In spite of the worst of situations, there is always that glimmer of hope and kindness that goes around to look forward to. Below are some pictures that will restore your faith in humanity.

After 64 years of marriage, James Burke spent his dying moments talking to his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, about their future.

via huffingtonpost.com

Loving owner John Unger puts his 19-year old arthritic dog to sleep by cradling it in Lake Superior every night.

via Hannah Stonehouse Hudson

To show sympathy to a classmate suffering from cancer the whole class shaved their heads on graduation day.

via dumpaday.com

A police officer going beyond his call of duty to deliver milk for a household with young children

A selfless police officer gave a pair of shoes and thermal socks to this homeless person during a freezing night.

via huffingtonpost.com

Kindness is rewarded with kindness.

via dumpaday.com

A boy delighting an old couple living on the street.

via izismile.com

A man in wheelchair lifted by the crowd so he can see the band perform.

via smosh.com

An Afghan man quenches the thirst of a fighting American soldiers with a cup of tea.

via boredpanda.com

The most successful bakery ever

via dumpaday.com

Every year, this father wins the sympathy of the audience in triathlon competitions.

via dailymail.co.uk

Every life matters.

via buzzfeed.com

A mother and her little children cross a road cleared by a kind traffic enforcer.

via nedhardy.com

A bag of delights and heartwarming note for everyone on flight from considerate twins.

via boredpanda.com

A hero on his own jet ski rescued neighbors affected by flood brought by Hurricane Sandy.

via huffingtonpost.com

A fast-food branch offering the best “Value Meal.”

via buzzfeed.com

A young boy endangers himself to save his dog.

via studentbeans.com

A reading advocacy bookstore.

via izismile.com

A group of cyclists sharing their water with a koala in Australia.

via boredpanda.com

Meghan Vogel wins the heart of many at the finish line.

via studentbeans.com

The hopeful Jose Rubio-Pavon, with an inoperable brain tumor, is sworn to his duty as the youngest police officer in his city.

via huffingtonpost.com

Two admirable kids working together to help a dog stuck in a ravine.

via buzzfeed.com

Oxygen for this adorable kitten rescued from suffocation in a house fire.

via buzzfeed.com

A homeless girl from Rio de Janeiro is grateful for a pair of slippers given by a kind man.

via buzzfeed.com

Japanese senior citizens offered to accept the nuclear challenges in Fukushima power station so the young people wouldn’t have to expose themselves to radiation.

via buzzfeed.com

Instead of being selfish during critical times, a generous neighbor extended their supply to those in need after superstorm Sandy hit.

via huffingtonpost.com

A young man rescued a stranger’s dog that was thrown into the water by strong winds.

via Buzzfeed.com

Creative and loving parents built a rock n’ rolling Halloween costume for their wheelchair-bound boy.

via fullpunch.com

A general receiving a cake from protesters on his birthday.

via izismile.com

This thoughtful dry cleaner gave free services to over 2,000 unemployed workers in Portland.

via buzzfeed.com

Let’s face it.  We are living in a digital age, and there is absolutely no turning back. One of the biggest influences on society these days is social media. It affects us both positively and negatively. Social media was originally designed for people to share interesting facets of their lives with their friends, but it has become so much more than what it intended to be. It is now a medium for information to pass around the globe. In many cases, people first learn about current events through Twitter or Facebook before hearing about them from conventional news sources.

We also rely on technology for nearly everything we do. People these days seem as if they can’t go anywhere or do anything without their smartphones, tablets, or laptops. They need to be in constant contact with others via electronic devices.

However, there is also a downside to be too connected to social media and electronic devices. We are too dependent on them, which make us oblivious to what we are doing to ourselves. Being too connected can have a negative effect on our lives and the society as a whole. Here are 10 true illustrations that show how our society is negatively impacted because of the use of technology.

1. Facebook is eating away at your time.

How much time do you usually spend each day on Facebook or other social networking sites? Is it hindering your productivity? Do you find yourself wasting time to a point where you don’t even know where it goes? If the answer is yes, Facebook might have eaten away at your time.

2. We’ve become “Likeaholics.”

When you are posting something on Facebook, are you doing it just to see how many of your friends will give it the proverbial thumbs up? This illustration shows that some people are treating “Likes” on Facebook as if it was a drug they needed to inject into their bloodstreams.

3. Our electronics have priority over our lives.

Given a choice between your dying phone battery or you dying, which will you choose? In this case, the man in this illustration chose to charge his phone over to sustain his own life. As a society, we need to be more careful of our priorities.

4. Our devices are ruining intimacy.

Have you and your loved one ever spent time together where each of you is on your phone instead of communicating face-to-face with each other? Has society reached the point where we can’t even be intimate with each other without being on our phones at the same time?

5. Families aren’t spending quality time together.

Here is a mother making holiday cookies, but what are the kids doing? They are not making cookies with their mother. Instead, every one of them has their faces buried in their own electronic devices. Television used to be what parents use to babysit their kids. Now, it’s a tablet, phone, laptop or video game that does the job.

6.  We’d rather record someone than help them.

A lot is happening in this illustration. A black man is drowning and asking for help. One person has a gun pointed at him. The other person has their iPhone pointed at him and is recording the scene, but is not interested to help this man.

7. Society is sleeping, it’s sleeping its life away.

Time is money. After we have wasted the long period of time on social media, we are losing the most valuable currency we have – our time in this world.

8.  Despite all the technology we have, we still want what someone else has.

There’s an old saying that goes, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” This illustration shows that despite all that we have, we are still not satisfied with our lives.

9. Sensationalism still sells.

With the information overload that exists today, the media still looks for sensationalism. Here’s a woman who feels she has something important to say, but the media only cares about her because she is naked. Would the news media still have microphones in front of her if she wasn’t standing there topless?

10. In the end, with all of this, we are still killing the planet.

This last illustration argues that despite all of our technological gains, we are still polluting the earth as if we have a virtual gun pointed at Mother Nature. As we build bigger cities and higher technology, how much more damages can we continue to do before putting our lives at risk?

Featured photo credit: Michael Summers via flickr.com