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Today’s youth and technology

June 9, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Today’s generation of kids are quite different from the ones before them (our parents and those my age). One big reason is technology.

It’s no secret the changes technology has had on society, how we interact. Those who’ve certainly adapted the best to technology are today’s youth, because they were born into it, and live with it. I was born in the mid 90’s, when technology like the computer and Internet were beginning to gain a foothold in the consumer market, while the time’s IPod was a Walkman.

But if you act like a fly on the wall, just examine kids and technology, it’s very scary how they act. And today’s parents are almost defenceless against technology. It’s been engrained into almost everything we do, and of course today’s kids easily accept it because they’re mind is a sponge.

I didn’t get my first cellphone until I was 17, and I still have it, just a simple call and text phone. Kids today have phones with Internet, these HD cameras, and all these little apps they use. But when you think about, should kids really be using cellphones?

First off, they mainly use cellphones to just text, and to have that instant communication, use slang; “ur” instead of “your,” “lol,” “jk,” the list goes on and on. When it comes to writing, will they actually spell out “your” or use the slang way?

I always see kids and young teenagers in a group, but none of them are talking. Just on their phones. What’s the point of having friends if you’re never going to physically see them, or when you do, you don’t actually talk with them. Even with some of my friends, we’ll grab a coffee together, but it seems every few minutes they check their phones. For me, I just put my phone away because I want to talk to my friends, whom I don’t see very often. I only I check my phone for the time, because I want to devout that time to that person I’m seeing.

Even when it’s time for dinner, kids are still on their cellphones. In my family, dinner time is when you eat and talk with your family, catch up on the day, to be with them.

The biggest problem with kids and technology is the Ipad. Yeah, it may seem wonderful, but for kids, it causes more problems than solutions. Kids are almost glued to those ipads, watching movies, playing games from various apps, just non-interacting with others. When my cousin’s come over, they instantly go on their ipads or iPods, and it’s like pulling an arm and a leg just to get them off it for a few minutes and say hi, and when we try to sit down and talk, they find it “boring.”

Ipads are the new toys for kids, and you might wonder what’s the worst that can happen. Well for one, they loose their imagination. When I was a kid, my imagination was everything my toys were everything. I’d play with various toys all day long, mixing them up, just having fun. The ipad does the imagination for kids. We see ads about stopping childhood obesity now more than ever, because kids don’t get out and do exercise. They stay inside and play (if you can call it that) on their ipads. Oh, and watching videos all day on those small screens is certain to give them chronic headaches and bad vision, requiring glasses.

Kids are teaching their parents how to use technology, from computers and smartphones, to ipads, almost like they’re the parents.

Of course, we shouldn’t blame technology entirely for the way kids are today. The parents who surrender their kids to it need to understand the repercussions. Giving them ipads in the car to keep them quite, or when they go over to someone’s house, it’s not the answer. Parents need to slowly let their kids interact with technology, from smaller devices, to those ipads. By giving a limit to how long kids interact with technology, it will be better for anyone.

I’m not entirely against technology. As adults, we have the capacity, the will power, of when and how to interact with technology, but kids don’t. They’re just given it. If both kids and parents work together, limit technology, then today’s technology won’t be such a bad thing.

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