By Rena Heras and Anna Tsareva
Technology is a part of each and every one of us. It’s inevitable for high school students to live on their smart phones and laptops. How else are we supposed to go about doing our everyday tasks? For one, we need Facebook, email, and Twitter to contact our friends and classmates for various homework assignments. It’s hard to imagine doing school work without a word processor, Google Docs, the Internet, EasyBib, and everything else. We always rely on our smartphones to contact others, get places using GPS, and even to capture the best moments in life. It’s a topic we don’t even question as students, so what’s the harm? Life without technology would be much more difficult, especially for us.
We have been raised in an environment where technology is constantly around us. We are Digital Natives. Our multiple devices benefit us in countless ways; however, there is a catch. The world has begun to take technology and weave it into aspects of life where it shouldn’t be. We instant message, email, and text things such as: “Congratulations,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Thank You.” We treat different areas of connectivity like to-do lists. We use technology as the easy way to deal with “awkward” or uncomfortable situations that are just a part of life. We can break up a relationship or declare our love for someone without even looking at the person, experiencing these real life situations in the digital world.
Technology is just so easy that we don’t think twice about the effects this has on us or anyone around us. Instead of driving to a relative’s house on their birthday or even calling them, we send them a text. Instead of asking how our loved ones feel halfway around the world by phone, we Skype them. These instant connections make us lazy. They take away our time and effort to go that one step further. When technology wasn’t around, everyone used to do everything physically, in person. But these technological innovations in our digital world today have made us absolutely dependent on our devices.
I know for myself, I don’t think twice about the things I do on my technological devices. Whenever I send an “I love you” text to my mom, send a “I hope you feel better” text to my friend, or even “Happy Birthday” to my aunt, I always assume that this is all my loved ones need. Although driving over to their house or even calling to hear their voices would be nicer, I know by using technology I can get away with pretty much anything. I don’t have to face the awkwardness of a breakup, see my mom’s face when I do something wrong, or even come face-to-face with anyone if I say something “bizarre.” Using my cellphone has helped me escape so many “awkward” moments that I can’t imagine life without it.
We don’t realize that our obsession with technology puts a damper on our real, physical relationships. Whenever I go out to eat and look around restaurants, all I see are people on their smartphones, looking up at each other to say something only occasionally. We become more concerned with our virtual lives. Sometimes when I’m hanging out with my friends or siblings, let’s say to watch a movie, I’ll look over and they are on their phones and not paying attention to the movie. The people I care about, the people who I want to experience these moments with, are in their own world. Because of our dependence on technology, we are not living in the now, and in the end we miss out on life.
