Technology and Mortality: Are we all doomed?

Technology gets a bad rep sometimes. Television and the internet often get blamed for a myriad of social problems, such as the ‘dumming down’ of society and the rise in STD’s following internet hook–ups. It may also be making us more individualistic and less concerned with the feelings of others.

Patricia Greenfield’s Theory of Social Change and Human Influence hypothesises that as learning environments turn more to technology and living environments become more urbanised, people turn more individualistic. Uhls and Greenfield (2011) tested this theory by looking at the main messages portrayed by popular television shows aimed at ‘tweens’ (9–11 year olds), and how these change over time. They found that fame and the desire for fame had increased, which the authors took as a measure of individualism, whereas being kind to others dropped markedly.

The authors state that the main implication of their findings is that as a result of these programmes tweens may desire fame more than they desire to be kind to others. This is a serious implication for a study where the values of tweens weren’t even assessed, and it completely denies the impact of parents, peers and wider society on moral development.

Studies that argue technology is damaging society, such as this one, are often picked up by the media. Susan Greenfield (no relation to Patricia) is a prominent figure in the media and has linked the rise in autism with the increase in internet usage, but this has been criticised for a lack of evidence. This contributes to a general sense that technology does us no good, usually without evidential backing.