"Get off of those dumb things! Talk to people instead of texting, stop relying on technology instead of your own mouth to communicate."
My father has said this time and time again over the years, increasing exponentially. I try as much as I can, but being completely honest technology has consumed us, especially my generation and the next. Yes, I've had a real childhood - climbing trees, playing waterballoon fights with the neighborhood crew, causing mischief - but this has subtly disappeared while technology has taken over. Kids are missing the adventures of playing in the street and replace it with playing on iPhones and tablets and laptops and TV's. The tech world is integrated into our daily lives throughout school, work, extracurriculars, and more.
I see and notice this everywhere I go. I work at a fine dining restaurant and more often than not people deny the crayons to their children's coloring book menu because they have a huge iPad already settled right in front of the highchair. The elementary schools now have funding for tablets that students rent out for the year. Middle school teachers instruct their students to "pull out their smartphones" and look up whatever's needed from last night's homework online.
Although this could be beneficial (i.e. eco-friendly, faster, etc), it's also destroying our human relations. We can't go out to eat without posting a million Snapchats and a few Instagram's. We continue to maintain relationships by shooting a text rather than calling or visiting. Even when we are with our friends or out doing something, checking our phone consists of about half the time spent together. Today I even found out we check our phones over 200 times a day.
On top of how much technology consumes our lives, it is also effecting our personalities. Social media is immensely linked with confidence issues. Just because that girl got 300 likes on her Insta means she must be the coolest, most popular, prettiest girl on the planet. This is creating a new generation of increasingly self-concious, unconfident, and materialistic people who equate "likes" and possessions to success and popularity. A memory of doing something fun or amazing lasts much, much longer than that wallet you just spent $500 on just to take a picture with for social media. Friendships and people are what make you truly happy, not likes on your picture or items you buy. Achievement is climbing a mountain or going on an adventure or spending a nice day with your mom or doing what you are passionate about rather than burying your face in your phone to try and obtain this screwed up level of acceptance through likes and pokes and shares.
I'm not saying I'm innocent in this situation - I am a culprit of this victimless crime just as much as the next person. With saying that, I try and be conscious of how much time I spend on my phone and what I could be doing instead of that. I just know that we were doing just fine before these technological advances. Our parents still grew to be the amazing people that they are without Facebook or smart phones or even cell phones for that matter. This day and age, things are progressing so rapidly that by the time you have purchased a shiny new iPhone 6, the iPhone 9++ is already on the market. There's always something newer, nicer, better, shinier, etc. Where will the end be? Is there one? And what will become of the next generation, or the one after that? These are questions that can never be answered, and it's almost frightening to truly think about them. All we can do for now is try our best to live our lives to the fullest and get every experience and enjoyment out of this world before it, too, is made out of metal and plastic.
