Growing Dependence of Humans on Electronic Machines and Gadgets

Question: Discuss about the Growing Dependence of Humans on Electronic Machines and Gadgets. Answer: Introduction The purpose of the following research paper is to find out the relation and impact of the growing dependency of the human beings on the electronic machines and gadgets and how does it affect their mental health and wellbeing as well as physical health. Without the technology, life becomes crippled in the twenty first century (Hill, 2017). Electronic gadgets are a part of the technological revolution. Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. are the mostly used gadgets in everyday life (Gani, 2017). However, experts also say that, the growing dependency on the gadgets have both positive and negative impacts on the mental and physical health of the people. The gadgets are making life easier but the social interactions are reduced due to these gadgets and peoples health is affected too (Rahmah, 2015). Problem statement/ knowledge gap The problem statement of this research paper focuses on the impact of the growing dependency of the people on the electronic machines and gadgets and its effect on the well being of the people and on the children. Type of research The research that will be undertaken for this paper will be quantitative research. Primary and secondary data will be collected and those will be analyzed quantitatively to get a scientifically relevant solution. Significance This paper aims to find out how much people have become dependent on the electronic gadgets and how it affects their well being. This study would be helpful for future research on a relevant topic and would also help in finding out more ways to improve quality of life through the adoption of the positive impacts of electronic gadgets. Research objectives The objectives of the research paper are: To critically analyze the impact of digital tools on the human beings To evaluate the dependency of the children on the electronic gadgets and its impact on them To find out and examine the negative impact of the gadgets on human health To assess the addiction of people towards the electronic gadgets Research questions What is the overall impact of the electronic gadgets on the daily life of people? How the children are dependent on the electronic gadgets and what are the impacts on them? What are the negative impacts of the dependency on the electronic gadgets on the human health? Literature review: Electronic devices or Gadgets The term gadget means the portable electronic devices, which are part of one or more of the following categories: gaming consoles, MP3 players mobile phones or various other wireless enabled devices (Lee, 2005). It has been found that globally the smartphone users have crossed the mark of one billion users in the year 2012 (Emarketer, 2014). Thus, the penetration of mobile phones will increase from 61.1% to 69.4% between 2013 and 2017 (Abu-Tair Abu-Shanab, 2014). Already electronic gadgets have turned out to be in extensive use by people of all age groups, but in case of young generation electronic gadgets and technology has a substantial stake in their educational as well as social lives. They are exposed to various electronic gadgets or devices since childhood like video games, computer, Internet, cell phones and various other forms of technology (Nakel Naval, 2015). Impact of Digital Tools on Humans In past few decades, the relationship of human beings with information and communication technologies has turned out to be quite intimate. For example, Smartphones have become an inseparable companion of humans with a huge list of apps, smart appliances, wearables, which allows generation, storage as well as collection of large volumes of data regarding each and every aspect of life. There are large number of people who are using electronic gadgets or life hacks due to social, health related or economic reasons or just because of sheer curiosity and personal enjoyment (Sharon, 2016). A rise in the dependence on electronic gadgets is casting negative impact on several talents, for example, mathematical intuitions. It also makes people lazy. For example, it has been seen that the quality of handwriting of human beings has seen a decline due to heavy usage of computer keyboards. People have become highly dependent on cell phones instead of their personal memory to store the telephone numbers as well as other information. Although these gadgets and devices prove to be very useful, they are simultaneously triggering an alarm because humans are losing analytical capability as well as professional intuition (Means Mubarak, 2012). Dependency and Impact of Electronic Gadgets on Children Large number of children is seen to be hooked to television, computers, tablets or mobile phones watching favourite shows or playing games instead of playing outdoors. In the past two decades the frequency of watching television has grown twice. Obesity is considered to be a major issue, which is found gripping children who use more electronic gadgets. These kids avoid all kinds of physical activity and prefer spending their time with electronic gadgets. A child using more of electronic gadgets, will not be using their skills and knowing their capabilities (Deepak, 2016). Negative Effect of Electronic on Human Health Although technology has had positive effects on society, it is also casting severe negative impacts as well on human health. Electronic gadgets cause physical strains as excessive texting as well as swiping in case of smartphones and tablets results in inflated tendons, index fingers, and in thumb joints, pain in