needed to get the internet for our granddaughter to be able to get her education while she’s home during the pandemic.” – Woman, 53

Others specifically note how they are now relying on the strength or quality of their connection in a new way:

“I upgraded my internet (was just using a hotspot previously) and for my work, I am connected all day through the workday. If the internet goes down, my ability to work at home decreases significantly. Before the work from home started, if I lost the ability to connect to the internet, it only affected me in terms of annoyance at not being able to surf the net.” – Woman, 50

Finally, other Americans have used social media and other technology for entertainment (7%), to keep up social interaction, especially on social media (5%), to find and search for information (4%), or attend online religious services or activities (3%). And their use of these digital technologies has sometimes changed over the course of the pandemic.

“I never really used Twitter before. Now I follow some important public health figures and medical doctors who are working for the CDC, etc., so I can be informed on what is going on with COVID-19 and treatment options.” – Woman, 53

“Pre-COVID-19 and even well into the pandemic, I was using the internet/my smartphone to spend countless hours on social media. Somewhere in there I deleted most of the social media apps from my phone and have been using it to read e-books and plan creative projects, mostly home improvements.” – Woman, 34

“I now attend church services online rather than in person, which I had not done before the outbreak.” – Man, 36

68% of Americans say digital interactions have been useful – but not a replacement for in-person connection

In late March 2020, as stay-at home orders upended American life, a  Center survey  asked U.S. adults to speculate on whether digital interactions – that is, everyday interactions that might have to be done online or by telephone because of recommended limits on social contact during the coronavirus outbreak – would be suitable replacement for in-person contact. At the time, about a quarter of Americans said digital encounters would be just as good (27%), and 8% believed that they wouldn’t be of much help. Some 64% said they would be useful, but not a replacement.

In this new survey, Americans were asked to assess how digital encounters used to replace social contact have actually gone. When asked to think about everyday interactions that happened online or by telephone rather than in person, 17% say that these have been just as good as in-person contact. In line with Americans’ own expectations a year ago, the majority of Americans – 68% – say that interactions that have moved online or to the phone have been useful, but not a replacement for in-person. Some 15% say these interactions haven’t been of much use. 

Considering the more recent findings about people’s experiences, relatively small shares across demographic groups say these types of digital interactions have been just as good as in-person contact. Still, there are some small differences by race and ethnicity, age and formal educational attainment in this respect. Adults ages 18 to 29 were more skeptical than older adults in March 2020 – 21% said these interactions would be just as good as in-person contact, compared with a somewhat larger share (29%) of Americans 65 and older. In the new survey, some 23% of adults ages 18 to 29 say these interactions have been just as good as in-person contact, while a  smaller  share (12%) of those 65 and older who feel this way about the utility of their digital interactions. 

In March 2020, Black adults were more likely than White adults to think digital interactions would be just as good as in-person contact. Black and Hispanic adults are also more likely than White adults to say these interactions have been just as good in the new survey. At the same time, about another quarter of Black adults say that these digital interactions have not been of much use. Smaller shares of White and Hispanic adults say the same.

Both then and now, how useful Americans say these interactions have been also varies by educational attainment.

A quarter of Americans feel less close to close family members than before pandemic; about four-in-ten say the same about friends they know well

Some accounts of the pandemic  have lamented the potential loss of casual friendships and acquaintances as COVID-19 narrowed people’s social circles and family structures into smaller  bubbles . At the same time, some  living with friends or family members  may have faced increased time spent together as stay-at-home orders were imposed to combat COVID-19. Others  living alone  faced possible challenges of staying in touch with those close to them.

The new survey reveals that some people feel their social relationships and their connections to those in their personal networks have been in flux during the pandemic. About half of Americans (53%) say they feel less close to casual acquaintances compared with before the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in February 2020. Some 38% say the same about friends they know well. And a quarter of Americans say they now feel less close to close family members.

At the same time, about one fifth of adults (22%) say they feel  more close  to close family members than they did before the pandemic. Smaller shares say this about friends they know well and casual acquaintances. 

And despite the pandemic upheaval, about half say their relationships with close family members (53%) and friends they know well (47%) have stayed about as close as before, while roughly four-in-ten (41%) say this about casual acquaintances. 

Some groups are more likely to report change in the closeness of their relationships than others. Hispanic and Black adults are less likely than White adults to say the closeness of their relationships with close family and friends has stayed about the same compared with before the beginning of the pandemic. 

When it comes to close family members, similar shares of Hispanic adults say these relationships feel closer than before (30%) and less close than before (31%). Compared with White adults, they are also more likely to say they feel closer to close family, and friends they know well.

