Bobadilla 1

Gissell Bobadilla
Jennifer Rodrick
English 115
September 21, 2016
First Draft: The Empowering Change Within Us
Our self-identities are how we define and see ourselves as distinctive individuals,
and the qualities that make us who we are. Technology has progressed over the past few
years. It has changed the way we communicate with one another and most importantly
has distant us from our surroundings. As social networks grow, direct contact with other
humans decrease. Not only are people becoming more detached but also more vulnerable
with the way one looks. The media brings its own pressures, like the desire to look good
online and come as interesting to others. Nowadays technology is extremely difficult to
avoid because we are bordered by it. Technology has shaped numerous personas by
making individuals ignore social interactions, develop lack of confidence and concerns in
privacy.
Have you ever gone out for dinner and seen families, couples on dates, people in
general using their phone instead of talking to the person in front of them? There is a
study by Mary Meeker that says we check our phones 150 times a day. People seem to
care more about the person behind the screen than the person physically with them.
Almost everyone is so dependent of their social media, what their friends are up to and
who texted them. Lets take a video for example. The people from State uploaded a
YouTube clip called, You are what you share. In the video you can see how realistically
people are when certain situations occur. Instead of living in the moment, they feel the

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need to share what is happening on their social media. If it is not captured on a photo did
it really happen? Well, what about the children? Most children devote 75 percent of their
lives with their eyes set on a screen, according to a latest study by the International
Center for Media & the Public Agenda. Instead of running around playing in the dirt, like
a normal child would do, they dedicate their time to a screen. Becoming fully unaware of
their surroundings. Verbal communication is crucial to human growth, but body language,
shows even more about an individual's emotions. The lack of face-to-face communication
skews childrens relationships with others as they grow up in a technology society. We
need to look up and see whom our neighbor is, we need to look up and put that phone
away.
When people create a social media account they are expecting hundreds of
followers, likes, and praises underneath their photo. If they do not get that amount of
likes to satisfy them they automatically delete it because they think something is wrong
with the photo. The Daily Mirror recently spoke of teenager Danny Bowmans story, an
ambitious model that attempted suicide because he wasnt satisfied with the quality of
his selfies. This problem arose because people told him that his body was the wrong
shape to be a model and his skin did not make up for it. A situation that most people are
aware of already called cyber bullying. People are often put down by others who have
no life and nothing better to do. Another good phrase The Daily Mirror told Social Times
was that, teenagers are often driven by insecurity to construct a desirable persona, they
are particularly vulnerable to the negative side of self-portraiture. They want to be
someone they are not, to fit in society. Not only are people getting attacked by others
because of their appearance, increasing their low self-esteem but are also trying to look

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and be a certain way. French researchers from Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien,
found that the more time we spend on social media sites, like Facebook, comparing
ourselves to others, the more depressed we get. We forget to take in account that the
media orchestrates what we see. From Kylie Jenners body swimsuit pictures to Kim
Kardashians famous body. People have the desire to look exactly like them and that is
why they immediately purchase things such as beauty products or fake implants.
Not only are we changing the way we look but also we trust the person on the
other end of the screen. We are open to a lot of false connections. We are becoming more
comfortable storing personal information in our devices. From social security numbers, to
the number of your credit card and the address as to where you live. I understand that we
need that information from time to time but it is ignorant of us to think that information is
safe. Sometimes even people will create fake accounts of someone stealing their identity
and pretending to be them known as an identify theft. This has come to peoples
concern because everyone shares so much of their lives on social network. It is important
you limit the amount of information you share online. Often people feel secure as to who
they are talking to and never think that they can become a victim but really, it can happen
to anybody. Lets take for example a scenario where you are talking to this stranger and it
has been months now and yet you have not met this person face-to-face. They invite you
over for a movie and dinner, will you accept? Lets say you do, you go over to their house
and find yourself locked inside a house with a complete stranger, the person youve been
talking to lied about as to who they are. What would you do? Or better yet what can you
do? They have you locked up and take you as hostage. It might sound crazy and

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unrealistic but believe it or not, it has happened before. People need to be careful as to
who they welcome into their social media life.
It is scary to think that technology is becoming a big part of our lives and the way
people spend their time on it the whole day. Dont you ever wonder how life would be
without technology? We need to start going out more, we need to start being more active
and stop spending hours on our phones. Technology has its positive outcomes but people
abuse it. If you really open your eyes and see, youll find yourself surrounded by it. It
changes the person you are meant to become. I grew up in the late 90s, there was the
Internet, social media, technology but it was not greatly impacted as it is today. Life was
good; I was not one of those kids with their eyes set to a screen. I lived a great childhood,
I experienced what it is to be a kid. Not many can say now a days that they would get in
trouble because they were running around the streets, got hurt trying to climb a fence, or
walking home with dirt all over their body. Technology is taking away the individuality
of a person; it is making us less connected to one another and someone we are not. Lets
not be the person who takes out their phone to capture a photo of their food to post it on
their Snapchat but much rather be the one who enjoys each and every bite of it.

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Work Cited
State. You Are What You Share. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 8 May 2014.
Web. 21 September 2016.

Hampton, Morgan. Technology: Is it making kids anti-social? The Daily Universe.

Brigham Young University, 22 August 2014. Web. 21 September 2016.

Barakat, Christie. Science Links Selfies to Narcissism, Addiction, & Low Self Esteem
The Daily Mirror. Social Times, 16 April 2014. Web. 21 September 2016.

Newsome, Teresa. 7 Ways Social Media Can Affect Your Self-Esteem Bustle. Lifestyle.
26 January 2016. Web. 21 September 2016.