wrist, weakness of the grip over a prolonged usage of these devices. Excessive use of handheld devices like tables, cell phones or gaming consoles results in poor postures (Greenlifetsyle, 2014). The artificial light from the mobile phones or tablets hinders the pineal glands and it stops producing melatonin, a hormone, which stabilises the human bodys circadian rhythm or commonly known as 24-hour biological clock. Increase in stress, depression in men and women as well as sleeping disorders are common. Addiction to video games causes repetitive strain injuries and its prolonged use causes sedentary lifestyle, resulting in obesity. Moreover, radiations by some gadgets might increase the risk of cancer (Greenlifetsyle, 2014). Electronic Device Addiction Electronic Device Addiction can be called as a kind of behavioural addiction in which man-made machines interactions are involved. In this decade, there has been huge evolution in the field of mobile phones, emerging as smart phones as well as they are incorporated with social media and is the leading addictive electronic gadget (Subba et al., 2013). Mobile phone addiction has been described by psycho analysts as award seeking behaviour. Mainly the young population is seen to be pre-occupied with electronic gadgets mainly the mobile phones (Griffiths, 2015). Research design and methods Research methodology refers to the systematic plan for conducting the research (Alvesson Skldberg, 2017). In this research study, the researcher needs to address the research questions by collecting the data and evaluating them by using a scientific approach. Hence, research approach, design, data collection and analysis process are the subject matter of research methodology. In the current study, the researcher will choose the interpretivism philosophy as the topic deals with a social phenomenon (Potrac, Jones Nelson, 2014). Research design focuses on the overall strategy of the research. There are two major types of research design: exploratory and explanatory. Exploratory research design is the process that deals with a problem, which was not explored earlier. This process studies the problem in details, establishes the priorities, develops the definitions and improves the final designs. On the other hand, explanatory research design addresses a known issue in a more detailed manner to explain other aspects (Creswell, 2014). In this paper, the researcher will choose explanatory method of research as the topic has been explored before. The case study approach will be applied to address the topic. Case study approach is helpful to evaluate the bigger picture through a small sample (Zainal, 2017). It helps in taking a sample for the data collection and analysis and evaluating the problem based on that. Population Since the research is based on the digital tool addiction, hence, according to the researcher, the customers of an electronics store would be the best population for survey. This group of customers consists of new and existing customers. The customer base of Best Buy would be helpful as it is an electronics store and the trend of electronics goods purchase might provide some insight for the research. Sampling approach and sample size A sample size of 50 people will be chosen through simple random sampling. These 50 people will be chosen from the customer base of Best Buy Australia. Simple random sampling is a probability sampling where each customer has the equal probability of being chosen. As the customer base is homogenous in terms of nature, hence this sampling method will be used. This helps in minimizing the systematic bias (Rossi, Wright Anderson, 2013). Survey design A survey questionnaire will be prepared by the researcher himself and will be handed out to 50 random customers during the billing. The questionnaire would contain 5 close ended questions and 3 open ended interview questions. The questions will be well designed and based on level of usage of electronic gadgets. Constructs, Operationalization and measurement levels Creations based on observations are called constructs. The indicators and dimensions of digital tools addiction are the constructs of this paper. Developing the methods for measuring the data and reaching to a conclusion is the operationalization process. In this case, ordinal measurement levels will be used to find out the ranking of the variables. Qualitative measurement is possible in ordinal measurement (Covin Miller, 2014). Mode of Data collection The researcher will be collecting both the primary and secondary data for this research study. Primary data is the one, which is collected directly from the field of study and secondary data is the one that is collected from already published sources (Beer Faulkner, 2014). In this research study, the researcher will conduct a survey, focusing on the digital tools addiction and its impacts on the adults and children. For the secondary data, the researcher will look for the data on health problems, mental issues, and the usage of electronic goods in daily lives. For that, the official websites of WHO and other international health organizations and various health and technology journals will be explored by the researcher. The official sales data of Best Buy Australia will also be taken to get an idea about the sales of electronics goods. Analytic method The quantitative data analysis process will be used in this paper. The researcher will analyze the primary data by using scientific methods, such as statistical tools of correlation, regression, and frequency calculation. This minimizes any biasness and fluctuation in the observation (Treiman, 2014). The secondary data and the