THE AFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY AND ITS USAGEON FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

Milestone 2 - Planned Mindful Technology-Use Experiment: With the assistance of my fiancé, and the online application titled Hooked, I will monitor the amount of time that I spend daily using technology. I also plan to interview friends and family members to obtain comparative information to be utilized in the results. My ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of time on my phone while in the presence of others and to increase the amount of undistracted quality time with them.

References
Bauerlein, M. (2008). How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). In The Dumbest Generation. New York, NY: P. Tarcher/Penguin.
The focus of this is on the "dumbest" generation ever. The author blames the "dumbness" of the generation on all the technology that is available in society. Bauerlein (2008) does a good job of describing how technology has driven changes in the intelligence of different generations as well as looking at how technology has really affected the brain throughout the years. For example, modern technologies are very powerful. They rely on the most powerful genetic biases we have – the preference for visually presented information. The human brain has a tremendous bias for visually presented information. Television, movies, videos, and most computer programs are very visually oriented and therefore attract and maintain the attention of young children. The problem with this is that many modern technologies are very passive. Because of this, they do not provide children with the quality and quantity of crucial emotional, social cognitive, or physical experiences they require when they are young. Burpee, L.C., & Langer, E.J. (2005). Mindfulness and Marital Satisfaction. Journal of Adult Development (Vol. 12, pp 43-51).
This investigated the relationships among mindfulness, marital satisfaction, and perceived spousal similarity. There was a stronger correlation between mindfulness and marital satisfaction than the correlation between marital satisfaction and any of the other variables, including similarity. These results carry meaningful implications for the role of mindfulness techniques within the context of building and maintaining a happy marital relationship.

Carr, N. (2010, June). What the Internet Is Doing to our Brains.
Carr (2010) featured an experiment which related to the effects of technology on the brain. It specifically demonstrates the effects of spending too much time on the internet and how it can alter the way people think. He proved his theory with an experiment and continued on with different forms of evidence and examples.

Cloninger, J., & Stembicki, R. (2013, November). How is Technology Affecting Your Family?
In this publication, it was stated how technology has evolved so much in such a short time. It was a new phenomenon that many children were not taught to manage because at that time, it didn't exist. It goes on to imply that since technology is so widely popular among the younger generation, they are not exercising, meeting with family and friends, or negotiating in personal relationships. Many are gaining weight, are easily distracted, and finding it hardtop read the subtle signs in developing and maintaining relationships.

Lin, H. L. (2012, September 4). How Is You Cell Phone Hurting Your Relationship. Scientific America.
Lin (2012) argues that cell phones are a necessary link to the rest of the world. This research goes on to say how our phones can hurt our close relationships. Even by simply just having our phones close by, without even checking them can be detrimental to our attempts at interpersonal connections. An experiment was conducted with and without the participant's phones being accessible. The results showed that phones had no effect on casual topic conversations. However, when the conversations were more intimate, with specific questions, the participants reported to feeling less trust, thought, and empathy when a cell phone was present.

Narr, B. (1996, October 10). The Next Generation. University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.
This article focuses on numerous technological improvements. It states that "technology doesn't add or delete something, it changes everything". There was a study done at the University of Maryland with college students that gave up all forms of technology for 24 hours. These students reported feelings of withdrawal and anxiety. Another negative impact of digital technology is derived from its unreliability. Modern society has adopted technology to facilitate most of what we do, sometimes resulting in a blind reliance.

Pickert, K. (2014, February 3). The Art of Being Mindful. The Progress of Technology and The Effects on a Relationship.
This focuses on how difficult it is for people to unwind their brain due to all of the technology they are surrounded by. It emphasized the affects technology has on the brain and how people cannot seem to put their brain at rest. It also focused on distressing the brain and being mindful, which requires separation from technology, which seems almost impossible in today's society. The author took a different approach in describing technology's effects on the peacefulness and mindfulness of the brain.

