This week’s reading discusses how using technology has become a factor in the way that youth today form their identities. I was really interested in this, as I have grown up with technology very heavily interwoven into my interactions with my peers as well as my schoolwork. I have had the luxury of typing all short and long essays that I needed to hand in, owning online transcripts of textbooks, and emailing people when I’m too afraid to call them. I was against e-readers, but I eventually submitted to their majesty when I realized how much cheaper books are and the ease of borrowing e-books from the library via Kindle. I would be lost without my laptop or cellphone, and I grew up with much less technology than my brother who is three years younger than me or my nieces who are ten, sixteen, and nineteen years younger than me. I pride myself on knowing what a phone with a cord, a floppy disk, and wired Internet connections are. They will never know this, or if they do it will be from movies and television shows that seem archaic to them.
I worry that their exposure to technology will have a negative effect on their social interactions. As easy as technology makes tons of things, it also makes it really easy to avoid people. Why go outside when you can sit and play games or browse the Internet? Birthday parties and sleepovers took on a different theme once computers were introduced. Cyber bullying is a huge problem that will probably never be tackled as long as face-to-face bullying is still a thing.
I do not think having technology will hinder their learning. I have played educational games on laptops and iPads with my nieces. I know that my stepsister and her husband limit the amount of time their girls spend on the Internet and watch what websites they visit. Unfortunately not all children have this protection. Not all children have someone looking over their shoulder or looking at their browser history to make sure that they’re not wasting their time or being exposed to something they shouldn’t be.
I know there are tons of arguments about the Internet making things too easy or dumbing things down or making too much information available. I don’t know if I agree with these things or not. I think I am not in the position to choose a side as I have grown up surrounded by this technology and therefore would probably be biased. I do, however, think that when children under the age of 15 are on the Internet, measures need to be taken to limit and monitor their usage. They should not have free range.
I believe it was Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben who said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Now I love that you’re all for the past, you hold on to those floppy discs and forced socialization due to lack of quick, easy technology. I also think it is wonderful how you are trying to fight for a safer internet. However, the fact is you will lose. The internet has transformed into this creature which holds all the information ever discovered by our human race, and attempting to limit it is impossible. Yet, this still isn’t the issue at hand. The true issue is how the social aspect of children seems to be changing towards an unfavorable outcome. I think the question that I take from your post is; Is technology causing children to lose social literacy?
If this is indeed your question, then the answer lies somewhere in your definition of social literacy, and a way, a standard if you will, to measure the social skills of the entire generation. Then comes the question of identifying if technology is the cause of this change (should one be found) and attempting to right this seemingly sinking ship.
I have trouble making up my mind about technology use among young people. It’s necessary to have some working knowledge of how to use popular sites or programs, but I feel that too many people become reliant on what a computer can do for them than what they can do on their own.
There’s a story by Isaac Asimov about a man being studied by scientists because he poses the extraordinary ability to do basic arithmetic with only a pen, paper, and his own mind. It was written sometime in the 1950s, and spoke totally against integrating computers into the lives of everyday people because they may eventually make human skills obsolete, to the point of no one learning simple functions like adding and subtracting.
It seems highly unlikely this will ever be the case, but it’s fascinating that this idea came up 60 years ago and we’re still worrying about the same sort of thing. When you change the form of how something is done, like socializing, will the previous form eventually die out? And if it does, what harm can that do to humanity? Does it matter that our skills and practices have changed when the new way of doing things is easily integrated into our lives?