Americans with lower incomes are also more likely than others to say they feel less close to close family members compared with before the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. About three-in-ten of those with lower incomes say so. At the same time, a fifth of Americans with lower incomes say they feel more close to close family, and 48% say they feel about as close to these family members as before the pandemic.

There is little difference in how Americans in various age groups describe the pandemic’s impact on closeness of their family relationships. But when it comes to friends they know well, young adults ages 18 to 29 are more likely to say they now feel closer to these friends than those in any other age group. Still, only about a fifth (22%) of young adults say so.

Finally, small shares of adults across gender, racial and ethnic, age and income groups say they feel closer to casual acquaintances than they did before – no more than about one-in-ten across any of these groups. In each case, far larger shares say they feel less close now.

Women are slightly more likely than men to say they feel less close to acquaintances, as are Americans with lower incomes compared with those in the upper-income tier. Those who live in urban (57%) or suburban (54%) areas are more likely to say their relationships with casual acquaintances are less close now, compared with those who live in rural areas (46%).

Majorities say texts or group messaging apps, voice and video calls have helped them at least a little to stay connected to family and friends

For some, technology became a way to stay in touch with others whom they could not visit in person since the pandemic began. About seven-in-ten Americans say text messages or group messaging apps have helped them personally to stay connected with their family and friends at least a little. Roughly six-in-ten or more say the same about voice (65%) and video calls (59%). Smaller shares say this about social media sites or email.

Americans’ reliance on technology early in the pandemic was apparent in several ways, from  using technology to communicate with others  to  hosting virtual gatherings . Over a year into the pandemic, results from the new survey show that key communications platforms have been more likely to be helpful for some groups than others. 

For each of the five technologies asked about in the survey, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than White adults to say these technologies have helped them a lot to stay connected. For example, 58% of Hispanic adults say that text messages or group messaging apps have helped them a lot, personally, to stay connected with their family and friends. Some 49% of Black adults and a smaller share (39%) of White adults say the same. Voice calls have helped about half of Black and Hispanic adults a lot to stay in touch, compared with a third of White adults. Similar patterns hold for video calls, social media sites and email.

There are also differences by gender, with women being more likely than men to say that each of these technologies have helped them a lot to stay connected to friends and family.

Adults ages 18 to 29 are more likely than those 65 and older to say video calls and social media sites have helped a lot in staying connected with family and friends.

The reverse is true for email: Some 28% of Americans 65 and older say that this has helped them a lot to stay in touch, compared with smaller shares of younger Americans. Those 65 and older are also more likely than those 30 to 64 to say voice calls have helped a lot. 

Other technologies – for example, text messages or group messaging apps – have been similarly helpful for Americans across age groups. Across age groups, four-in-ten or more Americans say these have helped a lot with staying in touch. 

36% of Americans say their personal lives changed in a major way

As context for this exploration of how people’s technology use and experiences were affected by the pandemic, the survey also asked Americans about the overall impact of the pandemic on their personal lives.

Some 36% of Americans say their own personal life has changed in a major way as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Another 47% say their personal life has changed, but only a little bit. And 16% say that it has stayed about the same as it was before the outbreak. 

Women are somewhat more likely than men to say life has changed in a major way (39% vs. 33%), as are those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree (40%) compared with those with some college (35%) or a high school diploma or less formal education (34%). And Americans living in urban (41%) and suburban areas (37%) are more likely to say this than those living in rural areas (30%).

About half of those who say their personal lives have changed in a major way (52%) say they have used technology in new ways during the pandemic, compared with 38% of those who say their personal lives have changed a little bit and 19% of those who say life stayed about the same. At the same time, roughly seven-in-ten Americans reporting major changes in life (73%) or with more modest levels of change (69%) say digital interactions have been useful, but not a replacement for in-person interactions, compared with a smaller share among those who say their personal lives stayed about the same (52%). 

Those who say their lives stayed about the same are also more likely than others to say interactions they have had online or by phone instead of in person haven’t been of much use: 26% of these adults think these virtual interactions haven’t been useful, compared with smaller shares of those who say their personal lives changed a little bit (14%) or in a major way (11%).

At the same time, those who say their lives have changed in a major way are more likely to say each of the five technologies asked about in the survey helped a lot to keep them connected, compared with those who say their lives have changed a little or stayed about the same.

