Electronic Epidemic

When one reflects back on their childhood, they should remember running outside through sprinklers on a hot June day, sipping hot chocolate inside on the blizzardy evenings of December with siblings, or cherishing those hilarious family dinner conversations. Now, it seems like children of this decade are diseased with this epidemic of technology. Instead of playing outside, children are inside in a shadowy cold room with their eyes glued to a television with scenes of gory video games of people shooting each other’s heads off. Family dinner talks turn into family members scattered throughout the house entranced in their own little electronic world.

The over-use of technology is creating an impatient society and it is also diminishing once-valued personal interaction with others. More often now these days, people would rather let a machine take a message instead of answering a call; missing the opportunity to have a personal conversation. Like Pavlov's dog, we hear the little text message sound and run to the cellphone salivating. In the 1989 movie “Say Anything” Lloyd doesn’t just pick up his iPhone and send a text saying “hey I wanna b with u” he actually goes to the girl’s house, face to face and shows it, which shows more meaning. Adolescents are becoming more and more emotionless and almost robotic.

Rarely can any single individual be found in my house at any one time without earphones stuffed in the side of their head or gazing into a computer screen. My sister and I can no long simply watch TV together. She will be tweeting simultaneously and spend more time with her eyes super glued onto the phone rather than the TV. It's not what I would call a shared experience. When I get annoyed and tell her to stop, she would take her phone to bed and surf while I will be trying to doze off in the flickering light of her pixels. Technology is slowly becoming a tool of destroying families without us even being aware. “Two decades ago, it was normal for parents to sit down and have a meal together. This was called supper, or dinner – depending on where you are from. Today, it is a rare treat that families can sit around the table and enjoy a meal together. And for those that do, there are innumerous distractions brought about technology.” (Russ)

This overwhelming use of technology isn’t just aggravating and sad to watch, but it’s becoming actually dangerous. Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (Russ) Instead of focusing on the roads, teens, and even adults would rather risk their lives by reading a meaningless text message than focus on driving.

Not only is texting and driving becoming more and more prevalent with the dangers of technology, but cyber bullying is creeping its way to the top of the list. Adolescents hiding behind a computer screen will communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about or to another person. 39% of social network users have been cyber bullied in some way. (Gilkerson) The computer is like an invisible shield that makes kids think they don’t have consequences when they cyber bully. But it can actually lead adolescents to go as far as to take their own lives.

Sadly, I have become aware that when you initiate a conversation with a stranger, they look startled, as if you just broke a taboo. It seems as though that people are becoming programmed not to deal with genuine flesh and blood humans. Phones can now scan documents, take 3D photos and even monitor your own heart rate and the insane list is sure to keep growing. The web has made the world more interesting, too interesting. Real life, real people, real members of the family are dull in comparison. Actual life may be duller, and more prone to conflict, than this virtual fantasy life. But it has this one, signal advantage: it is real