(In)Dependent on Technology

1130 Words3 Pages

Technology is ubiquitous. Nowadays you can go to a Dallas Cowboys football game and watch one of the biggest televisions in the world, download a new song from iTunes instantly on your computer, or Google some trivia on your favorite TV show via your new Smartphone. People like getting things done in the fastest, yet most efficient manner; technology allows everyone to do both at the same time. The world needs to look beyond these tempting, positive attributes of technology and delve into the effects that are not so appealing. Children are being born into a society that relies upon technology for professional and personal reasons and they legitimately do not know a time without it. Technology is causing problems in their social skills and behaviors as well as facilitating a drastic increase in the childhood obesity rate. Are parents and people of the older generation neglecting their ethical duties?

Do you want to update your friends on the movie you just saw? A few strokes on any keyboard or phone and a click of a button can make that happen; overall the process takes only about thirty seconds. What if you want to download the new Jennifer Lopez song on your iPod? Do not worry, that process is similarly as swift as the first one. Events like these are a very common occurrence in the lives of children ages eight to eighteen today. Technology has provided them the ability to do these types of things very quickly, but this is proving to develop a bad cycle amongst young users. Leigh Goessl, a writer for the online sector of Helium with an MBA in technology, explains that technology encourages instant gratification (Goessl 2). As earlier depicted, children are accustomed to getting what they want instantly with technology, and that...

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...al troubles are plaguing children everywhere; help a child to be independent today and avoid future dependence on these machines.

Works Cited

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 21 April 2011. Data and Statistics – obesity rate among all children in the United States. National Health and Nutrition Examination.

Goessl, Leigh. 21 Feb. 2010. Pros and Cons of Technology for Children. Helium- Where Knowledge Rules. 1-2.

Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). 20 January 2010. M2 – Media in the Live of 8 – 18 Year-olds. Program for the Study of Media and Health. 2-39.

Skeele, R., & Stefankiewicz, G. 2002. Blackbox in the sandbox: The decision to use technology with young children with annotated bibliography of Internet resources for teachers of young children. Educational Technology Review, [Online serial], 10(2), 79 - 86.

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