Time and Technology

“If we didn’t have electricity, we’d all be watching T.V. by candlelight”. This quote by George Gobel shows how far we’ve come in advancing technology as well as our dependence on it. There’s suppose to be a new cell-phone coming out that you can wave over a bill or check and it immediately pays it by connecting to your bank account. I also hear word that the iPhone 2 is coming out sometime. With all of this new technology popping up and changing so quickly, you have to wonder: How are the young whipper snappers on this plant being introduced to this technology and how is it impacting their lives. Some people would argue that exposure to technology is making kids more detached and distracted from reality. Others would argue that it’s better adapting them for the modern world. I have come to believe from my experiences growing up with technology that whether technology has a positive or negative impact on a kid’s life depends on the way they are introduced to it and the way they are allowed to use it.

One of my first introductions to technology was video games. Video games today end to be viewed in a negative light when associated with kids. But I remember my first interactions with video games findly. Whenever my grandmother would pick my sisters and me up after school we would go to her house and play Mario Brothers on the Nintendo. I also remember listening fondly to the Macarena on the cassette tape player and watching movies like Bambi on VHS tapes. It was a simpler time in those days. The first electronic device I ever owned was called a Gigapet. It was a little virtual pet you carried around until you got tired of feeding it and lost it one day. Let’s just say it’s a good thing kids aren’t put in charge of taking care of real animals. Although I was young when I was introduced to all of these forms of technology, I did not have an addictive tendency towards them and actually remember them with a sense of nostalgia.

Then times changed and suddenly CDs were the new thing. I began my CD collection around the age of 13 in 2001. DVDs were also coming out around that time and I started watching movies and listening to music much more frequentl. And DVDs CDs were easier to use than tapes because you didn’t have to Fast Forward or worry about any static or grainy quality. DVDs made movies seem more realistic. It’s harder to separate yourself from the screen when the resolution quality is so good.
Then around the age of 15 I made an important discovery. There was this thing called the internet. Unfortunately I couldn’t explore very much of it because my mom had the parental controls set to infant. Although I wasn’t really interested in the internet itself at the time, I did enjoy constantly IMing my friends on AOL, which was texting in its earliest stage. I only used the internet to get information for research projects. Then these things called social networks popped up and now I can send direct messages back and forth to multiple friends while updating my status and watching Youtube videos. Multitasking has never been easier. With all these things going on there seems to be a pattern forming where you become more connected to the people who are far away and less connected to the people who are nearby.

When I wasn’t using the computer to IM or do research, I was using it to play a little game called SIMS. I have been SIM-sober for 3 ears. I was formerly a SIMaholic addicted to SIMS 1 and 2 and all of their subsequent expansion packs. I also became addicted to games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto that had recently come out on the new XBOX. Other games I had played like Oregon Trail and Pin Ball were swiftly left in the dust. These new games had vivid graphics and placed you directly in the driver’s seat with full control of what was going on in the game. It demanded your attention. Then there was my Gameboy, which was one of the earliest forms of hand-held gaming devices. It was even more addicting than the newer games. I guess it’s harder to walk away from something you can carry around with you.

When I was in high school I was given another hand-held device. It was called a cell phone. I didn’t like to use it though and I seldom turned it on. Friends thought I was strange because of this and my mom would complain that I didn’t have my phone on enough. After I graduated high school, I started keeping my phone on more an even attempted texting. One day I got a call from my mom telling me that my friend Chelsie’s mom had been in a car accident. Chelsie was in high school at the time, and I wasn’t there so I had no way of reaching her other than her cell, which wasn’t on. I then texted my sister who had a class next to her’s. My sister was able to find Chelsie and tell her what happened so she could call her mom.

So which technologies are harmful and which ones are beneficial? It seems like the technologies that tend to be more harmful are the ones that seem more convenient. The more convenient a device is, the less thought that goes into the action to use it, the more it becomes a habit. If you become dependent on technology, your life is then inconvenienced when you suddenly have to live without it.

To avoid this I think parents give timed play-time on video games and other things so kids don’t overuse them. Parents should make sure their kids aren’t neglecting their responsibilities, the people around them, or themselves. Parents should also explain when it is not appropriate to use certain devices. That way kids remember to use these powers for good and not to send texts to their friends during class or like one boy I saw in college do – watch Surfing videos on a laptop during biology. Technology can be used as a way of bringing us closer. My 80 year old Grandfather just got his first Facebook page and it was fun seeing him try to figure out how to update his status. But when this technology is misused it can distract us from life. I think it’s important that when we use technology we remember what really matters are the people we keep ourselves connected to on the screen and off it.