Growing up in a “tech-savy” world
Although I was born within the last year of the 1990’s, it was very different compared to how the children grew up who were born in the 2000’s. We did not grow up with an Iphone to facetime our friends with or an iPad to watch a show on when we went out to dinner, we would spend more time face to face and without technology in our hands 24/7. Children who are born now rely a lot more on technology and it is really starting to effect the way our children act.
Children would rather be inside and play video games than go outside and play in the backyard with their neighbors. It takes away their social ability to make new friends or even talk to others without being too shy. The parents allow for their children to do whatever they want, as long as they aren’t causing issues. These kids in the most recent generation are using their smartphones right when they wake up to check social media, check the weather, see what their friends are doing, and even when they are eating dinner with their family. They are becoming so dependent on smartphones and making a fake world on a game, that they cannot function within the real world.
Working in the service business, I see hundreds of families each week going out to dinner, and some of the actions that happen with the children are astounding compared to the way dinners were just a decade ago. Going out with my family, we could only use our phone until our food came and then we had to spend quality time with our family, now children cannot leave the house without their electronic devices. Parents just shove an ipad in the children’s face to distract them and so they will not complain. Kids are not able to order their own meals because they have never been put into a situation as to where they need to talk to a random person for something they need. I believe that the way that we use technology is getting dangerous, we are becoming too reliable on the skills it gives us and we cannot do things on our own.
We now live in a generation where we can order our food and not have to talk to a single person, or play online with friends and never have to meet with them in person, or order clothes and never have to leave the house. We are becoming less social and this is causing a major issue mentally. Kids in this generation do not know how to make friends outside of their PS4, they get bullied in school for being quiet and only playing video games, they are scared to express who they are. In the reading, How Smartphones Destroyed a Generation by Jean M. Twenge, “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011”. This does not surprise me at all, children would rather be inside and on their phone than having a connection with someone, and humans are in need of social interaction or they will get depressed.
I believe that smartphones has really helped us connect with the world, but they are being used more often than they should. Teenagers are now just sitting in rooms on their phones, not talking to each other and still call it “hanging” out. Every time they go out photos have to be taken to update the social media, talking to other people on their phone while they are at a party — it seems as if we can no longer function without looking at our phones at least every hour. Everyone wants to remember the moment, but they no longer are living in the moment because of how much technology has taken over ourselves. It is starting to effect us mentally, physically, and emotionally and we need to change the way our children have use of this technology before it really takes over us.
