Tiongson 1

Jeremy Tiongson
Professor Collins
English 115
18 November 2015
Modern Technology Impacts on Generation Y
I was once a victim of personal loss. My friend, who woke me up daily in the cold early
mornings, who was there to remind me of upcoming assignments, and who was there when I
needed someone to speak with at night, drowned at a pool party. I saw the light leave his eyes
and the warmth leave his body as he sank to the bottom of the pool. That was the night that I lost
someone very dear to me; I lost my phone. It was at this party that I decided to jump into the
pool, with my phone still in my pocket. Could this experience be shared and felt by the youth of
my generation? As the American youth is more emotionally attached to technology, the feeling of
personal loss applies when a phone is destroyed, misplaced, or unserviceable. Being that I am
dependent on my new phone as I was to my drowned friend, it is safe to assume that the
majority of Generation Y is also dependent on their devices, just as the characters are in Phillip
K. Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. As the story progresses, the audience is shown
the futuristic civilizations dependence on technology, such as the influence the mood organ
has on daily emotions. This device, like todays phones, may give a feeling of loss if not used.
Generation Y seems to possess this same type of dependence. However, the older members of
this generation are not as affected by this dependency than those born between 1990 to 2000.
Generally speaking, this implies that the former is better suited to handle the difficult of the adult
life than the latter because the technology during the time was not as readily available as it is
today.

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Being born in 1995, I was able to see the changes in social normality as I grew older. I
recall my parents purchasing their first cellular phones for themselves, and eventually,
purchasing my first cellphone for me. Gone were the days of playing pretend in my backyard as
this example of the phone paralleled the development of game consoles, larger television sets,
and more advanced personal computers. Generation Y, those born between years 1980 to 2000,
experienced rapid technological advancements and are subject to being in commonplace with
technological presence. In Dicks novel, the characters of this futuristic civilization are used to
technological presence as well, meaning that they are not aware of their own dependence on it.
To us, the idea of flying cars are laser firearms are futuristic and unobtainable. However, to the
characters in the novel, it is normal to own either. This is synonymous to how persons in the era
of 1950 or prior would see our touchscreen phones and smart cars as unobtainable as well.
Nonetheless, both members of my generation and the characters of the novel see these
technological advancements as perfectly normal, and furthermore, have potential to be
personally attached to them.
John Isidore, one of the main characters in the novel, is a mechanical pet repairman. His
job is mainly to fix malfunctioning robotic pets and is not accustomed to fixing real, living
animals. John, unknowingly having picked up a real cat to repair, could not find the basic
mechanical components of a machine, thus rendering him useless to give aid to the dying cat.
Upon discovery of the now-diseased pet, the cats owner wants an exact robotic replica to fool
her partner into believing the mechanical pet is real. Listen, Mrs. Pilsen said; she seemed now
to rally. Maybe the other gentleman is right. Maybe I ought to commission an electric
replacement of Horace but without Ed ever knowing; could it be so faithful a reproduction that
my husband wouldnt be able to tell? (Dick 81). This situation describes the characters

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personal attachment to their pet, but must now rely on greater technology to replace it. Similarly,
having lost my old phone to the deathly waters of my friends pool, I bought myself a new,
better, phone. In fact, I bought a phone that Ive been keeping my eye on. Considering my desire
to finally purchase this new phone, if I were to lose it under the same circumstances, I would feel
loss not because of my dependence on it, but because of my personal attachment to it.
Moreover, if the characters new mechanical cat was destroyed, misplaced, or unserviceable, the
owners would then feel personal loss as it was a replacement for the diseased cat.
The novel informs the reader of the short lifespan of the androids about four years. This
is an implication of their inability to fully adapt to adult human life because, in our terms, they
are children. I once analyzed human involvement in technology, and how it affects our
interactions with other human beings. Ideologist and American writer, Jonathan Foer argues that
as technology grows to be more advanced, people become too dependent on it and lose their
ability to socialize. Unlike androids, children are taught basic manners as a foundation on how to
behave as an adult. Ideologists like Foer may say, Isnt it our technology that allows us to be
unkind in the first place? It may confound them to know that the development in simple human
kindness begins at an elementary age, with words such as please or thank you (Jeremy
Tiongson). The use of simple kindness is not learned in the short span of four years the androids
have to live, meaning that by the time they reach the end of their journey (retirement or
unserviceability), they are still not suited to handle the reality of adult human life. Furthermore,
the androids themselves are modeled after adults and thrown into the world. It is obvious to the
reader that the skills, experience, and knowledge adults learn throughout their lives are
unmatched through any use of false memory that may be fed into an android. But, these
memories are not history. . . History can be described as an experience that is personally felt, as

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opposed to memory, which can be described as simply remembering information (Jeremy
Tiongson). Overall, the lifelong experience we feel as humans simply cannot be match by any
machine.
The novel ties closely with our modern generations use of technological devices and
may serve as a rhetorical point to our habits concerning those devices. Being that Generation Y is
born into the era of technological advance, the fact that the future is now does not affect our way
of living because we simply see smart phones, internet-ready televisions, and self-driving cars as
ordinary. The novel is set in the future with flying cars and androids. To the characters in the
novel, that is normal. To us it is not because we have not obtained technology as advanced as the
characters have. Altogether, being born into their era of advancement like we are, it is merely
ordinary to have this technology readily available. The constant development of advanced
equipment that is considered a norm causes the users to be emotionally attached in some way.
Therefore, advanced technology may create both a dependence when present and a feeling of
loss when absent.

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Work Cited
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Ballantine, 1996. Print.