Among those who said their personal lives have changed in a major way, the shares who say text messages or group messaging apps, video calls or voice calls have helped a lot are roughly 20 points higher compared with those who say their lives stayed about the same. About half or more of those who say their personal lives have changed in a major way say text messages or group messaging apps (55%) or voice calls (49%) helped them a lot to stay connected with family and friends, and 40% say the same about video calls. 

Those who say their lives have changed in a major way are also more likely to say they now feel less close to close family members (35%) than those whose lives changed only a little (22%) or stayed about the same (9%). And about half (53%) of those with major change in this aspect of their life say their relationships with friends they know well are now less close.

The diminishing closeness of casual relationships is especially prominent for those whose personal lives COVID-19 changed profoundly – roughly seven-in-ten (69%) of adults with major change say that they now generally feel less close to casual acquaintances. By comparison, about a quarter (26%) of those whose personal lives stayed about the same say they feel less close to these acquaintances now.

40% of those who have used video calling during the pandemic feel worn out from such calls at least sometimes

As some Americans intensified their tech use and tried new online activities, there was a possibility that some might become “worn out” by this screen time – leading to a phenomenon commonly known as “Zoom fatigue” in the context of  personal  and  work-related  video calls. Some  accounts of the pandemic  also raised the question of whether Americans would try to purposefully “unplug” or otherwise manage their screen time, as many children and adults alike spent more time on their devices. 

Overall, among those who have used video calling during the pandemic, four-in-ten say they have often (13%) or sometimes (27%) felt worn out or fatigued from spending time on these calls. Looking at the population overall, one-third of all adults say that they feel worn out or fatigued from video calls often (11%) or sometimes (22%).

Reported fatigue increases with greater time spent on video calls. Fully 74% of those who have used video calling several times a day during the pandemic say this is the case at least sometimes, including 36% who say they feel worn out or fatigued often. About half or more of those who are on calls less often than this, but at least a few times a week, say the same. 

But even a portion of those who rarely use video calling report fatigue. About a quarter of those who have talked with others via video calls only every few weeks during the pandemic say they feel worn out at least sometimes.

The new survey shows that among those who’ve made video calls in the pandemic, there are differences in reported video call fatigue by age, formal educational attainment, and work-from-home status.

Among those who have made video calls, about six-in-ten of those ages 18 to 29 say they feel worn out or fatigued from these calls at least sometimes. By comparison, 21% of those 65 and older say so. And about half of those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree report feeling this way at least sometimes, compared with 31% of those with a high school diploma or less.

Among pandemic video call users who work from home all or most of the time, some 65% say they feel worn out or fatigued at least sometimes from the time they spend on video calls. (A  separate Center study  conducted in October 2020 that used a different definition of remote work and call fatigue found that about four-in-ten teleworkers who used video conferencing often were worn out by the time spent on them, compared with 63% of that group who said they were generally fine with the amount of time spent on video calls.)

As many daily activities moved online, Americans’ reactions to increased screen time were not just limited to issues related to video calling. A third of adults also say in this survey that they have tried to cut back on the amount of time they were spending with screens – specifically on the internet or their smartphone – since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. 

Fully 49% of adults ages 18 to 29 have tried to cut back on their screen time, compared with roughly four-in-ten of those ages 30 to 49. Smaller but notable shares of those 50 to 64 (27%) and 65 and older (19%) say they’ve tried cutting down. 

And Americans who use social media are more likely to say they’ve tried to cut back on screen time than those who don’t – an 8 percentage point gap.

Screen time issues also became  paramount for families and children  during the pandemic. The  next chapter  of this report discusses parents’ views on their children’s screen time, alongside other findings on the experiences of parents and children during the pandemic.

• In October 2020, a  separate Center study  also asked about work and video calling. The estimates in this report should not be interpreted as changing over time due to the different sets of individuals asked the question in the two surveys and because the questions in each survey had different wording. ↩

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We let technology into our lives. And now it’s starting to control us

I n 1998, I joined the UK launch team for an e-commerce startup named after the world’s largest river. The smart idea was to harness the unprecedented cataloguing capacity of the emerging internet to sell books – a product with a long shelf-life – online. In those days, now regarded as the classical era in tech history, the boundary between the product consumed and the medium used to deliver it was clear.

Increasingly, the boundary between product and platform is dissolving before our eyes. First, we offered the freedom of the biggest selection of books in the world. Then we said: “If you liked that, you will like this.” We were following you into the bookshop, recording your purchasing history and suggesting your future. It started with books, but it was always intended to be everything, in the end.

