Signature Essay

Attached to Technology and Paying a Price: Matt Richtel

In Matt Richtels article entitled “Attached to Technology and Paying the Price” he goes into detail about a particular family and their relationships with technology along with one another. While reading the article I constantly found myself thinking how similar to my family the Campbell’s sounded. In both Richtel and Carr’s articles technology is entirely consuming the lives of people while they become more and more detached from what is going on around them. I agree with both authors in that the population is becoming less focused as well as less capable to complete tasks. Tasks as simple as baking cookies in Mrs. Campbell’s case in which she burned two batches being distracted with technology. I find that the majority of my generation can barely go ten minutes without checking their smartphones. In the articles the authors both agree that there are pros and cons to the world we now live in. Within “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” the family dynamic revolves around, computers, Ipads, laptops, and phones- even over breakfast. This profoundly takes away from communicating personally and simply enjoying time together. The ability to completely unplug is one few have these days, and those that are able to are constantly thinking about whether they have a missed call, text, or email. I full heartedly agree how being so engaged within technology takes away from truly connecting with other people and interacting among them. I had the perfect example yesterday, when approximately ten of my friends were over. I walked out of my bedroom only to see each and every one of them on their phones texting other people rather than talking to one another. This scene is unfortunately very common these days.