Unit 2 Draft

Human life has always strived towards innovation. The mind has created things that were at one time, unimaginable, and now society is at a place that is a whirlwind of technology and accessibility of whatever information a person wants, or needs, in an instant. This innovation of information has led the way to new ideals, values, and a way of life that the world has never seen. There is social media, a basis for people to post about their lives, and there is more ways to communicate globally than ever before. It is a popular topic to think how technological advancements are affecting our society, but it always seems to come down to one specific argument; is all these technological advancements helping or hurting our civilization. It is connecting the entire world, increasing economies and trade, and giving people voices, who usually do not have one, that they use to share their opinions with anyone who will look or listen, and those are just some of the positives. On the contrary, even though there is an increase in digital connections, it is causing humans to become desensitized, decreasing face to face communication and compassion, and exposing our children to change whatever they want about themselves, whatever they can find on the internet, and allowing them to participate in the fake reality of social media. The advancements our society has innovated have many shortcomings, such as the technological advancements in communication, social media, and journalism.

Only one benefit comes to mind when discussing society's technological innovations, and that is the connection to anyone, anywhere in the world. Communicating to loves ones who are a distance away from you, whether it is between state, country, or continent lines, is something that was always dreamed of becoming true and now it is. The connection of people have allowed for many aspects of our society to flourish, but the technological advancements have also led to a downfall in face to face communication, emotional value of conversations, and is causing the desensitization of our society. The other part of technology that is affecting our society is social media. People post every aspect of their lives, but not only is is constant, it is edited and fake. There are so many photo editing applications that change the way people look.  In the beginning, comparing yourself to someone who was a professional, famous model in a magazine was seen to some as unattainable, so it had little to no affect on most young teens, but the thing that is so toxic about todays social media is that children are comparing themselves to not only those models, but to their fellow peers, which is worse. There is so much nitpicking about what is beautiful and what is not, just by a comparison of people you know. Not only can people show off every beautiful aspect of their life, they can edit out every imperfection without anyone even being able to see. "And thanks to an array of free applications, selfie-holics now have the power to alter their bodies in pictures in a way that’s practically on par with makeup and other beauty products. If the Internet has been called a great democratizer, perhaps what social media has done is let anyone enter the beauty pageant. Teens can cover up pimples, whiten teeth and even airbrush with the swipe of a finger, curating their own image to become prettier, thinner and hotter" (Simmons, 2). This can cause many mental health problems, especially young teens, and is a rising problem that is starting to get farther and farther away from a solution.