If your phone went off in the middle of dinner, do you rush to get it? If you are in the middle of your homework and see a distracting youtube video, do you watch it? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you are a twenty-first century learner who may be dependent on technology.  In my opinion, I believe people are too dependent on technology.  These people are losing social skills, may have health and delay in development problems and would in turn give up many items to keep their technology.      

No need to leave the house ever again.  To begin, technology is taking over many people's social life like entertainment. For example, recently companies like Netflix, Hulu and some of your TV cable companies have made a way to bring the theaters accessible at your home.  Hopefully we don't become like the people in the movie wall-e, who are overweight, watch too much boob tube and eat junk food.  In addition, people have been losing social lives through online shopping.  Online shopping stores like Peapod or Taskrabbit make it easier and less time consuming to buy their food. Research shows that 80% of  people participate in online shopping, showing that those 80% of people are losing social skills. Furthermore, young kids are losing social skills because they are constantly texting instead of talking.  An example would be when one or more family members are upset due to how much other family members use screens.  Research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, shows that desire to check social networks like Twitter or Facebook is stronger than the need to smoke a cigarette or drink alcohol. This shows how much technology is part of our everyday lives, causing people to lose social skills.  

Technology has a big impact on our health and delay in development.  Did you know that staring at your smartphone could wreck your spin?  To explain in further detail, staring at your smartphone for too long leads to your posture being ruined overtime.  Could phones cause blemishes?  Yes, you could also get bacteria from your phone when it is touching your face when you are talking on it.  When you touch your phone so much, you are more likely to get a virus with all the bacteria that could get onto your hand and spread throughout your body.  In addition, you could hurt your reproductive system by sitting with your laptop on your lap.  If you may already know you could get hand cramps from using and texting on your phone too much.  Did you know that screens could cause you to strain your eyes?  A study showed that the average American looks at a screen for more than 9 hours a day.  According to doctors, you should be looking at screens for no more than two hours a day. This includes televisions, computers, iPads, phones, and much more.  As you can see, there are health problems you could get while using technology.                         

Did you know that many Americans are interested more in technology than the things they normally have?  To start off, TeleNav published a survey which showed that 40% of phone users would give up brushing their teeth for a week over their mobile phones.  This study shows that people don’t care about how their teeth look, which leads to Gingivitis, but rather just care about having their phone.  Another study showed that 83% of users said that phones would make the best romantic partner. This study shows that men and/or women are more interested in their phones than having a romantic partner, which leads to having children and advancing in life.  In addition, research showed that phone users claimed that half of people in a study sleep with their phones.  Many doctors say that sleeping with your phones can keep you up all night.  You should completely turn off your phone or have it on “Do not disturb” mode. What’s alarming is that 55% of adults stated they would give up caffeine.  More than half of Americans would give up caffeine, 63% of people would give up chocolate, and 70% of people would give up alcohol. This is a serious problem!  People are addicted to phones and would give up crazy things  just to keep it. 
On the other hand, many people argue that we are not dependent on technology all the time, only for important reasons.  But what they mean is that people are only dependent on technology for educational and business purposes.  Yet people can play lots of  games like trivia crack and find the answer to everything they need simply using google. In addition, doctors use technology to access medical information and data. However, technology causes health problems as mentioned before.  Did you know that you could also type documents, print them out and refer back to a website using technology?  In contrast, using technology people could copy and paste the whole article into their document and plagiarize.  People could get into jail for plagiarizing.  In addition, everyday users e-mail and text message so they can get around and talk to their wives friends and etc.  More than 900,000,000 people use social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, Vine, Twitter and etc.  This shows that people are truly dependent on technology.

In conclusion, many people are dependent on technology.  Many experts say that we are losing our social skills, having increased health problems than before and would give up everyday things for their technology. On the other hand, some argue that technology is necessary for educational and career purposes. However, technology should be used in a more meaningful way than using it irresponsibly. They next time you need to use your electronics you it wisely and responsibly.  .