interview responses will be used to validate the results of primary data analysis. Type of Contribution In this research paper, the researcher will perform empirical analysis and hence will do empirical contribution. The effects of a potential moderator variable on the nature of the relationship between the constructs will be examined in this contribution (Burtch, Ghose Wattal, 2016). Limitations and conclusion The primary limitation of this research study is the small size of the sample. It is not possible for the researcher to collect interview and survey responses from a huge population, as this would make the study robust, complex and time consuming. The data on the effects on children could also be ambiguous as the children might not be able answer the survey questions accurately. Technology is producing large number of electronic gadgets and devices to make our lives easier and better. Invention of new technology leads to higher level of dependence of younger generation on these gadgets resulting in addiction amongst them. This is a behavioural addiction, which brings about negative impacts on human health. There can be issues like headaches, depression, obesity and anxiety due prolonged use of gadgets and this affects the lifestyle. Thus, it becomes all the more necessary to analyse the real time impact of growing dependency on electronic gadgets. References Hill, D. (2017). On the importance of the imaginative forward glance.Endeavour. Gani, S. A. (2017, May). Parenting Digital Natives: Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Developmental Challenges. InInternational Conference on Education(pp. 870-880). Rahmah, A. (2015). Digital Literacy Learning System for Indonesian Citizen.Procedia Computer Science,72, 94-101. Alvesson, M., Skldberg, K. (2017).Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research. Sage. Potrac, P., Jones, R., Nelson, L. (2014).Interpretivism(pp. 31-41). London: Routledge. Zainal, Z. (2017). Case study as a research method.Jurnal Kemanusiaan,5(1). Creswell, J. W. (2014).A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Sage Publications. Rossi, P. H., Wright, J. D., Anderson, A. B. (Eds.). (2013).Handbook of survey research. Academic Press. Covin, J. G., Miller, D. (2014). International entrepreneurial orientation: Conceptual considerations, research themes, measurement issues, and future research directions.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,38(1), 11-44. Beer, A., Faulkner, D. (2014). How to use primary and secondary data.Chapters, 192-209. Treiman, D. J. (2014).Quantitative data analysis: Doing social research to test ideas. John Wiley Sons. Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (2016). Secret admirers: An empirical examination of information hiding and contribution dynamics in online crowdfunding.Information Systems Research,27(3), 478-496. Abu-Tair, H. Abu-Shanab, E., 2014. Mobile Government Services: Challenges and Opportunities. International Journal of Technology Diffusion, 5(1), pp.17-25. Deepak, S., 2016. Addiction to gadgets increasing. The Hindu, 3 June. Emarketer, 2014. Smartphone Users Worldwide Will Total 1.75 Billion in 2014. [Online] Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-UsersWorldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536 [Accessed 6 October 2017]. Lee, D., 2005. Womens creation of camera phone Cultue. The Fibreculture Journal., (6). Means, R.S. Mubarak, S.A., 2012. How to Estimate with RSMeans Data: Basic Skills for Building Construction. John Wiley Sons. Nakel, M.P. Naval, S., 2015. Study of Impact and Dependency of Electronic Gadgets on Health Life Style of Students -A Comparative Study Among Youth Population in MGM Campus, Aurangabad. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(5), pp.2174-78. Sharon, T., 2016. Self-Tracking for Health and the Quantified Self : Rearticulating autonomy, solidarity and authenticiuty in an age of personalised helathcare. Philosphy Technology, 30(1). Subba, S., Mandelia, C., PataK, V. Reddy, D., 2013. Ringxiety and the Mobile Phone Usage Pattern among the Students of aMedical College in South India. Journal of Clinica and Diagnostic Research, 7(2), pp.205-09. Greenlifetsyle, 2014. The Negative Effects of Electronics on Human Health. greenlifestylemarket, 11 July. Griffiths, M.D., 2015. Internet addiction: Fact or fiction?. The Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychology Society, 12, pp.246-50. Growing Dependence of Humans on Electronic Machines and Gadgets Question: Discuss about theGrowing Dependence of Humans on Electronic Machines and Gadgets. Answer: Introduction An electronic gadget is a small tool or a machine that performs specific function and is often believed to be a novelty. There is no work as such that can be done without taking assistance from electronic machines or gadgets. This literature review thus critically analyses the growing dependence of human beings on electronic machines as well as gadgets by analysing the previous research conducted in this field. Literature Review Electronic devices or Gadgets The term gadget means the portable electronic devices which are part of one or more of the following categories: gaming consoles, MP3 players mobile phones or various other wireless enabled devices (Lee, 2005). It has been found that globally the smartphone users have crossed the mark of one billion users in the year 2012 (Emarketer, 2014). It is expected that in the global electronics market 4.55 billion people will be using mobile phones by the year end 2014. Thus the penetration of mobile phones will increase from 61.1% to 69.4% between 2013 and 2017 (Abu-Tair Abu-Shanab, 