Does technology hurt or improve the lives of teenagers?
By: Bayne Basche
Technology has taken over everyone's life, especially teenagers and mine. Everyday I find myself using my phone, and computer. I use my phone to communicate with friends by texting and snapchatting for a large portion of my day. I also find myself scrolling through my Twitter and Instagram feed whether it’s at school or at home it truly doesn’t matter. Phones and computers allow everyone to communicate with each other. They also allow everyone share pictures and videos within seconds and everyone is constantly doing it. In addition, technology allows anyone to stream movies, or videos using Netflix and YouTube which consumes more of our time too. With that being said, I believe that technology is hurting the lives of teenagers because we are constantly distracted from our daily lives, and teenagers now tend to rely on indirect communication instead of direct communication.
One of the biggest ways that technology hurts the lives of teenagers is by how much it distracts us from our daily tasks. For example, the day I wrote this blog post I tried my best to stay focused so I could get it done quickly and efficiently. But, I was distracted quite a bit by group messages, snapchats and Instagram notifications from my friends. According to CNN, “teens are, on average, spending nine hours a day consuming media” (Wallace). If a teenager spends nine hours using their phone, that is about two more hours than the time teenagers spend in school. That is crazy to think about. There are only 24 hours in a day and more than ⅓ of our day we spend on our devices. During that nine hours, teenagers try to complete homework and other tasks but it is no wonder they take longer than they should or don’t get done. Companies like Apple are also doing a very good at providing substitutes, like Apple Watches that are constantly on our wrist and have a lot of the same capabilities as a cell phone.
Another way that technology is hurting the lives of teenagers is by how teenagers tend to rely on communicating through email and texting instead of meeting face to face or talking on the phone. I can speak for myself and most of my fellow Insight students in my class for this problem we have. While we deal with real businesses and adults we sometimes stray away from calling our mentors, or businesses when we need help or information right away. Instead we resort to trying to email or text the professionals because that is what we are comfortable with. This is a negative externality with the development and increased demand for technology because teenagers have become dependent on technology. But, if we used our phones to call them instead and have a conversation it would save time, and resolve the problem quicker.
Besides those drawbacks with technology there are also some positive externalities, and advantages it provides. One of the most important and useful advantages that technology and cell phones, in particular, have provided teenagers with is the capability to call 9-1-1 or their parents in case of an emergency. Also, as a teenager it is really nice to be able to talk to my friends, and look at social media whenever I want even though I can use it too much sometimes. According to mashable.com, “teenage females send an average of 4,050 texts a month and teenage males send an average of 2,539 texts a month” (Parr). With this being said, texting can be beneficial because most of time when teenagers talk to their friends we tend to have shortened, and abbreviated conversations that really wouldn’t be worth talking over the phone about. So, sending a lot of short texts, quickly can be just as useful as talking on the phone.
Ultimately teenagers are using technology quite a bit. Sometime we use it for pleasure or for an actual purpose. But, technology has also started to control our lives in harmful ways. When it comes to it, each teenager is going to make their own choice whether they are going to go on their phone or computer at anytime and when they do they need to weigh the opportunity cost of the time they use on their devices. If they use too much time on social media and other communicating apps they might not get things in their daily lives done that they need to. Overall, the use of technology is hurting teenagers like myself and we need to limit our use of our devices.
Work Cited
Parr, Ben. “The Average Teens Sends 3,339 Texts Per Month.” Mashable.com, Mashable, Inc., 14 Oct. 2010. http://mashable.com/2010/10/14/nielsen-texting-stats/#PqbZLoE82SqW.
Wallace, Kelly. “Teens spend a ‘mind boggling’ 9 hours a day using social media.” CNN, Cable News Network, 3 Nov. 2015. http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/health/teens-tweens-media-screen-use-report/.
I think that this is a self-control type of thing, and that everyone can turn off notifications and focus for a period of time to get work done before letting themselves get distracted again. However, companies do specifically cater to teenagers so that we will buy their products and use them until we need to get a new, better one, which almost guarantees more sales. The more addictive their technology, the more sales will occur. Also, I agree with you that teenagers can benefit from sending short texts that wouldn't make sense to have a phone conversation about, but when was the last time you are even a friend you know had an actual phone conversation? Are cell phones maybe taking away from real social interaction, preventing us from developing real relationships?
