Moving Forward

What we have heard about technology crippling our youth and limiting emotions in humans is false. For years we have read articles and watched news stories cover how we are becoming a generation of robots, reliant on nothing but iPods and cell phones to get us through life. Although it may be true that we do put a lot of our time into technology, it by no means is preventing us from being caring human beings capable of love, hate, and every other emotion there is to be felt. Technology is not the lock on the door of growth, but rather the key to it.
Sherry Turkle wrote in her “Always on/Always on You: The Tethered Self” piece “With the on-tap parent, tethered children think differently about their own responsibilities and capacities.” Parents and other adults may think that because of the impact that technology has today children are not becoming independent or socially well rounded in the ‘real world.’ This thought, although reasonable, is not entirely true. Students now are given opportunities to take a year abroad, travel to Europe for a summer, or even go to Africa to teach children in poverty. This task would be impossible for students barely 18, but it’s not because of the use of cell phones and email. A child can go away to university first year and feel like she will be okay because she can email her friends back home and talk to her parents every night if she wants to, but still has the opportunity to be on her own.
Although a cell phone cannot hug you when you’re sad, and an iPod cannot make you laugh like a joke from a friend can, it can keep us connected to who we are and help us feel like we are safe in today’s crazy world. To whomever thinks that we are being killed by our own inventions, think again with an open mind because without technology were stuck; without technology and the confidence to know who you are, this world and the people in it go nowhere.

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