Technology is a really over-powering thing and a growing epidemic and I feel that it's really taking a tole on young people but at the same time advancing the communication between us. To know that teens are using their phones on average 60 times a day is quiete saddening because there are so many other things you can be doing, such as doing home work, studying and spending time with family.
The way technology has driven the last half of a century has changed life astronomically. Everyday people crave and desire the next big thing on the market. Whether it is the hybrid car or touch screen phone, the need for something more leaves room in life for unhappiness when those items are not obtained. Lao-Tzu strongly argued that when people do not want anything, they are okay with living simple. This is beyond the truth of today.
The Constant Battle of Parenting Teens Teenagers permanently attached to their cellular devices has become a naturally occurring phenomenon in today’s technologically advanced world. It almost seems impossible to separate teenagers from their phones, and these gadgets are not left idle either. It is a rare occurrence indeed for a teen to call another’s home phone for any reason. However, before texting was around, teenagers continually rang each other’s home lines, and parents frequently fumbled to take messages appropriately for their teenagers. In his essay “Handling Teen Calls”, Gary Lautens exposes the harsh realities associated with being a parent of a teenager in modern society through his recounts of fumbled attempts at taking phone messages for his son correctly.
It seemed as if the only people who were able to keep up with the rapid change were the youth. With technological breakthroughs becoming more common by people who seemed to be younger and younger, the youth of today’s society thrive on the new products as if their lives depended on it. My little sister, for example, is nine years old and has mastered the task of working Apple’s new product, the “iPad”, while my grandfather who is 75 years old feels as if telemarketers are using computers to track when he is at home to call him. This supports my theory that other older generations are afraid of something they do not know or fully comprehend. I personally believe that since my generation is so well informed and well trained with digital technology, we should actually take the time to show the previous generations how certain things work, help them and do away with that primal fear that many of them have.
They can choose to engage in deep thinking activities. Too much of anything is not good for any one, and this also applies to internet usage. Scholars say that the price of technology is alienation and that this indicates that the more distracted an individual becomes, the less able they are to experience human emotions such as empathy and compassion. It is still too early to tell what the results of the future effects of the internet, but as Carr states, “An intellectual technology exerts its influence by shifting the emphasis of our thought. As the brain adapts to the new medium, the most profound changes will take place over several generations’
Our culture is changing; every day more people utilize cybernetic ways to communicate which reduces the quality of our interaction. On her essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation”, Deborah Tannen points out that intimacy is the base of relationships, but how can intimacy exist if our communication levels these days do not even involve having a face to face conversation. Since the Internet and computers became more affordable, more people are becoming part of the cybernetic world. According to Wikipedia, there are over 500 million users on the most popular social networking websites, more than half of them are under 25. This means that most of the young members of our society are growing accustomed to a different kind of communication, perhaps one of less quality.
In the essay, Turkle explains that the internet and BlackBerry phones are absorbing all of our time and attention. She says these media devices reduce our natural ability to form relationships and be social with one another. When people are together, they now divide their attention between the person they are with and their Blackberry or mobile device.Turkle stresses that the growing trend of constantly carrying a cell phone can have a negative impact on children. They no longer have to experience being completely alone or finding their way because parents are on speed dial to help them in an instant. The reading Me Against the Media, by Naomi Rockler-Gladen, addresses the issue of naturalized consumerism.
Since so much of what we use in everyday life involves technology, it is only fair to introduce our youth to it and get them accustomed to using it frequently. People never send handwritten letters anymore, that’s partially why companies like the USPS was considering reducing the amount of days they deliver. Majority of people are using email, social networking and phones to communicate. Not only is it easier, but more efficient and allows us complete more tasks since “everything is happening much faster, and more things are happening” (Source C). Not only will it help students in the future, it’ll also make learning more compelling, after all students do prefer “glitz and pictures” and “video and stylish packaging” (Source E).
The internet also serves as a boon to literacy rates as "we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s" as more people choose to use the text based internet. Carr also serves the warning of Plato, that as more people rely on the internet as their source of information, they “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful" (para. 31). He further bemoans the development of the internet as a central aspect of our education, quoting that "' we become like pancake people, spread wide and thin"' coldly lacking any real understanding. Writer Nicholas Carr makes an interesting plea in “Is Google Making Us Stupid” against society’s growing dependence upon the internet as a source of information; although he rejects a centerpiece of twenty-first century culture his article serves as a respectable admonition of the long term effects that the internet has on cognition.
While I'm sure all these devices have good intent, they have ultimately taken focus away from the road and put more focus on other things like taking a picture a posting it on Facebook or stopping at the drive thru to eat while on the go. We have traded safety for convenience, and common since for smart phones. Yet, as obvious as these hazards have become we still continue to ignore the fact that one thousand people a year are killed in auto accidents due to cell phone use and one of those thousand could easily be me, my brother, my best friend, or someone else I love. Why do we do this? Most people just feel invincible, particularity young people.