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are both advantages and disadvantages to heavy use of technology. However, this is very beneficial to the economy. The more people that use cell phones, the more jobs there would be to support these people. There would have to be more stores, cell phone towers, and companies who make accessories. True, heavy cell phone use distracts us from our daily lives, but from an economic standpoint, it is very beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Lauren's comment, as I was actually going to say the same thing myself. Technology and what you use that technology for is more about self-control than anything. For me personally, I wish I never would have gotten so involved or caught up in technology long ago. Each technology company does a great job creating a niche and marketing to certain generations. While it might be good for the companies to do such a great job marketing and selling to make a profit, it is making the world a less involved place. Personally I have seen a high drop in students with good people skills and who can't work well in groups because they're not used to being face to face with other people. While technology might be a great advancement for the future, with the knowledge we have now on the damage it has also done to society, we should have planned for the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teens are on there phones a little too much. For me I am on my a lout less and I struggle not to get mad at my friends when they hang out with me and all they do is text someone on there phone. So i do believe teens need to get out of there phones. And use more direct communication.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager I relate to feeling constantly connected to technology. I text my friends and boyfriend often and constantly have connections in social media, like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. I agree that technology is taking over teens lives, but I don't relate in that I don't spend as much time on my phone. While, with my friends and boyfriend, I can see their addiction to technology. They are constantly on their phones. I think it's frustrating that this wall is being put up by technology, and wish it wasn't there. I hope that the amount of students spending more time on their phones drops so that we can once again have more human interaction.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with you that technology is consuming the lives of people everywhere, especially teenagers. I know myself that I am always checking my phone as I receive notifications. I often wonder that if kids didn't have technology in their lives what they would spend their time doing. More time studying? Be outside? Because the amount of time that is spent on our phones snapchatting, check social media is a lot of time that could be used do something else. I also think that it sad that whenever we as humans go somewhere, an example let's say on vacation we spend more time trying to capture the moment with a phone trying to get the best picture possible instead of just living in the moment and taking it in. I do however do see having a phone to be beneficial. The number one reason being in case of emergency and having to call 911. Also having communication with your parents while out with your friends letting them know plans. As technology has advanced we are just more and more intrigued on getting the latest phone or smart watch that we begin to lose human interaction skills.
ReplyDeleteThough technology is mostly hurting teenagers, I can see how it can help with education and future jobs. Being a teenager I understand downfall of technology. Trying to get homework done is a pain when you just want to watch Netflix and scroll through Instagram. I can also see how technology is very helpful for learning purposes and an advantage for future jobs. Pewaukee utilizes technology everyday as all students know. Without these personal laptops and projectors we would not be getting the most out of our education. Instead, we would just receive the typical education, list some schools still do, from text books and worksheets. Though these are still used at Pewaukee, technology is allowing our work to be more in depth and research related. Technology also allows us to collaborate in school with other students, which may help some students do better in school. On the topic of jobs, Technology is always growing and evolving. There are some jobs that don't exist now but will when we are older due to technology. With technology some people might be able to get a great job. Having knowledge of technology, social media, and research will be important for the future of jobs, because some employers will want people with these skills. Overall the use of technology can help teens get jobs and do good in school, even though it can be hard to concentrate and have human interaction with it.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has definitely improved all of our lives, but I also agree that technology can be harmful. For example, most people on Snapchat will just send pictures of their faces back and forth without having a meaningful conversation. Some people send Snapchats just to keep up their streaks and have the bragging rights of having so many snap streaks. This is harmful because it teaches us nothing about face to face personal interactions or communicating to one another. However, Snapchat is a great way to connect with friends and others around the world via the special stories, which is fun and beneficial to teenagers.
ReplyDeleteOverall I agree that technology has hindered the time that we could be using to work, focus on school or spending time with friends/loved ones. But I would argue that technology has helped in more ways than you have said, for instance it helps us know what events are happening around us and how we could be impacted. I’d also disagree with the claim that it’s technology that directly hinders our time, but that we are the ones who use our time unwisely with it and it’s not necessarily the fault of the devices. I think the importance of having the ability to gain knowledge from these devices is mostly what outweighs the cons of having it, for we can only move forward when we know what has or hasn’t worked in our economy.
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