Living in a Digital World

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Society | DOI:10.1145/2001269.2001277

Samuel Greengard

Living in a Digital World

Technology has created new opportunities to connect and interact.

Yet, researchers are increasingly concerned that heavy technology

usage is changing people’s behavior in less than desirable ways.

photogra ph by billy Quach

I

T I S N o secret that humans

have an innate urge to connect with one another. In fact,

research shows that well-adjusted people spend more time

engaged in social interaction and activities. However, in the age of alwayson digital technology, the notion of

connectedness—and the definition of

friendship—is changing radically. Increasingly, the route to human interaction is through a digital device.

Approximately two billion people

now tap into the Internet. About five

billion people use mobile phones and

a growing number of these devices

offer sophisticated computing and

communications capabilities. There’s

cell service atop Mt. Everest and in remote South Pacific atolls. Incredibly,

the average 13- to 17-year-old in the

U.S. sends about 110 text messages

per day. In fact, it’s become increasingly difficult to go anywhere without

getting caught in the tractor beam of

digital technology.

Not surprisingly, as people use

these devices more frequently—and

for more hours each day—researchers

are studying the effects with growing

interest. Add to this the extreme multitasking that we increasingly engage

in, either by choice or necessity, and it

is clear that society is venturing into a

brave new frontier. “We’re seeing people so absorbed in digital media that

it’s becoming their primary reference

point for life,” observes Clifford Nass,

a communications professor at Stanford University and author of The Man

Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines

Teach Us About Human Relationships.

What is the impact of digital immersion? How is it changing people’s

thinking and behavior? And how does

it affect the way we view the...