The first generation iphone was released to the public in 2007. I was probably one of the last people to jump on the smartphone train. I used my nokia 3310 until it literally fell apart and the person at the tmobile store referred to it as an "antique." From there, I slowly graduated to having a smartphone, but I fought it as long as I could, and now that I have a laptop again I'm seriously considering going back to an old school brick cellphone whenever Peppy upgrades his phone. I kind of hate what having nonstop access to the internet has done to not only me, but society as a whole.
I don't think the internet is necessarily a bad thing. It can be a great learning tool and is also a wonderful way to stay connected, but this is only if we 'log off.' Having unlimited access to whatever might tickle your ears can open up a world of dark doors. Not to mention the fact that you only get one life to live, and a majority of society are choosing to live it virtually instead of in the real world.
We are now seeing the effects of the first generation of children born into the world of smartphones. Are we better off for it, or worse? I know a lot can be contributed to this pandemic, but I do believe smartphone/internet addiction has created an epidemic of depression among today's youth. Almost everyone in today's society is getting to spend less time in-person with their friends and family, and instead overcompensate by socializing online. Studies have been done that prove the more time you spend on social media, the more lonely you feel. And I think we all already know how the algorithm creates our internet experience for us. Do you really trust that to have your best interest in mind? I sure don't.
I think as parents, we are often more concerned that our kids aren't doing drugs or having sex, and the negative attributes of smartphone use was not even on the radar for this first generation, because it was all unprecedented. We could only imagine how it might affect society, and it seems like we are all less empathetic, less intelligent, less patient and more prideful than we were before the rise of the smartphone.
Before the pandemic, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a huge percentage of people with their heads down, glued to their phones, completely oblivious to everyone else. You could even have a conversation with someone and they wouldn't even look up at you. I used to get so sad when I would see a family out to dinner and every single one of them were looking down at a device instead of talking to each other. When we go to theme parks it amazes me how many people are looking at their phones instead of being present on vacation.
Are these kids who haven't known a world without smartphones going to be prepared for adulthood? I feel like skills and talents are slowly dying out because people are addicted to instant gratification. Why try something challenging on your own, when you can sit idly and scroll on your phone. It's easy! It's simple! It's killing our brain cells! We have a society that would rather virtually play a sport than actually go outside and physically play it.
I understand that every generation is different, and you can't expect kids of today to be kids from the 1980s, but this has nothing to do with generational shifts, and has everything to do with staring at a screen for hours a day. Add in netflix and school work, and some kids are staring at a screen for most of their waking hours. Aside from the psychological aspect, this cannot be good for our bodies either. Our eyes are not made to stare at screens for extended periods of time. Our heads and necks were not made to be looking down all the time. Plus, we adults are just as addicted as kids, and how can we tell our kids to get offline when we don't do it ourselves? It feels like it is getting worse though. In the beginning, it seemed like parents didn't give their kids phones until they were in middle school, and now it is almost like they come straight from the womb knowing how to operate a tablet.
Comments
Post a Comment