Signature Essay Third Source

Jeffrey McQuillen wrote “The Influence of Technology on the Initiation of Interpersonal Relationships” and discussed how technology is negatively affecting relationships today. He focused a lot on on-line relationships and how they allow people to present a false identity which misleads the person on the other side of the message. This is something that people are becoming much more comfortable doing and are relying on. One in three relationships is developed through the internet, and it seems that soon all relationships will be built this way. I agree with everything the McQuillen says in this article. I personally am very against online dating websites because I feel as if there are more cons than pros. The mere idea that someone can pretend to be someone they are not is scary in itself. In person someone may exaggerate about a job or income, but everything else is yours to see. You are not just taking someone’s word for it. Online they can be a 60 year old man and pretend to be a 23 year old woman. It may be that I watch too many crime shows to believe that people are who they are and trust to meet them alone. I know someone that started an account with one of these websites, found a match, went out to finally meet this person that the website said she was very compatible with, and came to find that her match was actually her brother. That is why they were compatible and had many of the same ideas and likings. This story, along with the many horror stories of meeting strangers alone, will forever keep me away from online databases. I believe that McQuillen does a good job of convincing his reader of the negative impacts of online dating. McQuillen and Carr have the same basis belief within their essays. Carr discusses how technology, specifically internet, has affected everyone’s brains. He says that whether it may be for the good or the bad, our brains are altered which therefor alters our actions as a whole. People are adapting to the overcoming of technology and becoming comfortable with the outcomes. This is seen in McQuillen’s essay because he thinks that people are becoming too comfortable finding a partner online. They are changing who they are to make themselves appear better then they truly are. People are than allowed to change their personalities to do this all of the time. This is how our brains are being biologically changed to adapt to the changes in society. Technology has made each generation change slightly, so the next generation is already adapted to this change and then adapts to a new change. All from technology. It is clear that although Carr and McQuillen spoke of different things in their essays, they have the same underlining concept that technology is in fact changing our world today.