Technology was created by humans for humans, but what happens when we develop it to the point that we are potentially destroying a human process—communication As we grow and advance our technology, creating new social medias and ways to connect, the gap between communication and physical interaction will grow with it.Social media didn’t destroy our ability to communicate with people—at first. Through social media we are able to share ideas, images, thoughts, and communicate with people across the ocean. Some would argue that the ‘millennial way’ of acronizing phrases, shortening words, and creating new ones is harmful, but they’re just evolving. Millennials are figuring out their own language with phrases like WYD and LMAO. This is how they’re sharing their ideas.Andrew Smith once wrote, “people fear what they don’t understand and hate what they can’t conquer.
” The same goes for most people of older generations: they grew up without social media. Teens today hear, “If I could survive without it, then you can to,” but kids today aren’t just surviving with social media, they can’t survive without it. “They don’t know how to handle conflict face to face because so many things happen through some sort of technology,” child psychologist at New York’s Child Mind Institute, Melissa Ortega, said that despite the advances of digital communication, children will need to learn to talk face to face. “I can’t imagine these kids sitting down in an interview and having a reciprocal conversation easily.”Parents have always had a long list of concerns about their kids using social media: Will they be cyberbullied? Are they sexting? Will their homework suffer? Adults don’t, and never will, fully understand their child’s dependence on technology.
Parents will show their kids articles on how social medias are a direct cause of depression, hoping that their kids will stop using them! An article in Time Magazine titled We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones talks about a girl who tried to kill herself because she was depressed, but couldn’t figure out why, and then directed it back to her use of social medias. “They’re feeding an impersonal way of life,” Dr. Antonia Tolson-Baaqee shared, “People hide behind their phone.” Kids would rather take pictures of the books their reading on Snapchat to show that their literate and educated, but then never actually read the book. They go to concerts for the sheer purpose of showing off on social media, basically saying, “hey, look at me! I can afford to go to a concert,” or, “I’m cool enough to go out on a Friday night!”When you grow up with something as constant as technology, it’s hard to find a way to live without it.
An as more children are born into this era of social media, it will continue to be the primary communication form among the new generations.
