How has technology affected your personal relationships and overall quality of life?
Technology has been a bane and a boon in my life. I think a lot of what I know about current society is via media and word of mouth, which can sometimes conflict with each other. Relationship-wise, I feel like technology has brought me closer to my family, especially living out here in Berkeley. With cellular devices, Facetime, texting, and social media, I feel slightly more "connected" to my friends and family back home. However, that's not to say that technology has taught me everything "good." There was a time when I was taught to despise my culture, to look at FOBs as alien people to scorn, to view myself as someone that I was not and strive for unrealistic goals. But, I think a lot of my life has been trying to navigate these murky waters and take from technology the more beneficial aspects. Overall, I'd say technology plays an essential role in my life. It is my main source of information and work (virtually all my homework is done via the computer, and my research is through the Web, not like the old-school library book days in my youth). And I prefer to communicate through text sometimes instead of calling. I have to be cautious though- technology can neither break nor make relationships if I don't take the time and effort to maintain intimacy/friendships. And if I focus too much on what the media says or compare myself to some unrealistic image of what a woman should be and look like, I will never know what it feels like to value myself.
There's a fine line between technology and the impact it can and will have in my life.
-Rachel Chung
Technology has been a bane and a boon in my life. I think a lot of what I know about current society is via media and word of mouth, which can sometimes conflict with each other. Relationship-wise, I feel like technology has brought me closer to my family, especially living out here in Berkeley. With cellular devices, Facetime, texting, and social media, I feel slightly more "connected" to my friends and family back home. However, that's not to say that technology has taught me everything "good." There was a time when I was taught to despise my culture, to look at FOBs as alien people to scorn, to view myself as someone that I was not and strive for unrealistic goals. But, I think a lot of my life has been trying to navigate these murky waters and take from technology the more beneficial aspects. Overall, I'd say technology plays an essential role in my life. It is my main source of information and work (virtually all my homework is done via the computer, and my research is through the Web, not like the old-school library book days in my youth). And I prefer to communicate through text sometimes instead of calling. I have to be cautious though- technology can neither break nor make relationships if I don't take the time and effort to maintain intimacy/friendships. And if I focus too much on what the media says or compare myself to some unrealistic image of what a woman should be and look like, I will never know what it feels like to value myself.
There's a fine line between technology and the impact it can and will have in my life.
-Rachel Chung
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