Two years later, in 2000, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig predicted that the internet would become an apparatus that tracks our every move, erasing important aspects of privacy and free speech in our social and political lives. “Left to itself,” he said, “cyberspace will become a perfect tool of control.” A sceptical reviewer scoffed : “Lessig doesn’t offer much proof that a Soviet-style loss of privacy and freedom is on its way.”

Sixteen years later, it’s clear that the digital world born in freedom has evolved into a creature of control. Post-Snowden, we know the scale of NSA and GCHQ surveillance . We know we’re being watched. But equally, we might consider that the employee who decides what does and doesn’t go on Facebook for its 1.79 billion active users is the most powerful censor in the world. Do you know her name?

We also know that corporate internet giants gather data to maximise profits from our consumer habits, from grocery shopping to TV viewing patterns. Just like trawlers with dragnets, all sorts of other collateral data gets hauled in along the way. Data surveillance, once intangible and invisible, now blatantly announces its presence in our everyday lives. Mobile accessories and the interconnectivity between gadgets and appliances in our homes – the internet of things – create an unprecedented network of tracking devices capturing data for commerce and government.

The technology we thought we were using to make life more efficient started using us some time ago. It is now attempting to reshape our social behaviour into patterns reminiscent of the total surveillance culture of the medieval village, East Germany under the Stasi, or the white supremacist state of South Africa in which I grew up.

In an increasingly online everyday life, our use of social media has become a medium for normalising the acceptability of intrusion and behavioural correction. We are bombarded by “helpful recommendations” on education, health, relationships, taxes and leisure matched to our tracked user profiles that nudge us towards products and services to make us better citizen consumers. The app told you that you only took 100 steps today. The ad for the running shoes will arrive tomorrow.

We risk allowing ourselves to become a vast network of informants on each other and ourselves. Think about GPS-based location tracking on your mobile phone; think about social media apps where we broadcast our spontaneous thoughts, social lives and relationships.

As individuals we behave on a spectrum of complicity with the demise of our privacy. We know Twitter is broadcasting. We’re generally naive about the limits to our visibility and history on Facebook . We’re in self-denial where there ought to be a reasonable expectation of privacy, as with texts, emails and online shopping. In truth we already know nothing’s private because the corporates and government can get it anyway. And the icing on the cake is that we are paying for our surveillance out of our own hard-pressed pockets.

Whether the internet is a “public good” is a question that has so far focused primarily on anxiety about government intervention into our digital lives. We are rightly concerned that Donald Trump will soon get his hands on the NSA, and that Britain’s snooper’s charter legitimises rather than limits the vast intrusions exposed by Snowden. But just as the internet knows no international borders, neither does it recognise outmoded distinctions between state and corporate power, citizens and consumers and platforms and products.

The fact that billions of us now use a handful of corporate-owned global platforms to manage pretty much every aspect of our daily lives indicates how fast the potential of digital culture is shrinking. A tectonic rift exists between the corporate apparatuses of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp (now owned by Facebook), Twitter, Apple and Amazon, and the open source and creative commons ideals of the “internet of public good”.

Our concern about government snooping sometimes distracts from self-awareness of our complicity as consumers of products so ubiquitous they have become everyday verbs.

So, I’m going to act. Of course there are all sorts of measures we can take to improve our internet security. Using encryption and password managers, securing our sources. We can even put our mobile phone in a heavy copper purse and drag it round with us. But while there are tools we can use to avoid surveillance and hackers, as a consumer I’m trying to avoid or limit using services offered by corporates who don’t pay their taxes; are idolisers of borderless free trade but arch-enemies of the international labour movement; are destroying privacy and creating an architecture of commercial surveillance of every aspect of our existence.

The so-called hippy libertarians in Silicon Valley are more like unelected tyrants. They demand free speech and low tax to suit them but impose de facto censorship, surveillance and behavioural correction on us. No privacy for us and barely any scrutiny of them. The barons who own the digital kingdom that most of us inhabit declare themselves libertarians but not when our liberties are at stake.

None of the internet giants has unionised employees . Trade unionists are derided by Silicon Valley as modern-day luddites. But the recent landmark UK court ruling that Uber drivers are not self-employed demonstrates that the gig economy does not, in the words of TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady , have to be a rigged economy. “Our role isn’t to try to stop this progress, it’s to make sure that technology is used to make working people’s lives better, and to make sure the gains from new technology are fairly shared.”

