English Essays

Discursive Essay: Impact of Technology

Write an article for a popular magazine in which you outline your views about the impact of technology on the lives of young people.

Teens Spend Roughly Nine Hours a Day on Technology!?

Everyone has seen the moody, withdrawn teenager with music blasting out of their white earbuds, or the girl rapidly texting on her smartphone. The youth of today are constantly immersed in technological advancements that promote non-stop communication and instant gratification, whether through phones, gaming systems, laptops, or iPods. However, are these advancements a good thing? Of course, no one can really give you a straight answer. It depends on who you ask, for instance, I'm sure that the creators of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter will convince you that technology is the best thing that has ever happened to the world, but to a victim of cyberbullying, their opinion would massively differ. Personally, I believe that the growth of technology has severely impacted the social interactions of young people. Individuals are now isolated from reality, lack face-to-face communication, and can be constantly distracted by their devices.

Even now, as I am writing this article, several drafts and plans have been made prior to this on various devices that I own: my laptop, phone, iPad to name a few. In addition, after I re-read my work, I will send it by email to get approval for it to be published, and then it will be printed in this exact magazine. The point is that every step involved in creating this article has required some sort of technology to push it along. And this is exactly what is happening to teens. With the issues of peer pressure and an increase in young people struggling to find their own identities, teens tend to feel the need to have something to push them along. Young people usually answer the question, 'who am I?' during adolescence. Teenagers solidify their identities during adolescence, as they begin to more fully understand their personalities, values, needs, and emotions. This journey often happens as they interact within their social bubbles. Accelerated by technology, the world has expanded dramatically for teenagers. No longer is it 'it's what's on the inside that counts' on the internet, but it's 'how will others look at me?' and 'what filter can I add to get as many likes as I can on this Instagram picture?' It all sounds a bit ridiculous when laid out like this, but to teens, these thoughts aren't uncommon.

A startling statistic, courtesy of by the non-profit group Common Sense Media: Teens are spending nearly nine hours a day consuming media. Think about this statistic next time you see a child or a teenager on an electronic device. The numbers surrounding technology keep rising, and research is starting to figure out that this is not healthy! Indeed, this amount of technology consumption is scary to me, but you might shrug and ask, 'Why?' For healthy development to occur, teenagers must experience real-life peer friendships and positive relationships with not only people their age, but adults too. They must overcome challenges and obstacles in the real world, learn from mistakes, and reflect on the person they hope to become. If they're devoting almost nine hours to technology, is there enough time left to make the human connections necessary for positive development?

Technology, although harmless at first sight, presents all sorts of dangers that I would never have even thought about before researching this topic using, as you might have guessed, the internet. You have all heard of drinking and driving, but in today's society, a more pressing threat appears to be texting and driving. I'll give you an example of just how dangerous this can be. If you're driving at eighty kilometres per hour, the average speed limit for local and regional roads in Ireland, and if you look down at your phone for five seconds, you have just driven the length on an entire football field completely blind. Puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Yet despite all this, according to an AAA poll, 94% of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admitted to doing it anyway. It's not only physical dangers like this, but more subtle ones too. Technology changes the way young adults think and feel, for instance, while video games may condition the brain to pay attention to multiple stimuli, they can also lead to distraction and decreased memory. Teenagers who always use search engines may become very good at finding information-but not very good at remembering it. Furthermore, young people who use too much technology may not have enough opportunities to use their imagination or to read and expand their vocabulary.

Social media is an immense part of technology. You can connect with practically anyone, anywhere, and even though this premise has existed for years, it never ceases to amaze me. Sure, it is easier than ever to connect with friends and family, but what about the people we don't know? The way teenagers meet strangers on the internet is not viewed the same as meeting a stranger on the street. Going up to someone you walk past and starting a conversation would instantly title you an odd person, however, once under the 'safety-net' of the internet; this behaviour is apparently suddenly okay. This barely scrapes the surface of the true motive behind social networks. The largest social network site, Facebook, has captivated 1.86 billion people, a quarter of the world's population! As a recent article from The Observer notes, "There is something chilling in Zuckerberg's failure to recognise that Facebook is already a for-profit form of social infrastructure, with immense and unprecedented power over our lives. And in making its profit, Facebook creates social value, yes, but also social harm," Although written more eloquently, our points are the same. There seems to be a much darker and damaging layer to technology that creators of sites like this are willing to use in order to exploit us. And who are the most vulnerable to this? That's right, children and young people.

In short, technology definitely makes our lives easier. Students and young adults today have tremendous opportunities to learn and to connect by using it, but with each advantage comes a potential cost. Technology can never be placed above the health, mental or physical, of ourselves or our future generations. When we understand those costs and can minimise them, we can try our best to keep the use of technology positive.

If you feel like you're addicted to technology, read our top tips to reduce screen time on page 15, or contact us! We'd love to hear about your own opinions or technology troubles too!