Abstract

This study examines whether or not the social norm of using technology alongside with the awareness of one’s environment impacts how optimistically people view the world. We conducted a Mechanical Turk survey designed to measure a person’s technology use, mindful awareness, personality constructs, and life orientation. After analyzing our data in SPSS, we found that, though there is a negative relationship between technology use and mindful awareness, but a positive relationship between mindful awareness and life orientation. This suggests that the more a person uses technology the less mindfully aware they become, but their increased technology use and increased awareness also causes them to having a higher life orientation. This could mean that, as opposed to the popular opinion, technology could either be improving our perceptions of life orientation or biasing the self-reports of one’s awareness. Rationale for the findings is provided and future recommendations are made.

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