#2 Social Networking and Privacy

The tune is called “marimba” and it wakes me up everyday. My iPhone, which is always found charging perched upon my bedside table, also serves as my convenient alarm clock. If I am having trouble getting up, I will take my phone off the bedside table, since it is always within arms length, and drowsily check any missed texts, upload any new e-mail, check my facebook newsfeed, and lastly check the weather. As you can tell, my cell phone may as well be my firstborn child, and I am an overprotective mother. As I write, I am basically cradling it in my lap as it sleeps and the second it wakes up and cries I will respond. I would say I spoil it, but the reality is it spoils me. It allows me to constantly be in touch with friends and family, and provides me with access to the Internet on a whim. It keeps me constantly up to date on emails and facebook. If I had to estimate, I would guess that I spend about two hours on facebook everyday on average. I was forced to open a twitter account for one of my classes, but did not acquire the desire to continue tweeting and following others. I am not familiar with Foursquare since I'm assuming we are not talking about the schoolyard recess game.

It is difficult for me to decide if social networking is more negative or positive as a whole. I believe that there are certainly both positive and negative outcomes and many unintended consequences of the social networking phenomenon. The positive benefits are nearly innumerable. The ability to feel connected to those who are not geographically near is amazing and really has changed the way we relate to people. It allows you to maintain friendships and become a member of an online community that may not be available to you in your current location. However, I do think the constant connection to the invisible network distracts us from the present. Being constantly wired in somewhere else is a shield to avoid possible real life present human connections. I am picturing examples of social recluses who only communicate with strangers through a keyboard and the less extreme example of people checking their phones to avoid an interaction with someone in front of them. The same tool that connects us may also be alienating us simultaneously. In addition, it is extremely difficult to ever get some of that needed "alone time". Can we really call it alone time when we are checking e-mails, texting, chatting on the computer, and available for anyone to reach us at any given moment?

I am generally pretty conservative when I post something online. My facebook profile is private if someone is not my friend, and I hide my tagged photos from everyone. As a risky move and a major test of parent-child trust, I have allowed both of my parents to become facebook friends. This has been the root of many family debates and has resulted in many threats of “de-friending”. For example, jokes that others have posted on my wall are perfectly acceptable by college student standards but do not transfer over to adults, and I have been frustrated by their reactions. I certainly worry about the privacy of my information. When you use facebook you sign away the rights to your photos and the words you post are all property of facebook. I don’t think many people realize that they are signing over their personal property to a company. In addition, even though my profile is private, all my college photos will be on the Internet forever with no real control over who will be able to see it. There are many embarrassing photos of me on facebook, and while they don’t really bother me now, they may in the future, and they will be on the Internet forever.

Health Problems Caused by Mobile Technology

Mobile technology such as smart phones, laptops, and iPods, were all created to make our lives easier or more enjoyable in some way. But what happens when use of these devices becomes excessive? An article posted by HealthPresenceWorld.com reported on the most recent health problems commonly caused by mobile technology use. These ailments consist of "blackberry thumb", "cell phone elbow", "computer vision syndrome", and "facebook depression". While these do not strike me as serious health epidemics, it is interesting to see how technology aimed at improving our lives comes with unexpected health concerns as well.

There is also talk that extended cell phone usage may cause brain tumors, as well as many other theories related to long term exposure to technological devices. This may be just the beginning of a series of technologically caused health problems and it would be beneficial and socially responsible of technology companies to test these theories and make sure they are producing products that are not detrimental to their consumer's health. The National Cancer Institute cellphones is currently conducting research that examines whether or not cell phone usage is related to cancer. According to their website, cell phones emit radio waves, but research suggests that these waves are too weak to cause tissue heating or damage, and they conclude that there is no strong link between cell phone usage and the two most common types of brain tumors. However, for the small percent of top cell phone users, a small increase in likelihood of glioma brain tumors, but the researchers determined this finding as inconclusive.

As studies are slowly becoming more popular and finding small effects along the way, I wonder what we will find in the future. I also wonder if the discovery of these findings would effect behavior. My own mother took this information and made serious behavior changes. She always talks on her cell phone on speaker phone and prefers to use her home phone for long duration calls. She warned me to do the same, and to keep my phone as far away from me as possible while I am not using my phone. Even after her warnings and doing the research myself, the convenience and reliance on my phone keeps it on me despite being aware of the small potential risks. Just like people smoke even when they are fully educated on the health risks, I predict our addiction to technology would produce similar results.

I recently discovered an article (click here for full article) which made me think about health concerns caused by technology. However, these products weren't harming the consumer, they were harming the workers halfway around the globe who are putting these products together for us. A chemical n-Hexane, which is widely known to be harmful and banned from factories in the US, was being used to clean Apple iPhone products at a factory in Taiwan. At least 62 workers were hospitalized many facing serious illness. Exposure to this chemical would never occur at a factory in the US, but in these factories purposely set up in poor and desperate countries companies get away with cutting edges. I'm sure there are hundreds of similar stories hidden away from public awareness that expose how our immense need for technology is damaging the health of those less fortunate and I'm sure there are many unintended or hidden health consequences that will surface in the future.

Blog Topic: Technology and Health

Since it seems like a lot of people are going to be blogging about the social media aspect of technology such as facebook and twitter, I thought I would talk about a different social role of technology. Technology has had a huge impact on human life in many ways, and I am going to blog about the impact of technology (or lack of technology) on health from a social perspective. Hope we can find some interesting stuff!