Aldous Huxley, an English writer, novelist, and philosopher claims “technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Huxley). As a society, we have made incredible advances toward the future and the increase in technology has grown at an exponential rate. However, if those employing technology are unable to use the advances in an ethical manner, our progress will lead us in the wrong direction. Technology causes children to be less socialized, less intelligent, and decreases the literacy rate of teens.
Throughout the past 60 years, technology has been rapidly advancing. The Internet and smart phones have shaped the way we think, view the world around us, and interact with one another. We update our behaviors in time with our screens. For example, if you come across a certain way over social media, there is no longer a need to have a face-to-face conversation. If one’s Instagram pictures are just eccentric enough, if their Facebook feed is casually enlightened, if their Twitter is witty and can charm their followers, nobody needs to actually learn how to engage in real conversation. Their image is already set; the perception of them edited to perfection. Therefore, there is no need to converse with anyone to improve or even maintain this image. If you do want to interact with others, there are online forums. Here, you can pick and choose who to talk to; there is no confrontation, no pressure of eye-contact or quick reaction time. We see this inability to interact on a regular basis. In my home, the dinner table is a place where we can catch up on family time that may not otherwise be accessible. However, when I go to restaurants, I often see a group of individuals at one table. Faces glued to their screens, the table is often silent, void of any conversation or connection. People are too busy hiding behind their phones, protected from standing up for themselves or claiming their identity. They are setting up fake profiles with fake pictures. They retract from genuine relationships to communicate with people they’ve never met. There is no pressure with a stranger when you don’t have to look at their face. The issue is not that these advancements in technology are inherently negative, but that “we spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online that we aren’t dedicating enough time or effort to cultivating deeper real-life relationships” (Rosen). If we were able to use these technological advancements to further engage with other people it would be helpful. We’ve obtained an ability to connect with people all over the globe, but have lost our ability to interact with the person sitting right next to us.
In our inability to socialize, we lose the knowledge that other individuals have to offer us on a day-to-day basis. We gain all kinds of knowledge from conversation alone. We may not be aware, but we internalize how different individuals respond to different stimuli. Through conversation, we begin to delve into the psychology of watching how they interact with us. How they interact with their environment gives a look into sociology. If they respond positively or negatively to the information you present, it allows for a perspective on business. You learn techniques of speech, increase your vocabulary, and are able to engage with the world and the people around you in a more active manner when you converse with others. With technology we do not need to know how to read or analyze literature, encyclopedias, or utilize the benefits of a library. Instead, we have all the knowledge we may need right in our pockets. While it seems like a good idea to have unlimited accessibility to information, we have started to rely too heavily on our phones and computers. We can look up any answer at any time with the click of a button, which students have internalized to mean they don’t need to learn basic skills in school anymore. In addition, when technology becomes faulty in a classroom setting, as it often does, it can delay or even halt the learning process. Professors and parents have expressed concerns that technology in the classroom “prevents students from developing and using basic literacy, math and communication skills, all of which are essential in both day-to-day living and working life” (Nuttall). Technology provides a shortcut for students, without giving them the tools to know how to learn and how to think on their own. Students prefer searching for a specific answer as opposed to actually opening their textbooks and delving into the subject. Even though the Internet contains more knowledge than one would know what to do with, our attitude surrounding it prevents people from understanding the basic skills necessary to learn or retain information. It has been shown through research that “…children who use too much technology may not have enough opportunities to use their imagination or to read and think deeply about the material” (DeLoatch). Using your imagination stimulates creativity and innovation and because of technology, it is being taken away.
This lack of motivation towards learning and intelligence is proven statistically, as literacy rates in America have decreased as technology has progressed. Through many studies, Stuart Wolpert and Patricia Greenfield discovered that, “Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy” (Wolpert, Greenfield). Because of this decline, people now use all types of abbreviations, which could be directly affecting teen literacy. In studies, it has been noticed that kids not only use shortened words and lingo like “lol”, “u”, “omg”, and other abbreviations for texting, but now in school writing as well. According to Michael J. Breus, a clinical psychologist, “Teen texters use a texting lingo that includes abbreviated words and sentences. These shortened versions of the English language are migrating into teens' schoolwork” (Fredericks). Another problem to come from this is that kids no longer need to know how to spell words. Teens now use autocorrect to spell any word they may need or want. Autocorrect is an amazing concept that knows what you’re trying to say, as long as you get close to the correct spelling. Even if it doesn’t recognize your initial spelling, you can ask Siri on an iPhone and she correctly writes it for you. Without this, kids never need to know how to spell or learn principles of grammar, which could lead to problems in school and real life in the future.
While technology offers infinite progress and advancements, particularly in an academic setting, we’ve allowed it to become a negative influence on the way we interact and learn. We rely on our technology to provide refined images of ourselves so that we don’t have to actually connect with others. We allow it to take over our lives and use it for everything. We are becoming less aware of our surroundings because our screens always distract us. Technology has the potential to be amazing, but we cannot let it take over, control our lives, and therefore lead to a major downfall.