Technology has connected people around the world through mobile devices and social media. There are now 6 billion mobile subscribers, allowing 87% of the world's population to be constantly reachable. Social media platforms like Facebook have over 1 billion members who use it to connect socially. However, this constant connectivity through technology may be resulting in drawbacks like decreased attention spans, loss of memory, and loss of privacy and critical thinking skills. Younger generations in particular now spend over 7 hours a day consuming media on mobile devices.

1. Technology:
Social
Crutch?
Tool
by: Lauren Ball
image by: Squiggle
or

4. We can send a message to anyone at any
time from almost anywhere.
image by: El Alvi

5. There are 6 billion mobile device owners today,
allowing 87% of the world’s population to be able to
be reached constantly.
image by: Michael Coté
source: International Telecommunication Union Statistics

6. image by: Lauren Ball

7. image by: Lauren Ball

8. Distance learning is now covering an ever
increasing variety of courses.
image by: Lauren Ball

9. Emails provide 24/7 post service while saving paper and money,
with 144.8 billion being sent per day.
image by: Lauren Ball
source: Mashable‘Did You Know 144.8 Billion Emails Are Send Every Day?’

10. Facebook is changing our relationships and how we interact
with each other
with 1.11 billion members depending upon it for social connection.
image by: Ross Pollack
Facebook 2013 Q1 financials

11. Social media has allowed
individuals to see and interact
with people across the globe
through instant video feeds.
image by: Apple Inc

12. On-demand news and
information means never having
to wait
until the top of the hour.

14. E-readers allow us to carry
all our favourite books with us
in a 134 gram device.
Image by: JanneM
source: kobo.com

15. Movie rentals are streamed
directly into our homes.
image by: Thomas Hawk

16. Kijiji is a hassle free giant garage sale.
image by: Dave Lichterman

17. Telecommuting allows 800,000 Canadians
to work from home full time.
image by: Chiot's Run
Derek Sankey‘Telecommuting popular work option’

19. Everyone can now be their own DJ
with 350 million iPods sold
since their inception in 2001.
image by: Lauren Ball
source: Apple Press Info Sept. 2012

20. Online shopping means:
no line ups,
no crowds,
no running store to store.
image by: Natalie

21. Everything one needs could be delivered,
right to the doorstep.
image by: Jeremy Vandel

22. Anyone can complete banking transactions
and investments through a couple clicks of
the mouse.
image by: 401(K) 2013

23. Wallets, cash, and credit cards will soon be unnecessary
as phones can now hold and transmit account
information.
image by: Lauren Ball

24. We can tour the globe, discovering foreign places
without leaving the living room.
mage by: Sam Kulpinski

27. loss of critical thinking?
loss of physical communication and connection?
Over consumption?
the average office worker spends 2.5 hours every day on email
that adds up to 81 days a year.
What
are we
losing?
Daniel Bates ‘You've got (more) mail: The average office worker now
spends over a quarter of their day dealing with email’
“Today’s teens spend more than 71/2 hours a day
consuming media” increasingly through cell phones
and send an average of 60 texts per day.
“From the time I get home until I go to bed, I’m usually
on my computer” -Ben Knight (14)
Masuma Ahuja ‘Teens are spending more time consuming media, on mobile devices’
loss of privacy?
Decreasing
attention
spans?Average attention
span 10 years ago: 12 minutes
Now: 5 minutes
Assisted Living Today ‘How Social Media is
Ruining Our Minds [Infographic]'
Loss of memory?
Wa!ed
Time?
image by: Aayesha Siddiqui

29. Do we control it?
Or does it control our lives?
Image by: Cathy

30. All images are licensed under the
Creative Commons
Non-CommercialShare-Alike 3.0
agreement, and sourced from flickr or
Wikimedia.