Tech Overload: How Much Is Too Much?

by Haley Rineer

Today in our generation our life skills are not the same as our parents and this is not always a good thing. Smart phones and new technology are making the kids that grow up in this generation not work as hard for things the way older generations had to.

For older generations, they had to write and mail letters to come in contact with people. Along with that they had fights and conversations face to face instead of behind a screen, use paper maps to get around, and develop pictures themselves.

When talking to my dad, Rory Rineer, about this issue he told me a story about how when he was younger with a bunch of friends their car broke down. No one had a phone to call parents or anyone for help, instead they had to use their life skills to get back home.

Lisabeth Saunders Medlock, a blind woman, said, “I really love the fact I am not always looking at a phone. I can interact and socialize and truly have to be in each moment because I cannot distract or amuse myself with my phone”. Her communication skills are higher than most people today because due to her disability she cannot be included in the social media/technology.

Pictures are instantly being shared by phones and cameras. The only way earlier generations could see the pictures they took were to go get them developed, which took time and made it more exciting. Now we can see the pictures on the phone or camera immediately after capturing the photo unlike generations before us. They used to only be able to see the outcome of the pictures after it was developed in the store. More problems are being caused because people and take an upload pictures in less than a minute, some being inappropriate and hurting our image/reputation.

Most students can say they have seen a twitter fight or other fights over social media then physical person to person fights. The apps we download on our devices cause people of all ages to have fights to get attention from others. Fights are rarely in private anymore, once one thing is said everyone knows about it in the next ten minutes.

The world around us is slowly changing and educating this generation and the ones to come is getting more and more difficult. We are depending on technology for everything we come across and not learning the life skills that we should already obtain. What happens when our technology fails? Kids haven’t learned how to read a map or mail a letter and that’s our faults for letting technology take over our lives.

Our generation is going to take a hard fall if we don’t turn around and change and it’s our duty to stop it before we can not even go minutes without looking at a phone.