Poffinbarger 1!

Jaycee Poffinbarger

Leigh Ann Moore

ENGL 1302

9 March 2018

Technology: What Are We Losing?

Conversing and critical thinking are two important life skills that seem to be disappearing

in today’s society. Teens are engrossed in a cyber-world that they are disconnected from reality.

They are unable to walk through a day without using technology. The increased use of

smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, and computers is causing negative effects in home and

learning environments. If adults do not take responsibility to change the dependency on devices

in teens, then the upcoming generation will not be able to think critically or carry on a

conversation.

It is no secret that technology is being used more by adolescents than it ever has before.

Many teenagers have a difficult time making their own decisions. There seems to be a decrease

in critical thinking skills because teens have quick access to information online, but even with

that, they struggle to correlate the material that they find online with reality. As people from past

generations can testify, the experience is often more valuable than just facts alone. Information is

beneficial, but there has to be some way for students to apply the things that they have learned to

understand them. In his article, “The Challenge of Evaluating Technologies,” Harry T. Roman

writes, “Severe multitasking between different forms of communication makes for a shallow

grasp of issues.” There is nothing wrong with asking Google or Siri for information, but when

that is the only thing teenagers know, they are not being given a well-rounded education.
 Poffinbarger 2!

Multitasking has increased at a high rate with the introduction of smartphones, but people

may not be able to perform any of those tasks efficiently. In a schoolroom setting, many students

have access to their cellphones even while the teacher is instructing. Because they are distracted

by their phones, students are not retaining the information they are taught. They are texting,

scrolling on social media, and playing games. Jessie Webb writes in his article “Reading

Machines,” “…the subliminal state of overstimulation and anticipation related to the device

inhibits memory and retention.” Teens have a hard time breaking this addictive behavior even

when their grades suffer. As Webb again states, “Technology … wires us for gratification.” The

ping of a new text message seems to be of more importance than a good education. Also, there is

a trend in schools of transitioning to online textbooks. As Ferris Jabr published in Scientific

American, “Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a

state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper.” And of course, there is

also the bombardment of pop-up advertisements while reading online, adding yet another

distraction. The addition of technology may be hindering learning for some students.

Many young people are absorbed with the world inside their devices that they are missing

what is going on right in front of them. A friend may be talking about a problem or asking for

advice; and teens would be on social media, not paying attention to anything that their friend has

said. Some teenagers are not comfortable carrying on an actual face to face conversation with

others because they are so used to communicating via text. They seem to have a fear of emotion.

It is easier to communicate something hurtful to someone when one does not have to look the

other in the eye. Often adolescents misinterpret feelings behind the written words. When they

carry on a verbal conversation, they can decipher facial expressions and tone that they can not
 Poffinbarger 3!

get with just words on a screen. Also, due to the shorter lingo used with texting, some teens have

a difficult time using proper grammar when they do have a conversation. There has been a

decrease in the need for social skills today because the majority of communication is electronic;

a valuable life skill is lost.

Technology was invented to improve the way of life, but unfortunately, some juveniles

have twisted its use to harm others for their pleasure and gain. Since the advancement of

technology, there has been an increase in cyberbullying. Twenty years ago, the term

cyberbullying did not exist, and today it is a household term. According to dictionary.com,

cyberbullying is the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages,

usually anonymously. Teenagers use Instagram and Twitter as methods of displaying their

discontentment towards a particular person. Young people present their thoughts in the form of

pictures, videos, messages, and emails, but nothing tells them that have to be kind to each other.

Due to their lack of social skills, many students feel entitled to say rude things about one of their

peers. Within seconds they can spread false, threatening, or embarrassing information throughout

an entire community. Cyberbullying is just one of the many negative effects of the improvement

of technology.

Many teenagers today have become “numb,” in a sense, to the world around them. They

have become captivated in their virtual lives that they cannot depict their real life from their life

on a screen. One cannot help but wonder if the graphic violence in video games numbs students

to a point where they do not value life. In his article, “Shooting in the Dark,” Benedict Carey

writes, “Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the

short term.” But it is not just the gaming community; it is also social media, news outlets, and
 Poffinbarger 4!

scandalous websites that demand the user’s attention expanding across all ages and both sexes.

The youth today are absorbed with what is on their screen that they lose track of reality and time.