Sara, C. M., Stockdale, L., Busby, D., Iverson, B., & Grant, D. M. A Descriptive Study of the Media Use of Individuals in Romantic Relationships. In Brigham Young University (Vol. 60, pp. 150-162).
This publication covers the correlation between the use of technologies and the positive/negative communications between couples and the frequency of the use. It goes on to state that the majority of people frequently use cell phones and text messaging to communicate with their partners for the purpose of expressing affection. Since social networking sites are growing in popularity, people have easier access to the internet, there is an endless array of communication possibilities and outlets. Cellphones have quickly become the most common and easiest way to communicate, not only through actual voice conversation, but also through texting and email messages. One problem that people run into through this type of communication is the misunderstandings in the actual messages. There was a lot of research incorporated in this article with quite a few variables.

Villegas, A. (2013). Technology and Family Dynamics. In NY State Communication Association (Vol. 2012).
This research information states "With the development of new technology, things will always be lost, while simultaneously, new things are gained". The media we interact with on a daily basis, influences family relationships and dynamics. It also states that a negativity that media presents during the ritual of family mealtime could have detrimental effects on a relationship. There are key benefits that result from couples sharing a meal together and with media devices present it distracts them from engaging in healthy conversation that ultimately form a strong relationship. It goes on to disclose how commercial television viewing, as a couple, is regarded as a fulfilling social function and has a positive impact on relationship development. It was apparent that media affects the way a couple socializes. Without boundaries of time and place, features of technological devices allow individuals to faster relationship bonds by creating the perpetual ability to connect with others.

Weisskirch, R. S. (2012, August). Women’s Adult Romantic Attachment Style and Communication by Cell Phone with Romantic Partners.
This article reveals how cell phones have become important communication media for individuals in romantic relationships. The frequency of and methods used for communication may vary between individuals. The article goes on to discuss that the type of communication partners have is based on their attachment style. For example, those with anxious attachment often see out reassurance of the stability of the relationship while those who were more certain bout their relationship contacted their partners less often.

Huang, S., Broniarczyk, S. M., Zhang, Y., & Beruchashvili, M. (2015). The Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships in Shared Goal Pursuit. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(Feb), 1252-1266. This research examines how individuals' relationships with others sharing the pursuit of the same individual goal may change from early to later stages of the pursuit. In one field experiment consumers demonstrated a tendency to view others in shared pursuit as "friends" to seek support from and alleviate uncertainties during the early stage of the pursuit; however, once they reached the advanced stage and felt more certain about how to approach and complete the goal, this closeness significantly reduced. This shift in the relationship further influenced consumers' interaction with others, such as the sharing of helpful tips and information. The findings provide insights into the autonomous information-sharing behaviors of consumers in shared goal pursuit and the key drivers behind the effectiveness of shared-pursuit programs like Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous.

Aledavood, T., López, E., Roberts, S. G., Reed-Tsochas, F., Moro, E., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Saramäki, J. (2015, September 21). Daily Rhythms in Mobile Telephone Communication. Retrieved from Public Library of Science database. (Accession No. 109555091.)
Circadian rhythms are known to be important drivers of human activity and the recent availability of electronic records of human behavior has provided fine-grained data of temporal patterns of activity on a large scale. Further, questionnaire studies have identified important individual differences in circadian rhythms, with people broadly categorized into morning-like or evening-like individuals. However, little is known about the social aspects of these circadian rhythms, or how they vary across individuals. In this study we use a unique 18-month dataset that combines mobile phone calls and questionnaire data to examine individual differences in the daily rhythms of mobile phone activity. We demonstrate clear individual differences in daily patterns of phone calls, and show that these individual differences are persistent despite a high degree of turnover in the individuals’ social networks. Further, women’s calls were longer than men’s calls, especially during the evening and at night, and these calls were typically focused on a small number of emotionally intense relationships. These results demonstrate that individual differences in circadian rhythms are not just related to broad patterns of “morningness and eveningness”, but have a strong social component, in directing phone calls to specific individuals at specific times of day.