Electronics controlling our lives

It is sad that people I interact with are blown away when they hear that I don't have an ipod. Its even sadder when my sister's 12 year old friends hang out at our house and don't converse because 75% of them have their heads down on their cell phones.
A recent article in the New York times brought to light the amount of time that teenage girls are actually spending on their cell phones. An average of 8 texts an hour are sent by teenage girls right now according to the article. This doesn't sound like too much until you add that up to discover the per-month total...4,050! And that is only the amount of time spent on the cell phone texting; this doesn't even start to account for the time spent talking on the phone, or time on the internet, or in front of the television. When you add up all of the time spent using these other technologies a majority of the day ends up being spent using one form of technology or another.


Many marketers profess that technology has been developed to the point that it is, to make our lives simpler.. but do you find that technology now days is really making anything about life easier? Is it really adding that much value to our lives?
I guess that would depend on what an individual deems as "Value."
The 'old fashioned' definition of a valuable life had to revolve around the family, the roles of mothers and fathers was different than it is now, and most importantly so is the role of the child. The old adage of "children should be seen and not heard" had long been trampled on. Now children get whatever it is that they want. I wonder if technology has anything to do with the changing ideals that society holds. Not that I believe that the old fashioned ways are best, I just see a significant difference from the way our parents our grandparents were raised.
What is even more alarming is that texters ages 18-24 only send 1,630 texts a month. What is it that is so important in teenagers lives that they have to send 2,500 more texts a month than everyone else!!!??? One thing that alarms me most about these numbers is the amount of texting that may be taking place within the classroom during school. How much learning isn't taking place because the student is spending so much time trying to hide their phones form their teachers and talking about nothing to their friends??

My sudden focus on technology began when my Marketing teacher began class by telling a story about him "having to buys his eleven year old daughter a cell phone because she was entering middle school" and how he was "surprised that her 3,000 texts a month were below the average" eleven years old!!! She hasn't even started her period yet and she has so many things to discuss with friends that she spends every waking hour on the phone.

With so much communication occurring over synthetic pathways now days, the amount of face to face communications has significantly declined. I do not have any studies to present at this point in time, but I have noticed a decline in the communications skills of young people over the last 5+ years. People I meet all the time and have lovely conversations with over text, seem to be socially inept when I spend time with them face to face. It is my theory that the ability of young people to effectively and articulately communicate face to face has declined since the implementation of cellular communication in their lives. Maybe it is just me, or maybe our interpersonal skills are being negatively affected by the 'beneficial' technology being developed. Then again, maybe it is just our own faults for not engaging in more face to face communication despite the introduction of new technologies. 

Simply food for thought- is this a troubling statistic? Is technology actually helping our society and adding as much value to our lives as marketers tell us it is? Or is it doing more harm than good? Lets consider how much bad may come with the good of increased usage of technology; by all demographics of people around the world and especially in the United States.

All I know is that the amount of time I spend doing homework and constructive activities has significantly increased since I stopped watching television completely; and to be quite honest, I have never missed it once. 

 View the entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/technology/18drill.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=so%20why%20talk%20when%20you%20can%20text&st=cse
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