Bobadilla 1

Gissell Bobadilla
Jennifer Rodrick
English 115
December 9, 2016
Final Draft: The Empowering Change Within Us
Our self-identities are how we define and see ourselves as distinctive individuals,
and the qualities that make us who we are. Technology has progressed over the past few
years. It has changed the manner we communicate with one another and has distant us
from our surroundings. As social media grows, direct contact with other humans
decreases. People are not only becoming more detached but also more vulnerable with
the way one looks. The media brings its own pressures, the need to look presentable
online. Nowadays, technology is extremely difficult to avoid because we are bordered by
it. Technology shapes numerous personas since it makes individuals ignore social
interactions, develop lack of confidence and create concerns in privacy.
Have you ever gone out to dinner and seen families, couples on dates, people in
general using their phone instead of talking to the person in front of them? There is a
study by Mary Meeker that says We check our phones 150 times a day. People seem to
care more about the person behind the screen than the person in front of them. Almost
everyone is dependent of their social media accounts to see what their friends are up to
and who has messaged them. Lets take a video for example; the people from State
uploaded a YouTube clip called, You are what you share. In the short clip you can
observe how realistically people are when certain situations occur. Instead of living in the
moment, they feel the need to share what is happening on their social media. If it is not

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captured on a photo or video did it really happen? Well, what about the children?
Concurring to a latest study by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda,
Most children devote 75 percent of their lives with their eyes set on a screen,
(Hampton, Technology: Is it making kids anti-social?). A lot of children now hardly go
out and play with their friends or have any social interactions; they dedicate their time to
a screen. Hence, they become fully unaware of their surroundings. Oral communication is
critical to human growth. The lack of face-to-face communication twits childrens
relationships with others as they grow up in a technological society. We need to look up
and see whom our neighbor is, we need to look up and put that phone away.
When people create a social media account they expect hundreds of followers,
likes, and praises underneath their photo. If they do not get a satisfactory amount of likes
they automatically delete it because they feel insecure. The Daily Mirror recently spoke
about teenager Danny Bowman, an ambitious model that attempted suicide because he
was not satisfied with the quality of his selfies. This problem arose because people stated
that his body was the wrong shape to be a model and that his skin was not up to societys
standards. This reality is further perpetuated because of individuals referred as cyber
bullies. People are often put down by others who do not have a life and anything better
to do. They feel the need to make the situation worse and send disgraceful messages.
Another good phrase The Daily Mirror told Social Times was that, Teenagers are often
driven by insecurity to construct a desirable persona, they are particularly vulnerable to
the negative side of self-portraiture (Barakat, Science Links Selfies to Narcissism,
Addiction, & Low Self Esteem). They want to be someone they are not, to fit in
society. The attacks that individuals receive worsen their self-esteem since these

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individuals are not comfortable in their own skin. French researchers from Institute
Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, found that The more time we spend on social media
sites, like Facebook, comparing ourselves to others, the more depressed we get. We
forget to take in account that the media orchestrates what we see, from Kylie Jenners
body swimsuit pictures to Kim Kardashians famous figure. People desire to look exactly
like them and that is why they immediately purchase things like beauty products or fake
implants, to become more like them.
Not only are we changing the way we look but also we trust the person on the
other end of the screen. We are open to a lot of false connections. We are becoming more
relaxed keeping personal information in our devices: from social security numbers, to the
number of our credit cards and our home addresses. I understand that we need that
information from time to time saved in our electronics but it is oblivious of us to think
that information is safe. Sometimes people will create fake accounts of another individual
by stealing their identity and pretending to be them, as known as an identify theft. For
those who are unfamiliar with that term it means someone who obtains key information
of another individual and impersonates them. This has come to peoples concern because
everyone shares so much of their lives on social network. It is important to limit the
amount of information shared online. Often people feel secure as to whom they are
talking to and never come to think that they can become a victim. The harsh reality is that
it can happen to anyone. It might sound absurd and unrealistic but it has happened before.
A source says, An Aussie woman named Sharon Siermans was a single mother when she
met Jason John Dinsley online. (Jim, Sharon Siermans murderer Jason John Dinsley
sentenced to life in prison). She did not know that Dinsley had roughly around 100

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previous criminal convictions. After a first date, she did not ask Dinsley for a second
date, which hurt his self-esteem and angered him. Knowing her personal information, he
broke into her home one night and attacked her to death with a bat while her four-yearold son hid, frighten. Events like these are rare but can happen to anyone.
It is scary to think that technology is becoming a big part of our lives and the way
people spend their time on it the whole day. Dont you ever wonder how life would be
without technology? We need to start going out more, we need to start being more active
and stop spending hours on our social media. Technology has its positive outcomes but
people abuse it. It is good but to a certain extent. Everyone nowadays is dependent on his
or her smart phone; some cannot even leave the house without it. It changes the way you
see yourselves, nothing on the media is ever real. Magazines, beauty advertisements
exaggerate their image. Technology is taking away the individuality of a person; it is
making us less connected to one another and creating someone we are not. Lets not be the
person who takes out their phone to capture a photo of their food to post it on their
Snapchat but much rather be the one who enjoys each and every single bite of it. It
does not hurt to have a meaningful face-to-face conversation with someone once in
awhile.

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Work Cited
State. You Are What You Share. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 8 May 2014.
Web. 21 September 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyWwX_VzIBY

Hampton, Morgan. Technology: Is it making kids anti-social? The Daily Universe.

Brigham Young University, 22 August 2014. Web. 21 September 2016.

Barakat, Christie. Science Links Selfies to Narcissism, Addiction, & Low Self Esteem
The Daily Mirror. Social Times, 16 April 2014. Web. 21 September 2016.

Newsome, Teresa. 7 Ways Social Media Can Affect Your Self-Esteem Bustle. Lifestyle.
26 January 2016. Web. 21 September 2016.

Goad, Jim. Sharon Siermans murderer Jason John Dinsley sentenced to life in prison
News. ABC. 19 December 2013. Web. 21 September 2016.