It’s no surprise that our world is heavily dependent on communicating and receiving information through electronic means. As a matter of fact, you will probably a) never read this since it’s in a newspaper or b) read this on our website.
At this point in time, it’s safe to say our lives aren’t just intertwined with technology; they are completely reliant upon it. I am just as guilty, feeling naked without my cellphone in my hand and being in complete awe of the people still rocking flip phones.
It’s the sad, unavoidable truth, and unless you want to live an Amish or Alaskan Bush lifestyle, you cannot avoid the bombardment of society’s technological innovations and their increasing importance in our lives.
I believe it is only a matter of time before dependence on technology becomes an actual mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by mental health professionals – especially when considering the increase of impulsive and impatient behavior often associated with excessive Internet use.
As technology is becoming smarter, we are becoming dumber. It’s becoming more and more difficult to train our brains and challenge our memory skills when we can just as easily save a tab, text a quick reminder or screenshot a picture.
For this reason, schools choosing to do away with hard cover textbooks and instead integrate iPads with the appropriate e-books are in for a rude awakening when testscores plummet.
When students are using a touch screen, they get into the relaxed mindset often associated with all of the time they already spend on their smartphones. It’s also statistically proven that it is harder to retain information read off a screen as opposed to print.
What our society needs is to go cold turkey. The future health (mental, emotional and physical) of this world is at risk because we just don’t have the strength or willpower to stop. The positives of smartphones and tablets are so miniscule in scale when you imagine all the detrimental effects that our children will endure.
The recent findings of NBC News hasn’t claimed whether or not its study will warrant positive or negative results, but I suspect the latter. In what world does “Almost all children (96.6 percent) used mobile devices, and most started using before age one” sound like an encouraging statement?
Past research has been done about the harmful effects of too much screen time, so becoming competent with devices even earlier will certainly not merit different results.
Even more disappointing, kids will never know the joys of finding a word in a dictionary or learning the Dewey decimal system. Learning cursive has become outdated, as well as the number of people that still have a landline or the skill of reading a map.
Gone are the days where you had to catch your favorite TV show because there were no recording or streaming options. And God forbid if people actually started listening to the concerts they attended instead of recording them on freaking iPads.
According to a CNN article, teenagers on average spend a whopping nine hours per day on media, which is more than an average night’s rest. Those nine hours don’t even include any time spent on homework that requires technology.
Despite all of this, the technology itself is not the problem. All of these countless statistics and studies of the negative implications are all fine and dandy, but the core of the issue is us.
Surprise, humans are to blame again, and it’s the truth. Technology was fine up to a point, but we overindulged and took things to the next level and now we must suffer the consequences. The solution isn’t necessarily to stop the production of new innovations, it’s to stop the integration of them in every aspect of our lives.
Maybe you don’t believe that humans are the problem, but back in the olden days what was missing: the phones or the people? Even if they do go hand in hand, the chicken comes before the egg and we must first address the primary source … us!
I realize that I am the personification of the pot calling the kettle black. I am as drawn to my Apple devices as the next person, but I am also fully aware of how damaging and wrong it all is.
I would be willing to stop if the rest of the world did, so what do you say? Let’s disconnect from our phones, tablets and computers in order to connect with the beautiful world around us.
