Is technology changing because of humans or are humans changing because technology ?
While visiting my dad back home I started playing with my little sister Victoria. She is only 3 years old, she grabbed an iPad and play with it like a Mac tech. I was amazed yet confused as to how this toddler knew how to work this device of technology so well. Are newborn kids integrated with a special chip that tells them exactly what to do with it?

After reading Jean Twenge article, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? As well as watching the movie Lo and behold, by Werner Herzog, I understand better what the younger generation (mine included) thinks about technology as well as what is the past, the present and the future of technology in every aspect. The good the bad, the convenient and the inconvenient how the impossible becomes possible that nothing is out of our reach and future generations will have it all. Technology is not only in our room or in our social media it is all around us. We all use technology and take advantage of this. Everyone can learn just about everything from technology.We have the opportunity to know more than another generation has ever known.
This generation doesn’t remember a time before the internet. Technology is always there from the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to bed. Lawrence Krauss said “ if the internet shuts down, people will not remember how they used to live before that”, and that is completely true. Could someone of this generation go back to a more difficult and unknown era? I don’t think so. My life is heavily impacted by technology. Jean Twenge also compares older and newer generations, and we can see that the activities that teenagers are doing now are way different than in the 70s. He explains this data by using statistics and focusing on the actions common in teenagers such as drinking, smoking, etc. The “iGen” generation does all of these actions significantly, less than generations before them and it is very noticeable. There is no reason why a teenager should go outside their room when they have all their friends and activities they need in the palm of their hand.

However, that does not mean that this generation is closer to their family or safer, the rate of teen depression and suicide has increased since 2011, and Werner Herzogthis talks about internet addiction. This was not a surprise for me, we are in a world in where when we upload something we are literally waiting for people to “ like” us. We wait for someone to give us approbation in a picture, or a comment that would reiterate that we are good enough. Until another picture is uploaded a couple of days later, a brief, rapid and constant affirmations of how we look. “The world is a system of ever-changing relationships and structures” as Ted Nelson said. little screens changes the thought and emotions of the newer generation and no one is held accountable for their actions. I believe however that if it wasn’t for technology, there would be something else. The human race looks for constant approval. I disagree with Jean Twenge about how technology is ruining this generation because there is always going to be something “running the newest generation”. The problems are not the machines or the technology, the problems are the humans. People are the weakest links of technology because machines learn from their errors, also are unbiased and don’t try to harm, but we can’t say the same about us. In the movie Future Shock, they show teenagers try to find acceptance and company even if it’s for a short period of time, there is a girl that likes to hang out in airports because the feeling of going away gives her comfort. This was way before smartphones and social media, but the idea of being part of a group, the idea of running away from reality and to create this fake feeling of comfort has always been there. However now a big difference would be that it is easier to “go away” to watch a youtube video, scroll down pictures on Instagram and you’re instantly there with your friends. Yes, it is easier to feel left out but it is not a new feeling of this generation, instead of attacking the internet maybe we should focus more on us humans as individual and how we are misusing technology.

The movie and the article really make me think about the next step in technology. Do we want a world in which machines work for us, have the knowledge of everything, and keep us company? A world in which a machine will be your best friend and a ruler. Is it scary to think about it because it is so far away yet so close to happening? We see the awareness and layers of the internet as evil but maybe it would have an intelligent of itself just to serve humans, why does it have to be an enemy? The reality is that machines give us answers and we take those answers with critical thinking and do what we think is best to do. Humans are the ones to question if something is morally wrong or right, technology does not have control of us, it is the humans that have no limits, anything is possible when talking about technology but the only one that can create, destroy, do right or wrong with this technology is us.
