Okay, let's talk about something that's rising to an all time high nowadays. Technology. It's everywhere. I mean, if you don't have a smartphone, nice laptop, Apple watch, or a tablet, are you really living the true 21st century experience? Technology is becoming extremely popular with elementary children today, and I think we need to realize how much children need real life relationships and learning, rather than being taught through a screen.

I used to be a playground supervisor at an elementary school for kindergarten up to 8th grade, and the overuse of technology in the school made me loathe it. Every single child in that school got an iPad. Why, exactly? I would watch 2nd graders learn the United States map by a game on their device rather than have it be taught face-to-face. Why couldn't their teacher teach them? During recess, a boy who recently had surgery couldn't play on any of the playground equipment so his mother decided to come in and "keep him company". They would kick a ball back and forth to one another, and 99% of the time the ball rolled right past the mother because she was too engrossed in her phone to even pay attention to her son. They would try and toss the ball to one another, but really all the mom would do is smack it away while not taking her eyes off her phone. He would try to pull her over to a place on the playground, still her eyes never left her phone. Why would the mother even come if she couldn't look up from her phone long enough to play with her son? During one afternoon, when it was raining outside and they gym was being used, the children's "recess" was them sitting in the hallway, with no talking, no moving, and playing on their iPads. Why couldn't they go into the open library and play games? Children need exercise- they need to release their energy somehow. Another time, after his birthday, I asked a 1st grader what kinds of presents he got. He said he got a new tablet. Why does a 7 year old need a tablet? During recess, I would also watch middle schoolers sit in huddles on their phones the entire time. Why not talk to your friends that are right next to you? Why, why, why?

I hate thinking about the fact that these children are going to grow up in a world where technology will only be used more and more frequently. It's already majorly affecting us teens and young adults now. I can recall so many times where my friends and I would be sitting in a room, all of us on our phones, and we call that "hanging out." And I hate it. I'll be in a restaurant, and the majority of people I see have their phones out rather than talking to the person across from them. We have so much online learning now, and while it can be convenient for some, I remember last year being in an online class and I couldn't stop thinking, "I'm in this class and I don't even know what my teacher or classmates look like. They're just words on a screen." I don't want our children to grow up in a world where learning techniques and social norms like these just become worse and worse. We need human interaction and face-to-face relationships, and if our technology keeps rising at the pace that it is, our children won't get that.