I’m taking a Health and Wellness class in school right now, and it has brought up some very interesting things.  Technology has a huge effect on our lives, but in more ways than just the obvious.  It sucks to think about, but when does too much technology become a bad thing?

This idea was brought to me when I was learning about the obesity problem in America.  In the United States, 127 million adults are overweight.  60 million of them are obese and 9 million are severely obese.  That’s around 65% of the population!  In the 70’s, 46% of Americans were obese.  So, 20% more of our population has become obese in 30 years.  Clearly, something has to be going on, and I think the most obvious thing would be the advances in technology.

We are able to do so many things without even needing to get up from the couch.  We can talk on the phone, surf the internet, do homework, buy clothes, order groceries to be delivered to our home, etc.  The only thing we can’t do (that I know of at least!) is use the restroom or get some food.  Actually I take that back.  At Pizza Hut you now have the ability to place your order for delivery online.  You don’t even have to pick up the phone to get a pizza delivered to your house!

Technology has a huge effect on relationships between people.  I can catch up with my friends I haven’t spoken with in years without actually speaking to them.  Websites like Facebook and Myspace allow us to find old classmates or childhood friends.  Obviously, this is a really amazing thing.  I was able to find my best friend from my early childhood that I haven’t seen or spoken too in 12 years!  And now, I still haven’t spoken to her.  We were able to completely catch up on our lives and communicate through wall posts, messages, and email.  Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to speak with her again and see all her recent pictures, but I still haven’t actually spoken to her in 12 years.  Now I know this isn’t always the case.  With another friend of mine we exchanged phone numbers and actually spoke on the phone, but I think that is a pretty rare happening.

Text messaging has replaced talking on the phone.  Well almost.  I personally rather have a conversation through text messaging then on the phone, and I know for a fact I’m not the only person that feels this way.  It’s easy and convenient, and if I don’t want to respond to something or I’m in the middle of doing something, I can respond whenever I feel like it.  It also allows us to “talk” to people when we normally couldn’t.  I’m able to communicate with friends and family during meetings, work, and class; times when I wouldn’t normally be able to talk to anyone outside of my classroom.  It’s great.  But, does it also have negative side effects?  Yes.  I know I have missed plenty of important information during class because I was too busy texting with a friend or surfing the internet on my phone.  Even my parents know how to text, and they are pretty old!  So are there a lot of good things that come out of this “silent communication”?  Definitely.  But there are also plenty of negatives as well.

So this brings me back to my original question, when does too much technology become a bad thing?  Think about it, people don’t even need computers now to surf the internet, I have a safari internet browser on my iPhone.  Could this 20% increase of obese Americans be related to the mass amounts of technology available to us?  Is it impacting our relationships with friends and family?

btw- I hope I am not offending anyone with this, just something that was brough to my attention and made me think a little!