The Plugged-In Generation
“If you can get access to the internet, you will miss a day of school, right?”
My father used to ask me all the time. I never took it seriously and always answered casually.
“Of course, I won’t.”
And after all these years, as my father said, I have been missing so many classes because of the internet. From not wanting to get up from bed to being busy scrolling Facebook or TikTok for hours, I now realize how many things I have missed in life. Losing that connection with my family and friends has made me realize how I have been distracted by the internet. So, we need to think hard about how the internet is affecting us and our life.
The Internet, introduced way early in the 1980s, has now become an inseparable part of our life. Checking your phone first thing in the morning is now the daily morning story everyone nowadays. No matter if you are a doctor, an engineer, a pilot, or anyone, you can’t resist that urge to check your phone when you hear a ding sound on your phone. Even when we are with our friends and families, we tend to go on the internet most of the time.
“Last night, the internet stopped working and I spent some time with my family. They seem like good people.” — -Anonymous
Spending hours on the internet is something very normal to this generation. If you don’t have a profile on the internet, then you are considered abnormal. When you have free access to everything and everyone in this world with a single click on your phone, it becomes very easy for you to lose connection with the world. For me, internet addiction is real and it has never been so alarming with this plugged-in generation.
Raising children has never been easy. But with the help of the internet, it is very easy to distract them from everything. So, parents tend to hand them high-tech devices with easy access to YouTube, TikTok, etc. Even we adults tend to forget the time when we are browsing the TikTok short clips, not to mention the children. They can be addicted to the internet so easily and lose the sense of time and everything on them. Not to mention, the contents on the internet can shape their way of thinking and everything. So, parents need to think hard about what they are handing over to their children.
There used to be a time when children used to proudly say that once they grow up, they will be doctors, pilots, engineers, etc. But, now, the children of this generation want to be TikToker, aka Social Media influencers. Wanting to be a social media influencer isn’t a bad idea, but what if most children want to be one? What will happen to this world? What will happen to the ever-progressing human race? As we, humans, have progressed so much all these years, because of the collective effort of humanity as a whole. All these technologies and all this progress are all for that perfect future where human lives will be the most efficient, and easiest. But, if the youths are interested in the internet more than they should, the perfect Utopia, we all have imagined, will never be discovered or made.
“The Internet is so big, so powerful, and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.” -Andrew Brown
We all know life isn’t smooth sailing, there will be countless problems and tribulations on the way. And we need to be ready for all of them. But, now with this generation plugged in most of the time, they don’t develop normally, sure they have access to everything on the internet, but the real-time experience is something that can never be duplicated. Without that experience, one will never be ready for life. So, this generation is more vulnerable than others.
“I spend way too much time on Facebook and MySpace to feel too uncomfortable at this. I like to think of the internet as an effective way to waste time and time.” -Jim Gaffigan
The internet has surely brought everyone together. But with this feeling of having your friends, and families in reach with a single click, we tend to ignore them knowingly or unknowingly. Losing the emotional touch with family and friends, this plugged-in generation is more prone to depression and other mental health problems. As we spend more time on the internet, we lack socialization and interaction with our friends and families, we develop various mental health problems. Insecurities, low self-esteem, low self-worth, low self-confidence, etc. are some of the problems the youth of this generation suffer from.
But, of course, there are bright sides to the internet, and they are so dazzling that they can shine lights on the dark patches of the internet very easily. That will happen only if you dominate and control the internet, but, if you let the internet dominate you, you will be in it for serious trouble. The Internet by itself isn’t a bad thing, it’s how you use it. Understanding this makes all the difference. The upcoming generation should understand the difference between internet usage and internet addiction.