2014). Already electronic gadgets have turned out to be in extensive use by people of all age groups, but in case of young generation electronic gadgets and technology has a substantial stake in their educational as well as social lives. They are exposed to various electronic gadgets or devices since childhood like video games, computer, Internet, cell phones and various other forms of technology(Nakel Naval, 2 015). Impact of Digital Tools on Humans In past few decades the relationship of human beings with information and communication technologies has turned out to be quite intimate .For example Smartphones have become an inseparable companion of humans with a huge list of apps , smart appliances , wearables which allows generation, storage as well as collection of large volumes of data regarding each and every aspect of life. There are large number of people who are using electronic gadgets or life hacks due to social, health related or economic reasons or just because of sheer curiosity and personal enjoyment (Sharon, 2016). The digital tools are impacting human ontologies because humans are adapting both the environment as well as themselves to the more and more complex ICTs. The new electronic devices with their advanced technologies are teaching or educating human beings as users. This kind of integration makes use of large envelopment of the physical world in which we live (Florida 2012). Envelopment which was regarded as a stand-alone phenomenon for example in case of a dishwasher it is a machine or gadget that is built around an enveloped microenvironment or the one which is being constrained by specific space for example a car factory where hundreds of robots work. However , there are several ubiquitous cell towers as well as Wi-Fi hotspots that have already enveloped and then transformed the physical environment, thus making our world more technology friendly where the ubiquitous smart devices are capable of gathering, transferring and then processing vast amount of data permanently (Hernandez- r amirez, 2017). Cognition is enabling a completely new class of products as well as services in order to reason, learn as well as sense about the users and the world in which they live. Thus electronic devices along with their technology allow continuous improvement as well as adaptation. They also help in augmentation of their capabilities so as to deliver various uses that were not previously imagined. This can be seen happening with medical devices, various appliances, cars as well as in case of toys. The Internet of Things (IoT) is helping in expanding the digital universe through its products and unique services by including the products and services with cognition (Kelly III, 2015). Thus there is seen a rise in the dependence on electronic gadgets which is casting negative impact on several talents for example mathematical intuitions. For example, it has been seen that the quality of handwriting of human beings has seen a decline due to heavy usage of computer keyboards. People have become highly dependent on cell phones instead of their personal memory to store the telephone numbers as well as various other information. Although these gadgets and devices prove to be very useful but they are simultaneously triggering an alarm because we humans are losing analytical capability as well as professional intuition. Human beings are becoming too much dependent on the various technologies applied in electronic devices that they are unable to perform simple tasks without the electronic gadgets or devices. Computers as well as other electronic gadgets are considered to be very wonderful tools which help humans in various walks of life, but they should never be considered as replacements for human creativity, thinking as well as human intelligence (Means Mubarak, 2012). Dependency and Impact of Electronic Gadgets on Children Large number of children is seen to be hooked to television, computers, tablets or mobile phones watching favourite shows or playing games instead of playing outdoors. In the past two decades the frequency of watching television has grown twice. This seriously impacts the health of children. Obesity is considered to be a major issue which is found gripping children who use more electronic gadgets. The reason being children now-a-days prefer to eat food as well in front of television or watching mobile phones. These kids avoid all kinds of physical activity and prefer spending their time with electronic gadgets. Thus a child who will be using more of electronic gadgets will be depending more on them and will not be using their skills and knowledge for their work (Deepak, 2016). Negative Effect of Electronic on Human Health Although technology has had positive effects on society but on the flip side it is casting severe negative impacts as well on human health Electronic gadgets pose serious possible risks as well as hazards to human health. It causes physical strains as excessive texting as well as swiping in case of smartphones and tablets results in inflated tendons, index fingers, as well as thumb joints. In case of electronic devices like tablets smartphones theres is excessive use of thumbs and index finger which results in pain in wrist, weakness of the grip over a prolonged usage of these devices. Excessive use of handheld devices like tables, cell phones or gaming consoles results in poor postures for example hunched back, rounded shoulders or forward head (Greenlifetsyle, 2014). The artificial light emitted by the mobile phones or tablets hinders the pineal glands and its stops producing melatonin , a hormone which stabilises the human bodys circadian rhythm