My Love Hate Relationship with Technology

                                             My Love Hate Relationship With Technology

Technology is something the average person can no longer live without. Personally I am your average twenty one year old college student. I love to hang out with my friends and family, go to the beach, listen to music, and socialize with others and as silly as it sounds I would not be able to do mostly everything I enjoy doing without the use of technology. 

I was born in England and my family immigrated to the United States in 2006. All my extended family still reside in England therefore we have to communicate over the telephone or FaceTime. I will forever be thankful for technology for the gift of being able to stay in touch with my family across the pond. My heart will forever be in England and with the help of technology I do not feel like there's an ocean between my grandparents and I. 

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I am also thankful we have technology and social media. While I do think social media does have some negatives and does create toxicity and can be fake most of the time I am thankful for the community it provides. I use the social media websites Facebook, Instagram, I Message , Snapchat, and TikTok daily to communicate with both my families overseas and friends from Charlotte. I love seeing what everyone is up to and makes you feel like you are there with them enjoying the happy times. 

Technology and social media has also given me a support group I never knew I needed. When I was seventeen years old I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and I haven’t looked back. To be honest for the first few years I felt very isolated and lacked confidence with my health issues. Fortunately with the help of Instagram accounts like Beyond Type 1, and  the JDRF or Facebook groups I have found a lot of support and a community of people who know what I am going through everyday and will forever be thankful to social media and technology for giving me my confidence back when it comes to my Diabetes. 

Beyond Type 1 Instagram link

Beyond Type 1 Website

JDRF

I am also thankful when it comes to health technology as due to technological advances in the medical world I can take more control of my Diabetes. I wear a continuous glucose monitor on my stomach or my arm called a Dexcom G6. I connect a new Dexcom every 10 days to my phone using Bluetooth. The app then alerts me when my blood sugars are going up or down 24/7. I will forever be thankful for technological advances when it comes to Diabetes care as I can manage my illness with confidence and get my life back. Without my Dexcom I would have consistent fear when it comes to blood sugars especially at night time. With Diabetes you are always on a moving train and the Dexcom helps me pause and relax once in a while. It is also not enjoyable being a human pincushion and with the help of technology I am no longer one. 

An example of my Dexom app. The average persons blood sugars are always in between 80-120. Dexcom Website

Rocking my Dexcom with another Diabetic at a Jonas Brothers Concert! It is always fun meeting new people with Diabetes as they understand the up's and downs of the disease.

I also do think that social media and technology has made the world a more dangerous place unfortunately. We can never escape technology as we live in a very digital world. I am constantly looking at what others are doing and comparing myself to others which is not healthy. I have had thoughts of not being good enough or pretty enough and sadly I do think that is due to the fact that you constantly see many unrealistic beauty standards online. Technology has taken away some of my confidence when it comes to looks but it has given me my confidence back when it comes to my health which is worth more to me.

I also think you can not escape technology as it is everywhere which can be unhealthy. It is always following you and we rely on it so much. Without technology many would feel lost including myself. I can not imagine a world without technology and social media and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.