Teens are becoming so attached and obsessed with today’s technology. It’s no surprise that relationship are being made through phone and internet. It’s all about keyboards and surfing online. There are less and less teenagers who come to each others houses and talk, having eye to eye contact. You can’t even see teens playing basketball outside on a court anymore. Now they only play games on consoles. Even though technology allowed us to communicate more easily it became the only way to communicate. All of this is having very negative effects on today’s youth as they are loosing their social skills and becoming more and more socially awkward.
First thing is turning on their PC or laptop, going to Facebook to chat or to YouTube to watch videos. This is no wonder that relationships in families and friendships are being lost. Many available technology today creates something like private bubble for person. Using smartphones all the time and taking pictures or videos of everything is distracting youth from living real life experiences.
It’s estimated that 93% teenagers aged 12 to 17 are online. Only 4% of families don’t have access online and 8% families with teenagers don’t have personal computer. 80% of teenagers from 12 to 17 own at least one gaming console. 75% of them have smartphones. They make 1 to 5 phone calls and 50 SMS each day. Teenagers are spending almost 9 hours a day using technology be it watching TV, movies, radio and not doing their school work. This happens because majority of kids are being introduced into world of internet at very young age.
I am in any way not against technology, only if it’s used for bad negative things. I love the fact it helps us in a way we can connect to our old friends or see someone over Skype that we didn’t saw for a long time or someone who’s far away from us, but everyone has to decide their limits. Some people also have problem meeting others in real life so they first turn to their online social media sites where they make new friendships. But how many of so called friends on Facebook would say hello to them in real life ?
I think power of technology and innovations will in the end transform society as a whole dramatically, and not just teens. Truth is that technology is different from every other impact of our lives. The real question is, how are we going to use it in the future. This is becoming digital age and we must make sure that with the use of new technology, we provide our teens with right discipline and things they need in order to be the best they can be.
