Americans and the Connections with Technology

All over the world there are similarities in technosocial ecologies. America is a country that uses technology as their main communication. With the enormous country space and a large population, Americans see communication as a priority in order to connect to each other from long distances. Due to American’s fast paced lifestyle, technology has become the leading way for Americans to manage their time and communicate with each other faster than ever before. Ito has argued that technology is not “impacting and transforming social life and cultural pattern,” but individuals are transforming technology into the culture. The demand for cell phones, tablets, laptops, and technology in general has proved that most Americans use technology to collaborate with each other. Although technology brings people to connect faster, sometimes it disconnects people at the same time by reducing their social interaction. People have connections through technosocial ecologies in many ways, which gives more convenience to their lifestyles. Due to the busy lifestyle, it is very important for Americans to manage their time. In the past, it was more difficult for people to connect because of distance. There is better accessibility to information and people because of technology devices and the Internet, taking the American culture onto a new level. Now communication begins with one touch or click. Americans have transformed technosocial ecologies into their everyday lifestyles through the use of cell phone instead of one on one conversations. With the idea of saving time, a text message has become the more popular form of communication. It is useful to individuals in order to manage their time, as individuals can multi tasking while texting. Individuals choose to text messages because it is very accessible to reach the person. Texts can be received and replied to at any time, allowing people to not have to wait and instead can go on with their day. As the world becomes more globalized, Americans are using technology to connect to each other. Technology is a solution to decrease the physical distance of communication. Everyone can use special programs such as Facebook and Instagram to communicate across the globe. The programs are beneficial because they connect each individual as well as allowing some sort of imagination towards the person on the other side of the virtual conversation. For example, before school started, my roommates searched me on Facebook, so they could have some idea of who I am, as they would be sharing the apartment with me for a year. We had a chance to get to know each other and we were emotionally supporting each other as Penn State freshmen. We started to know each other more by following one another on Instagram (fig 1). This is a program which is used to reflect individuals’ lifestyles. It represents a “sustained effort by a single person to record her or his own thoughts and experiences,” (Buccitelli, 4). Americans really use technology to connect everyone together and make the world become smaller. I have to admit that my new friends and I had our little “sense of community, a new boundless place of cyberspace” (McIntosh & Harwood, 3) where we feel the closer connection. American culture has adopted digital technology to create a stronger connection to people across the globe. As well as the gain of connection, individuals are also losing their close relationships. People used to share their day’s stories with each other during the breaks, but now tecnosocial ecologies have changed the sense of social norms, Americans are “solo bowling as people are socializing with friends who do not live in [the same] neighborhood” (Putnam 1995, 70). People look down at their phones and pay no attention to others around them. Just like at Stacks, during the breaks it is typical to see the crowded group hanging out with cell phones next to them. Even though friends