Many people in today's society see the increase in technology machinery as a great asset for America. However it deprives humans of fully experiencing the real world and relationships with others. We as humans will become more lazy, and our human relationships with family, friends, and co-workers will suffer if we continue to rely on computers and video games as our main source of entertainment. The expansion of technology and the ever-growing use of the Internet has led people to become lazy and too reliant on what technology can do for them, instead of what they can do for themselves. Some technology can be a positive for Americans, but only to a certain extent. We can not let technology run our lives the way it does many of us today. Unfortunately, people have become so infatuated with and dependent on the Internet that their social skills have diminished. Also suffering is face-to-face interaction among employees, businessmen, and even family and friends.
The advancements that technology has made is quietly killing people's social skills. There many pitfalls about the advancements in technology. It can create long-term psychological problems, or, in many cases, weaken the face-to-face social skills of people in today"s society. In "Isolated by the Internet," Clifford Stoll writes, "According to Carnegie Mellon University psychologists Robert Kraut and Vicki Lundmark, there are serious negative long-term social effects, ranging from depression to loneliness" (Stoll 269). Hiding behind a technological machine, such as a computer, can be very costly to your future emotions and people skills. The internet has caused people to lose their communication skills, such as their ability to understand people's facial expressions, hold a conversation, or interact with people. They become shy because they are used to having a computer separate them and the other person. Stoll goes on to say, "Those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of conversation.