Digital World
The innovation of technology seems to have increasingly negative impacts on society- especially the younger generations. This is what Jean Twenge discusses in her article Have Smart Phones Destroyed a Generation?Through national surveys and an interview with a 13-year-old, she has come to the conclusion that there is a serious cellphone addiction issue that has lead to a lack of independence and a mental health crisis amongst the younger generation. She uses the term “iGen” to refer to those born between 1995–2012. The author argues that teenagers are separating themselves from society and spending countless hours on their phones- causing unhappiness and a lack of human interaction.
Social-networking sites like Facebook promise to connect us to friends. But the portrait of iGen teens emerging from the data is one of a lonely, dislocated generation. Teens who visit social-networking sites every day but see their friends in person less frequently are the most likely to agree with the statements “A lot of times I feel lonely,” “I often feel left out of things,” and “I often wish I had more good friends.”
The author discusses how teenagers often spend time alone, but when they hang out they post on social media relentlessly. The lack of independence that iGen is experiencing causes the adolescence phase to contract- delaying adulthood. The author makes the claim that the iGen generation are distant from their parents, despite spending more time in their house. Many of the claims the author makes are far from my life experiences- considering I am part of the iGen generation. There is certainly a lack of evidence to support many of the authors arguments- especially by only using one 13-year-old’s interview.
My experiences with technology varies, I am on the early side of the iGen generation, being born in 1996. I agree with the author in terms of cellphone addition being a problem, social media seems to consume everyone’s time away from reality. Throughout history, the younger generations are always being scrutinized for negatively effecting society. In the video Future Shock,he places the blame on young people- as if the older generations didn’t shape the younger one. I believe that the advancement of technology is negatively impacting society, but it is not as generational as many people make it seem. In my opinion every generation is effected by, and relies on the use of cellphones and the internet. Within our society today you need technology to succeed socially, academically, and financially. Technology is basically a requirement in all aspects of life. Twenge suggests that “we like our cellphones more than people”; however, I do not agree with this statement. My social life has not been enabled by addiction to technology, and I think many of my peers would feel the same way. When I was younger I was constantly being told that my generation was going to have trouble with human interaction and jobs because we only know how to communicate via instant message. I do not believe this to be true; however, I do think many of us miss out on relationships by going on our phones instead of talking to classmates before class or even talking to coworkers before a meeting. Despite all of this I do believe social media can bring people together and create communities- it even allows for conversation globally. Within the video Lo and Behold, they discuss how technology allows for huge advancements in science and medicine. It is obvious that with the help of technology, scientists have had the ability to create ways to help people’s health.

Future Shock suggests that this rapid growth and innovation could allow us to fall victim of our own technological strength. Within Lo and Behold, they show the past, present, and future of technology and how fast things are changing. Innovators are working towards a smarter world which could end up negatively impacting the economy by taking away peoples jobs and replacing them with robots and machines. Within this documentary they raise the question of survival without the internet. If it just shut down- people would not know how to live, even our very standard appliances rely on the internet. This is a dangerous concept- overall, I believe technology is good for science and medicine but that we should be smarter about what kind of world we want to create.
