In my Online Journalism class readings for this week, we were assigned to read an article on “News on the Go” on the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. I found the article to be very interesting and upon reading the first few paragraphs I instantly had a few questions in my mind…

While it states in the article that people who engage in social media activities via their cell phone, Blackberry, or various Apple products are more “productive” in the social networking, blogging, and e-mail world than people who do not have a device of the sort, is this increased involvement damaging other aspects of a person’s life?

Most of the population knows how distracting and potentially dangerous it is for one to talk on the phone while driving and texting while driving, and yet it still happens. It has caused accidents, injuries, and deaths, but technology is so important and relied on now-a-days people are still willing to take that risk to “stay with it.”

Now, I also think that advancements in technology, especially social networking and texting, have damaged human relationships with other humans. Yes, you can go on your significant other’s Facebook and read their messages to make sure they aren’t cheating on you, but you are also displaying the lack of trust and privacy we all have for each other in this century. Romance isn’t a cute video post on a wall. True romance was in the letters soldiers wrote to their wives during the Civil War.

Divorce rates have gone up as the years have gone on, and along with those numbers, technology has also advanced as the years have gone on. Hmm, maybe there is a correlation? Just sayin’…

UPDATE: And now there is an article to back up my opinion! Here it is!

While there are positives and negatives to almost virtually any aspect of life, isn’t there a thought that perhaps the negatives will outweigh the positives in due time? Hopefully I won’t be around to see that happen or have it affect my efforts to find a job… HERE’S TO HOPING!