“You’re only young once, so enjoy it while it lasts.” While this may be a cliché saying, it rings true.
Being young is one of the best and most important times of life. It shapes who you are and who you are going to be. It’s a time that should be filled with love, laughter, learning and the use of imagination. However, the 21st century’s “24/7 digital world” has put this crucial time in harm’s way as a result of technological innovation. Many people believe that advances in technology and new devices improve our lives, but do they really?
Today, in an era defined by email, text messages and an overwhelming amount of social media, technology has become the main priority in young people's lives, taking the place of real human interaction and even deep human thought. The millennial generation is being affected the most because we have grown up around it. We are the only generation from here on out that will have experienced what a real childhood should be like without getting an iPhone in the fifth grade.
Although search engines like Google have made significant contributions to the world, the question is whether or not these search engines are making contributions to the intelligence of our society. When a question pops into our minds, we immediately type it into Google and in a matter of milliseconds, we have thousands of answers and hyperlinks at our fingertips to choose from. Before even thinking about the answer on our own, Google has already done the work.
Nowadays, most students use technological devices to do their schoolwork, and classes are transitioning more and more to online methods. But when people rely too heavily on the technologies to find the answers for them, often times they don't truly learn how to do tasks on their own.
Technology is also changing the way people think and behave because they are wasting so much time focusing on meaningless things, such as a number of Instagram likes or replies to a tweet. Modern society is struggling with the ability to focus because of the strong impulse to immediately respond to incoming information. Personally, when I’m trying to work on a paper, and texts or Groupme messages are popping up on my phone, I can’t help but look at them.
In my opinion, the way technology use has become a part of our daily lives is diminishing our well-being. For most people, their iPhone is not far from reach from the moment they wake up in the morning to when they go to sleep at night. This desire to always be “plugged in” can leave us feeling bored easily, so we increase our use of it, attempting to gain a false sense of attention and security. The more people we’re texting, the more friends we feel like we have right?
I know that technology is a huge part of our world now and it’s going to continue to be. It’s the way our society works and most people have come to terms with that. However, it wouldn’t hurt us to try and spend a little less time online, and a little more time living in the present moment.
