When I see Generation Y people constantly texting and wearing iPod earbuds in their ears, I am sometimes a little concerned about the direction this world is going in. However, I was pleased to learn that today’s students actually realize the downsides of excessive hi-tech addiction.
Mr. Patty, a teacher in Ohio, recently posted a picture of my old-fashioned telephone on his blog and asked his students what they thought of hyper-connectivity. I was especially interested in his class’s negative opinions of hyperconnectivity. I was very pleased that even the youth of today recognize the downsides of technology overload. Here’s a sampling:
- There are some down sides; people lose their lives doing this. I mean if you’re to the point where you don’t even go anywhere anymore than you have a problem. Or if you’ve gained ten pounds because all you do is lay around on the computer that’s bad…real bad. People still need to go outside, play some sports, and have contact with the outside world. That’s my opinion!!
- Being hyper connected all of the time isn’t that great. I don’t need to know what people are doing every single second of every single day. There’s just so many better things to do, like actually hang out with your friends instead of reading about what they’re doing.
- Negative aspects of hyper-connectivity is that sometimes people get so into texting or IMing lingo that they might forget how to compose a nice piece of writing.
- This day in age, all you ever see people do is text, text, text… …One negative, however, would be recieving text messages every 10 seconds about every footstep that your friend takes. It’s just too much.
- Children are becoming so involved in technology that they are forgetting the best parts of life. The parts of learning, having to look for something, having to work to achieve a goal. More and more young kids are getting cell phones and becoming involved in what is “cool” that they are forgetting the ultimate goal of a child; to live and learn through experience.
- The only problem with it is the fact that soon, if not already, we will become too reliant on technology.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. There are some smart kids out there! Click here to read Mr. Patty’s entire post with student comments.