Some students are aware of what is going on around them, but they choose technology to forget

or lessen the harshness of their personal lives. Regulating the amount of time spent and filtering

what is viewed can increase personal connections and help students consider life differently.

Technology was developed as a tool to make life easier, but it is now turning into a

dependency. There needs to be a balance between how much time young people use technology

and how much time they think for themselves. Adolescents need to learn the skills to function

without satellites, internet, and other devices. Today in schools across the nation many students

are not going to be acquiring new information because they will be distracted by phones, tablets,

or computers. There need to be different policies set in place in schools that limit these types of

technology at inappropriate times. One strategy could be to enclose students’ phones in a

magnetic lock bag at the beginning of each day, and then the bag will be unlocked at the end of

the day; as one school did in Boston, Massachusetts. By doing this, it would force young people

to interact with one another. They will learn and practice much needed social skills that

adolescents today seem to be lacking. Another policy could be to have the students write reports

without the use of online help and utilize the tools give to them in the library. Doing this will

allow teens to learn a way of life without the internet and valuable researching skills. Furthering

students education does not solely lie in the hands of our schools. Parents need to take

responsibility in educating their children as well. Whether it be limiting access at certain times or

having the ability to shut off a device from a remote location, parents must take a stand to engage

their children in something besides a gaming system. It allows young people to develop
 Poffinbarger 5!

relationships with their family members and friends. Several internet companies today have a

system that a homeowner can install that will enable him or her to turn the internet off on

specific devices. Putting up blockers to certain websites will eliminate the risk of a teen looking

at inappropriate content that they should not be looking at. Many television companies have

input blockers on their systems that allow parents to enter a code for someone to be able to watch

a particular show or movie. In their article, “The Co-Dependent Relationship of Technology and

Communities,” Surry and Baker write, “…human activities and technical developments are in a

constant spiral with advances or changes to one impacting the direction of the other.” There are

many different ways to improve life with technology; young people have become dependent on

technology that they do not know what to do when they do not have access to certain types of

technology. Without that access, students will learn and practice a way of life where technology

does not exist at that moment.

Today children are being raised not to know how to figure out problems on their own

because they can just ask Google or Bing for answers. There needs to be a change or teenagers

will never learn how to do things by themselves. Without technology, young people will not

know how to do simple things like talk to one each other or look up words or definitions in the

dictionary. By limiting access to technology, students will learn about life from years ago.
 Poffinbarger 6!

Works Cited

“Cyberbullying.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/cyberbullying?

s=t. Accessed 20 March 2018.

Carey, Benedict. “Studying the Effects of Playing Violent Video Games.” The New York Times,

The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/studying-the-

effects-of-playing-violent-video-games.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed 20 March 2018

Grudin, Jonathan. "Technology and Academic Lives." Communications of the ACM, vol. 59, no.

11, Nov. 2016, pp. 37-39. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1145/2911980. Accessed 27 Feb. 2018.

Hearst Television Inc. “High School Gets Results after Locking up Students' Cell Phones.”

WMUR, WMUR, 23 Jan. 2018, www.wmur.com/article/high-school-gets-results-after-

locking-up-students-cell-phones/15853417. Accessed 09 March 2018

Jabr, Ferris. “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens.”

Scientific American, 11 Apr. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-

screens/. Accessed 09 March 2018.

Roman, Harry T., htroman49@aol.com. "THE CHALLENGE of Evaluating Technologies."

Technology & Engineering Teacher, vol. 75, no. 1, Sept. 2015, pp. 32-33. EBSCOhost,

libproxy.uhcl.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=aci&AN=109142230&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 27

Feb. 2018.

Spence, Edward H. "Wisdom and Well-Being in a Technological Age." Synesis: A Journal of

Science, Technology, Ethics & Policy, vol. 4, Jan. 2013, pp. T:16-T:20. EBSCOhost,

libproxy.uhcl.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
 Poffinbarger 7!

direct=true&db=poh&AN=92010993&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 27 Feb.

2018.

Surry, Daniel W. and Fredrick W. Baker III. "The Co-Dependent Relationship of Technology and

Communities." British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 47, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp.

13-28. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/bjet.12349. Accessed 27 Feb. 2018.

Webb, Jessie. "Reading Machines." Overland, no. 221, Summer2015, pp. 56-60. EBSCOhost,

libproxy.uhcl.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=hus&AN=112218444&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 27 Feb.

2018.