Our generation of millennials is enormously impressive on a wide spectrum. We are the generation of education, consistently increasing the amount of students attending college. We are the generation of givers, with 11% more college graduates working for nonforprofit groups, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2009. And yet, we are hindered enormously by the mindset we have garnered as a result of being the generation with the most access to technology in history. Constantly affected by our count of likes on Instagram, number of streaks on Snapchat, and which tweet got the most favorites, we let ourselves be defined by our own arrogant needs. Is that really who we are? Really? I'd like to think not.
According to the Pew Research Center, a study in 2015 said that 24% of teenagers alone are "constantly accessing" social media. This doesn't mean the occasional Instagram feed check and Snap selfie. This is an obsessive need to open up one's phone and check to see if anything has changed on your feed since 30 seconds ago. If you're at all like me, you will have caught yourself doing this... Repeatedly. We've all done it. But what is this teaching the kids behind us? Our next generation? I babysat a four-year-old the other day and instead of a "Let's go outside to play," I was warmly greeted with the sweet sound of, "Do you have a Snapchat?" Is this what we want of our kids? Ladies and gentlemen, here's a little reminder. We as people are so much more than that.
With this unyielding access to online validation comes a dangerously competitive nature. Sobs of "Her Instagram is so much cooler than mine," or even, "Dude, did you see his Snapchat story? He was partying like... All night," seem to resonate around the lunch table as much as any "How are you" comments these days. This is simply not what makes us up as people. People are intricate. People laugh around the dinner table with their family. People cry with their best friends in the car. People are not just their latest VSCO post. And yet, we consistently see people walking with their heads down and their eyes glued to their phones. No one stops to say "hi" anymore, few look around at the world. We are missing out on so much human interaction, so many experiences, so many beautiful sights and ideas, all because of the addiction we have to our phone screens.
Besides the effects social media can have on our outlooks, our education is slowly warping into an entirely different system because of technology. Google is our greatest resource and books have been thrown aside. It is absolutely true that these advancements have allowed us to work faster, more easily, and in a far more organized fashion than every before. However, when we constantly hide behind the screens instead of making the conscious effort to do some research in a book or contemplate an abstract idea, we are losing a core component to the development of our education: we aren't letting our brains think for themselves.
Technology has become a daily part of our lives, for worse or for better. It has cultivated enormous developments in a wide variety of fields and led to great achievements in our societies across the world. It truly is an incredible facet humans now have accessibility to at all times. And yet, we must be careful with an overuse of these features. Before we know it, technology could truly take over our lives.