or commonly known as 24-hour biological clock (Greenlifetsyle, 2014). Heavy use of electronic devices is usually found to be connected with increase in stress, depression in men and women as well as sleeping disorders. Sleep related issues are found more in people working in ICT industry as they have to work on computer intensively and have to communicate all through the day on mobile phone. In the same way handheld gizmos do act as entertainment tool, but they result in gaming addiction and it is not juts children but adults too become addicted to video games. This causes repetitive strain injuries and at the same time prolonged use causes sedentary lifestyle, which finally results in obesity. Moreover, some of the electronic devices or gadgets also emit radiations which might increase the risk of cance r. While some researchers believe that the radiations emitted from electronic gadgets kills neurons or weakens the immunity system (Greenlifetsyle, 2014). Electronic Device Addiction Electronic Device Addiction can be called as a kind of behavioural addiction in which man-made machines interactions are involved. With the advancement in technology there is seen diversification as well as accentuation towards being addicted to electronic gadgets (Susila et al., 2017) . This technology addition started with radios and then trickled down to television and has now reached the mobile phones. In this decade there has been huge evolution in the field of mobile phones , emerging as smart phones as well as they are incorporated with social media and is the leading addictive electronic gadget (Subba et al., 2013). Mobile phone addiction has been described by psycho analysts as award seeking behaviour. Mainly the young population is seen to be pre-occupied with electronic gadgets mainly the mobile phones (Griffiths, 2015). Television addiction started as it is the most accessible mass media for both literates as well as illiterates. But it is also the leading mass medium which helps in educating, entertaining, watching news and movies for the common people. With the launch of Smart TVs in late 2010s, that also have integrated internet function, the popularity of television has increased amongst the young generation again. Being addicted to electronic devices like television or mobile phones is considered to be a compulsive behaviour which is almost same as compulsive behaviour (Susila et al., 2017). Thus humans are getting addicted to electronic devices and this is leading type of behavioural addiction to be seen amongst them that needs to be investigated. Conclusion Technology is producing large number of electronic gadgets and devices to make our lives easier and better. The recently developed IT driven gadgets are very lucrative and fast catching the attention of current generation especially the youth and children . This leads to higher level of dependence of younger generation on these gadgets which results in electronic gadgets addiction amongst them. This is kind of behavioural addiction which brings about negative impacts as well as there can be neurological impairments. Using gadgets for a longer period of time also causes negative impacts on the health. There can be issues like headaches, depression, and anxiety. Tech-gadgets addiction also impacts the lifestyle of the people who are very much dependent on them and this might result in lifestyle diseases like obesity or diabetes. Thus it becomes all the more necessary to analyse the real time impact of growing dependency on electronic gadgets. Bibliography Abu-Tair, H. Abu-Shanab, E., 2014. Mobile Government Services: Challenges and Opportunities. International Journal of Technology Diffusion, 5(1), pp.17-25. Deepak, S., 2016. Addiction to gadgets increasing. The Hindu, 3 June. Emarketer, 2014. Smartphone Users Worldwide Will Total 1.75 Billion in 2014. [Online] Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-UsersWorldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536 [Accessed 6 October 2017]. Ewles, L., 2005. Key Topics in Public Health: Essential Briefings on Prevention and Health Promotion. Elsevier. Greenlifetsyle, 2014. THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF ELECTRONICS ON HUMAN HEALTH. greenlifestylemarket, 11 July. Griffiths, M.D., 2015. Internet addiction: Fact or fiction?. The Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychology Society, 12, pp.246-50. Hernandez- ramirez, R., 2017. Technologies of Self - How are digital tools affecting human ontologies. Lisbon, POrtugal: Faculty of Fine Arts , University of Lisbon. Kelly III, J.E., 2015. Computing, cognition and the future of knowing. IBM. Lee, D., 2005. Womens creation of camera phone Cultue. The Fibreculture Journal., (6). Means, R.S. Mubarak, S.A., 2012. How to Estimate with RSMeans Data: Basic Skills for Building Construction. John Wiley Sons. Nakel, M.P. Naval, S., 2015. Study of Impact and Dependency of Electronic Gadgets on Health Life Style of Students -A Comparative Study Among Youth Population in MGM Campus, Aurangabad. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(5), pp.2174-78. Sharon, T., 2016. Self-Tracking for Health and the Quantified Self : Rearticulating autonomy, solidarity and authenticiuty in an age of personalised helathcare. Philosphy Technology, 30(1). Subba, S., Mandelia, C., PataK, V. Reddy, D., 2013. Ringxiety and the Mobile Phone Usage Pattern among the Students of aMedical College in South India. Journal of Clinica and Diagnostic Research, 7(2), pp.205-09. Susila, T. et al., 2017. A cross sectional study on electronic device addiction among youth in an urban area, Chennai. Stanley Medical Journal, 4(1).