by: Chris Cohen
We
are all citizens in a world at the pinnacle of technological advancement. Just
a few decades ago computers were being made that took up areas as large as a
classroom. Now it seems as though everyone around has a computer in their
pocket.
I like to believe I am a part of the
last generation to go outside, or certainly the youngest to remember the time
before technology began to dominate our society. I remember the times when I’d
wake up for school and go outside to check the weather to determine what I would
wear that day. Now we can all roll over and check the weather app. I remember
in the summer if my friends and I wanted to hang out and do something we’d grab
our bikes and round everyone up to play some pickup games or just go to the
general store. Or we’d actually go to the phone and call their house, and
usually their parent answered so we’d have to ask the parent if they were busy
or if they could come play. There was direct contact between people. Now people
roll over and send a text message, or worse check social media.
Nothing has furthered America’s
transition to technology greater than the arrival of social media. This mainly
includes Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram along with the many, many more that
have hooked people in with their services and features that allow you to
connect with anyone, anywhere, at any time day or night. I’m not saying social
media is a bad innovation to our society, what I am stating is that we have
forgotten how to use social media the way it was meant to be used. Social media
is meant to connect us to friends and family like never before. When people
first create their social media accounts the first people to be added are
usually your closest friends and family. But then we began to add EVERYONE we
came into contact with, saw, or heard about. People add celebrities,
groups/organizations, athletes and sports teams, down to a simple blogger
because someone told them, or they liked them, or because they figured it’s the
new hip thing to do. Then afterwards your left with an account with perhaps a
thousand friends, for which you only really know about sixty-five, and a bunch
of other accounts that you thought would be a great idea to add, but in truth
post stuff you mostly ignore and swipe past. Social media initially began as a
fantastic way to connect people all over the world, but has since spread like a
disease right into each one of our lives.
Technology and social media have not
only plagued our culture, but have also created an entire new category of
harassment: Cyberbullying. Many believe that schoolyard bullying is simply a
part of growing up. I myself was bullied, and I saw others bullied all around
me through all levels of adolescent education that I endured, and I am willing
to bet my life that most people can agree they have witnessed or experienced
bullying. We cannot change the fact that bullying will occur. But now bullying
extends further than a classroom dispute. Bullying follows kids home to the
social media accounts that are really a personal journal that everyone has
access too. Bullying can be done through messages sent, pictures posted, or
rumors started because of a ‘status update’. Bullying has become as easy as
pushing buttons.
The saddest truth to all of this
remains the dependency that youths across the nation retain on their
technological devices. I am not saying I am not guilty of this, I have to use a
GPS whenever I have to go somewhere I’ve never been. But I know several people
who have exclaimed, “I would die without my cell phone”. Most adults do not
mean this literally, but it is reasonable to believe the youths of our younger
generations do. The generations growing up do not know a world without this
advanced technology and the internet. It is our moral responsibility to hang
onto some the old ways of life and to not let technology get in the way, simply
because we do not want the human race to go extinct someday for the reason that
we forgot how to make a proper fire or catch a fish.
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