Technology: Good or Evil?

Throughout the years technology has been in the hot-seat, and society cannot decide whether it has been a beneficial element of our world. I think like all things there are pros and cons. As citizens of this tech-crazy world, we need to learn from the cons so we can alter our ways and maybe make pros out of them in the future.

Technology has changed our lives in more ways than we realize. Everything from our interaction with friends and family, our medicines,  our education, even down to our everyday transportation all revolve around technology. Now, many of these things have made life easier and more pleasing. We can now talk to our family and friends, who live across the country or even the world, within the push of a button; there is no waiting weeks at a time for a letter. Also, our medicine has advanced greatly. We now have vaccines that have reduced ,even eradicated, deadly diseases, amputees now have full functioning appendages to run marathons with rather than old, wooden peg legs.  We live in a time where a disability does not have to limit a person, because technology has allowed them to live their lives like everyone else. We live in a world where a double amputee veteran can run a marathon with no problem, and the little girl in second grade can finally understand what she is reading because her teacher was able to get the right dyslexia help. All of this is accessible because of technology. But like all things, there are consequences to the never ending advancement.

Whle there are so many wonderful achievements, the main victim of technology has been raw human interaction. No one sits with their family and friends for hours on end to talk undistributed. Walk into any restaurant and you can find that at almost every table, there are phones out. I ranges from the baby in the highchair watching a movie to the teenager or parent on social media. Family bonding has been effected due to the hand held devices. Also, if those devices were to be taken away or hindered in any way, there would be a tantrum thrown. Like the video about the pepper grinder that turns off technology, the teens in the video grew angry at first, but then the sad thing was the panic that set in. Teens are so addicted to their screens that they panic if they do not have it for more than ten minutes. We live in a world where a lost cell phone means the end of time. I have done this too, and I am not proud of it. Also, like the Nature Valley video, the children did not have near the experiences that their parents and grandparents had. While their ancestors played baseball with the kids on the block, built forts, gardened, and connected with nature, the children of this generation stay inside with their eyes locked to a screen for hours at a time. Kids these days do not have the same knowledge their parents have because they are not outside being exposed to those lessons.

Now, while I could go on and on about this, there is a solution if we try hard enough. As we get older and have our own children, it is our job to show our children life beyond the screen. We need to show them the things we did, try to sooth crying with things other than a tablet, teach them to love the outdoors or art. Let the screen time be limited, something they do not think about because they are too busy outside; and like my mom says, "a busy kid is a good kid."