I’m also worried about how we use social media. The so-called neutral platforms facilitate hate against women, racism and homophobia, and they may have put Trump in the White House as well. It may not be the platform itself, but the way in which it favours those outside the conventional media establishment and its notions of balance. Analytics expert Laeeq Khan suggests a behavioural change in our social media habits: “As social media consumers, we should resist limiting ourselves to an echo chamber of like-minded voices.”

Crooked Hillary should not be allowed to run for president. She deleted 33,000 e-mails AFTER getting a subpoena from U.S. Congress. RIGGED! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2016

Trump dominated rivals on social media. He tweeted, Facebooked and Instagrammed directly to followers, apparently personally and spontaneously. It wasn’t necessarily the content that people identified with, but the carefully crafted lack of spin. This modern-day Big Brother mastered Twitter by propagating a sense of immediacy, blatant expression and human risk, rather than balance and caution. What Trump tweeted at 3am, the mainstream media reported the next day.

So this is the action I’m taking. I have stopped using Google as my search engine and deactivated my Facebook account. WhatsApp followed when it announced in August that it had abandoned its principled pro-privacy stance and would share data with its new parent and others in the “Facebook family of companies”. I’m putting on my tin hat, dusting off my open-source kitbag, and heading off to the dark woods to join the resistance. Like Patrick McGoohan playing Number 6 in The Prisoner, I expect it’s going to take many failed attempts to try to escape the Village .

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Klint Finley

What Makes Technology Good or Bad for Us?

Everyone’s worried about smartphones. Headlines like “ Have smartphones destroyed a generation? ” and “ Smartphone addiction could be changing your brain ” paint a bleak picture of our smartphone addiction and its long-term consequences. This isn’t a new lament—public opinion at the advent of the newspaper worried that people would forego the stimulating pleasures of early-morning conversation in favor of reading the daily .

Is the story of technology really that bad? Certainly there’s some reason to worry. Smartphone use has been linked to serious issues, such as dwindling attention spans , crippling depression , and even increased incidence of brain cancer . Ultimately, though, the same concern comes up again and again: Smartphones can’t be good for us, because they’re replacing the real human connection of the good old days.

Everyone’s heard how today’s teens just sit together in a room, texting, instead of actually talking to each other. But could those teenagers actually be getting something meaningful and real out of all that texting?

The science of connection

A quick glance at the research on technology-mediated interaction reveals an ambivalent literature. Some studies show that time spent socializing online can decrease loneliness , increase well-being , and help the socially anxious learn how to connect to others. Other studies suggest that time spent socializing online can cause loneliness , decrease well-being , and foster a crippling dependence on technology-mediated interaction to the point that users prefer it to face-to-face conversation.

It’s tempting to say that some of these studies must be right and others wrong, but the body of evidence on both sides is a little too robust to be swept under the rug. Instead, the impact of social technology is more complicated. Sometimes, superficially similar behaviors have fundamentally different consequences. Sometimes online socialization is good for you, sometimes it’s bad, and the devil is entirely in the details.

This isn’t a novel proposition; after all, conflicting results started appearing within the first few studies into the internet’s social implications, back in the 1990s. Many people have suggested that to understand the consequences of online socialization, we need to dig deeper into situational factors and circumstances. But what we still have to do is move beyond recognition of the problem to provide an answer: When, how, and why are some online interactions great, while others are dangerous?

The interpersonal connection behaviors framework

As a scientist of close relationships, I can’t help but see online interactions differently from thinkers in other fields. People build relationships by demonstrating their understanding of each other’s needs and perspectives, a cyclical process that brings them closer together. If I tell you my secrets, and you respond supportively, I’m much more likely to confide in you again—and you, in turn, are much more likely to confide in me.

This means that every time two people talk to each other, an opportunity for relationship growth is unfolding. Many times, that opportunity isn’t taken; we aren’t about to have an in-depth conversation with the barista who asks for our order. But connection is always theoretically possible, and that’s true whether we’re interacting online or face-to-face.

Close relationships are the bread and butter of happiness—and even health. Being socially isolated is a stronger predictor of mortality than is smoking multiple cigarettes a day . If we want to understand the role technology plays in our well-being, we need to start with the role it plays in our relationships.

And it turns out that the kind of technology-mediated interactions that lead to positive outcomes are exactly those that are likely to build stronger relationships. Spending your time online by scheduling interactions with people you see day in and day out seems to pay dividends in increased social integration . Using the internet to compensate for being lonely just makes you lonelier; using the internet to actively seek out connection has the opposite effect .

