Flashback to the 1990s. No one knew what a cell phone was. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were unheard of websites. If you would of said the phrase, "Dude, did you see my SnapChat story yesterday?" you would get looked at as if you had at least three heads. There was no such thing as Angry Birds or Candy Crush. Instead people passed time by playing boardgames while interacting with friends or family. Directions came from reading a map, and shopping could only be done by physically driving to a store. All this makes me wonder, is technology really helping society?
First let's start with social media. It can have its pros. You get to keep up with friends and family (even tech-savvy grandparents) who you do not see every day, and sharing photos online makes it easier to show those special moments in your life.
Social media also has several disadvantages that people often do not see, though. Those photos suddenly turn into a competition of who has the better life. We spend too much time obsessing with what other people have that we forget to appreciate what's ours. This is especially a problem with girls. By simply looking at someone else's photos, we can instantly feel worse about ourselves. The thoughts, she is so much prettier than me, or, I wish I had her body, quickly take over. This does nothing but harm us.
Instead of wanting to be better, or in social media terms, wanting to get more "likes" than someone else, we should step away from the screen long enough to focus on ourselves. But it doesn't stop with the photos. Knowing what others are up to every second of the day also destroys us. I'm sure your friend's first class trip to Europe was a great experience, but do you really have to sit there and watch their 110-second snapchat story of them drinking butter beer and fake-pushing the Leaning Tower of Pisa? We miss out too much on our own lives by keeping up with someone else's.
Facebook says, "Share what's on your mind," but is it absolutely necessary to know what someone is doing 24/7? I like to remember the phrase, "Less is more," when it comes to posting on social media. Sharing with your friends and followers that you got a 98 on your math test, took your dog to the vet and got a haircut all in one day is a little much. Or posting 30 back-to-back Facebook statuses about how your boyfriend dumped you and is a lying douchebag is probably something you should just keep to yourself. Save social media for posting about the big happy moments in your life.
Another issue that technology is bringing to us is a lack of face-to-face communication. Have you ever sat at a restaurant and looked around to see more people looking down at their phones and not at the people they are having dinner with? Or are you too busy looking down to notice that it is even a problem? I rarely see kids coloring their kids menus with crayons anymore. The iPad is packed and ready to be pulled out at dinner to keep the kids occupied. What ever happened to a dinner where everyone made conversation? If you're going to bring the technology to the dinner table, you might as well have stayed at home and ate in front of the television. Aside from conversation, some restaurants are using technological devices in place of a waiter. Now you can place your order with just a few clicks. Personally, I think the classic pen and paper ordering process worked just fine.
Finally, today's education is in jeopardy because of the advancement of technology. Luckily, I grew up in the late 1990s, so I did not become exposed to technology until my middle school years. I did not know what an iPhone or iPad was, and I barely knew how to work my Motorola Razr. Now that I'm older, I'm starting to pay attention to how younger kids are growing up and what they are and are not exposed to.
When I was in elementary school, we used cubes to learn how to do math. My teacher would say, "If Johnny has four blue cubes, and took away two, how many would he have left?" The physical demonstration of my teacher taking two cubes out of her hand helped my classmates and I see exactly what subtraction was. Now, kids rely too much on calculators on their devices to open their minds to understand math. Why think through this math problem when I can pull my iPad out and type in the equation?
However, math is not the only subject in harm's way. Perfect handwriting is no longer important. I learned the whole cursive alphabet in third grade, and now kids are learning how fast their thumbs move when they are texting their friends. We're lucky birthday cards are still sold in stores since handwritten letters are no longer in existence. We only know that in "The Notebook," Noah sent Allie a letter every day for a year and never even got a response. Today we are lucky if we get triple texted by the person we like (three texts sent in a row without response for those non-texters out there).
So next time you pick up your phone to see how many notifications you have, take a second to think about what else you could be doing with your time. Explore the outdoors, spend time with your family, and detach yourself from your beloved technological device for a little bit longer than usual. I promise you can do it.
