Technology is both a blessing and a curse. It can be compared to the companionship between the different layers of paint in a picture- meticulously stroked to perfection. Looking at the picture from one view, a person may feel obliged to state that technology is solely a benediction stating all the merits it has brought into this world, but those merits do not complete the full picture. Just as rough charcoal strokes set the backbone to a piece of art, the dark path lurking behind those merits also play a crucial role in determining the effect of its presence in society.
Many technological breakthroughs have revolutionized the way children live their lives. The era has been modernized to the point of no return such that the development of technology has crept its way into each and every of our offspring daily life. The circumstances have been redefined for the good or for the worst so much that some millennials may claim that the youths of today have no chances of surviving life the way they did fifty years ago. Despite this statement not having any practical proof to justify itself, we have to agree to one thing and that is the fact that with the development of technology children are now living in a world that is completely different to what it was 50 years ago.
Technology has impacted the way of life in teens in both positive and negative aspects. The summary of the virtues of the impact of technology can be convocated down to two main points. Firstly, it has transfigured research and learning practices. Recent studies have shown that today’s college students of the same IQ level as those of 50 years ago have surpassed the predetermined learning curve by over 200% with efficiency also soaring over 5 times. This is majorly due to the invention of the smartphone and the internet. Technology has also helped society to come closer as if the whole world was a small village and all the people of the world its neighbors.
However, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. On the contrary, technology has also in a way doomed the future of society. As today’s children are unceasingly provided shortcuts and workarounds to problems necessary for their character development, it begs the question as to whether we are dooming ourselves. Nowadays terms such as ‘AI’ and ‘machine learning’ have become the new-normal yet schools have been forced to ban it as children started to stop learning as a whole and just paste answers from there. Society has conformed so much that the same streets which once had children running here and there playing tag has turned into a wasteland scarce of life. With children glued to their phones, the rate of many adverse health effects such as eye problems have also skyrocketed. Also, technology has made it terrifyingly easy to get scammed or told false information. Many innocent teens have fell victim to numerous online frauds nowadays-something that was unheard of a couple decades ago.
All in all, technology is both a boon and a curse. So, we have to ask if we are going to own the power of technology or fall victim to its corruption. Technology grants us power but it also feeds on our preexisting power. Before we mindlessly jump into the never-ending void of technology we must be sure of what we are doing and how it may impact us in the future. Time is a never-ending continuous wave. It never stays the same and neither does its contents. One thing is for sure that technology is and always will be a major part of our life. So we have to own it and grow alongside it. Then only will humankind truly flourish.