“The kind of technology-mediated interactions that lead to positive outcomes are exactly those that are likely to build stronger relationships”

On the other hand, technology-mediated interactions that don’t really address our close relationships don’t seem to do us any good—and might, in fact, do us harm. Passively scrolling through your Facebook feed without interacting with people has been linked to decreased well-being and increased depression post-Facebook use.

That kind of passive usage is a good example of “ social snacking .” Like eating junk food, social snacking can temporarily satisfy you, but it’s lacking in nutritional content. Looking at your friends’ posts without ever responding might make you feel more connected to them, but it doesn’t build intimacy.

Passive engagement has a second downside, as well: social comparison . When we compare our messy lived experiences to others’ curated self-presentations, we are likely to suffer from lowered self-esteem , happiness, and well-being. This effect is only exacerbated when we consume people’s digital lives without interacting with them, making it all too easy to miss the less photogenic moments of their lives.

Moving forward

The interpersonal connection behaviors framework doesn’t explain everything that might influence our well-being after spending time on social media. The internet poses plenty of other dangers—for two examples, the sense of wasting time or emotional contagion from negative news. However, a focus on meaningful social interaction can help explain decades of contradictory findings. And even if the framework itself is challenged by future work, its central concept is bound to be upheld: We have to study the details of how people are spending their time online if we want to understand its likely effects.

In the meantime, this framework has some practical implications for those worried about their own online time. If you make sure you’re using social media for genuinely social purposes, with conscious thought about how it can improve your life and your relationships, you’ll be far more likely to enjoy your digital existence.

This article was originally published on the Behavioral Scientist . Read the original article .

About the Author

Jenna Clark

Jenna Clark, Ph.D. , is a senior behavioral researcher at Duke University's Center for Advanced Hindsight, where she works to help people make healthy decisions in spite of themselves. She's also interested in how technology contributes to our well-being through its effect on our close personal relationships.

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Do we control technology or does it control us?

W hen the alarm goes off in the morning, the first thing many people do is reach for their cell phones which will only start their typical 4-hour use, according to The Guardian . Technology simplifies our lives, and in the high-tech world that we live in, it can be hard for people to imagine a world without it. Although the use of technology can be beneficial, it has started to control our lives and influenced them, which has caused more overall harm than good. Consequently, we need to begin considering whether we control technology or if it controls us before taking any definitive stance. 

Having such a powerful tool at your fingertips makes you more and more dependent on it, eliminating possible face to face reactions. Whether this is in school, a workplace or just around the neighborhood, it sometimes seems that almost everyone’s eyes are glued onto their screens. 

While there are positive aspects to the use of technology like creative inspiration, the ability to contacts friends or family, and entertainment, the negatives have clearly outweighed these positives.

“Expectations, impressions, and appearances are so big in social media and sometimes you can get so caught up that you can get spoiled because you don’t realize that you should be grateful for what you have now,” Junior Hyunah Roh said. 

As of right now, the best way to reduce phone usage is to unplug and just take a break. According to an article by Jamie Gruman, when you unplug from your phone it gives you time and space to decompress and recharge, making you feel better when you return to a workplace or school. Additionally, taking a break could leave you feeling much happier as you no longer being exposed to other people’s lives and subsequently feeling inadequate by comparison. 

Unplugging can give you the opportunity to open your eyes and look at the world around us and how beautiful it can be. In addition to the pleasant views, there are also many medical reasons behind logging off your phone. According to the PC magazine , prolonged use of screens can lead to potential eye damage, inconsistent sleep patterns, the transmission of bacteria, increased stress and more. 

In addition to harming our personal lives, technology has also taken over several vocations. Many jobs, especially factory work, have been replaced by machines. According to a study from Oxford economics, there can be up to an increase of 14 million robots in 11 years in China alone. In addition, the study mentioned that the amount of robots installed in workplaces for the last four years is the same as the amount of eight years previous to that date. In terms of what is to come, the study predicts that 1.5 million jobs could be lost to robots by the year 2030. While these stats do seem to be quite frightening, there are many positives to technology in the industry. For example, robots can be programmed to perform dangerous tasks, have consistent accuracy, and work many hours during the week and weekend.

With all of these predictions and statistics, it is clear that technology has started to control us. 

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willam afton • Oct 4, 2023 at 8:56 am

thank you this blog

maddie • May 17, 2023 at 11:13 am

thank u for this blog

divya • Feb 19, 2023 at 5:20 am

Hi, I read your article and it is interesting and informative topic to have discussion on. Thanks for sharing your insights with us.

wp engine review • Feb 9, 2021 at 11:48 pm

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The Grip of Technology: How It Shapes Our Lives Essay

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