Final Draft

Andrew Vasquez
Ms. Bertucci
English 101
November 20, 2009
Final Draft
Things Are Not The Way They Use To Be: Modern Technology’s Affect on Our Generations Society
Introduction
After a review and summary of various articles, opinions regarding the use of various types of modern technology by the teenage generation, the information suggest that new technology may affect the way they interact with tomorrow’s society positively and negatively.
The Basics: Article Relevance
Three articles from the Mercury Reader, The MySpace Generation by Jessi Hempel and Paula Lehman, Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects by Janet Raloff, and Cyberspace: If You Don’t Love It, Leave It by Esther Dyson all present valuable information for my argument. Hempel and Lehman discuss, in The MySpace Generation that was printed on December 12, 2005 in Business Week, the facts about how big social networking sites have grown in the past years. They also describe how social networking is more in tune for the teenage crowd. They try to convey the idea that these social networking sites are the new gateway to advertise new music to middle to upper class teenagers. In Raloff’s article, Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects, “She reviews research studies that show the effects of cell-phone usage on the human ear and brain. Contrary to popular opinion, she notes that, in some people, cell-phone waves seem to improve rather than harm mental functioning (Raloff 233).” Dyson’s article, Cyberspace: If You Don’t Love It, Leave It, describes the “virtual real estate” of the internet. She discusses the long debated question, should the government control what sites people can and cannot go to? Also the idea of freedom, you can be who you want to be without worrying about criticism from your neighbor. She supports the idea that people can choose what want to look at on the internet and it should stay that way. It is one of the only frontiers that are not censored by the government. I also came across two creditable studies done by CBS and an Online Marketing website that present some astonishing numbers on how many teens actually use this kind of technology.
The Prelude: Things Aren’t The Way They Use To Be.
Let’s face it, the last twenty years or so the world has seen a drastic change in the type of technology we have become accustomed to. Twenty years ago desktop computers and cell phones were in the beginning stages of their production. They were bulky and expensive, which sounds unappealing and does not attract teenager’s attention. Also the World Wide Web was not far behind. The use of computers, cell phones, and Web are the most popular advances in technology to date. “Today four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device ,a 40 percent increase since 2004( The Voice of Online Marketing).” Computers are becoming even more popular with teenagers. “Sixty-three percent regular use their computer at home (CBS News).” Teens have become so accustom to having these various types of technology at their finger tips. In a recent study, “Nearly half (47 percent) of US teens say their social life would end or be worsened without their cell phone, and nearly six in 10 (57 percent) credit their mobile device with improving their life,” according to a national survey from CTIA and Harris Interactive. The question now is, “If teens have such a strong dependence on new modern technology like cell phones, web, and computers, what kind of affects could it have on how they interact with tomorrow’s society?”
The Future: What’s The Big Deal?
The first question we should start with deals with the most obvious form of modern technology, cell phones. Teens are by far the biggest users of cell phones. Cell phone explosion in the recent years can be attributed to modern technology. Cell phones, computers, and the web are all interwoven together to make this social networking explosion possible. There are many problems with each of the advances in technology that could affect the way our teen generation in the later years too. One form of modern technology that has exploded in the recent years is cell phones. Ten years ago they were as big as my forearm, now they can fit in the palm of my hand. Teens are some of the biggest users of cell phones. Cell phones have been used so much by teen that they have even invented a new way of socializing known as texting. In Raloff’s article, “One quarter of the Norwegian users, she noted, feel warmth on or behind the ear when they use their phones. More troubling, she said, 20 percent also linked frequent headaches and recurring fatigue to cell-phone use (Raloff 234).” The long term affects of cell phone usage is still unknown because it still a relatively new technology. The teenage generation is basically the guinea pigs of the cell phone age. It will take decades before we will know for sure if cell phones could affect the teenage generation negatively. Hempel and Lehman also agree that these advances in technology could be harmful. They address the fear that teens of our generation will be so accustomed to online relationships that they will seem artificial and they will have much harder time keeping legit peer to peer relationships. They came to the conclusion that music networking is constantly taking over the life of teenagers. Hempel and Lehman also present some pretty staggering numbers on how many teen actually use these sites. “Youngster log on so obsessively that MySpace ranked No. 15 on the entire U.S. Internet in terms of page hits in October, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Millions also hang out at other up-and-coming networks such as Facebook.com (Hempel and Lehman 209).” The problem with so many teens socializing over the internet is not entirely understood because we are still in the very beginning stages of social networking era. This number worries many people. If that many teens are using these online social networking sites, what percent will still keep the traditional form of peer to peer socializing? The overuse of social networking will cause the teens of our generation to have artificial relationships. This will lead them to be much more uncomfortable around people because they don’t have the computer screen to hide aspects of their personality or looks that they do not want people to see. People of the older generation’s use these improvements in modern technology simply as a supplement to what they have been accustomed to.
In Dyson’s article, Cyberspace: If You Don’t Love It, Leave It, explores the vast “real estate” of cyberspace. She describes all the pros and con’s of the unregulated internet, but in the end she states, “That means that people can choose where to go and what to see…We need self-rule (Dyson 260).” This quote reinforces that fact that the web is a vast space of information and most people, including teens, can use it to obtain positive and negative affects. In the end though we are the ones clicking to view them, we are the ones who should choose what we want to view not politicians in Washington (Dyson 261).
Dyson and Raloff’s articles also disagree with the idea that all these advances in modern technology are negative. In Raloff’s article a study is done by Alan W. Preece of the University of Bristol in England contradicts the clam that cell phone usage can be harmful. He states, “I was looking for memory effects but didn’t find any….RF emissions from both digital and analog signals correlated with a cut in the time it took users to answer simple questions. The improvement was small, just 15 milliseconds (Raloff 234).” This disagrees with the idea that advances in modern technology, such as cell phones, are harmful to teens of our generation. Only the future will tell us if long term use of cell phones is harmful. In Dyson’s article one positive affect that the web has on teens is it gives them the freedom to choose what cyberspace community they want to be in, regardless of race, culture, or taste. Dyson states, “In a democracy, minority groups and minority preferences tend to get squeezed out, whether they are minorities of race and culture or minorities of individual taste. Cyberspace allows communities of any size and kid to flourish (Dyson 262).” This can affect our teen generation positively because we will grow more confident in what we believe in. With access to these cyberspace communities we are able to connect with people who share the same tastes, and we are able to be who we are with out fear of being a minority. In the future there will most likely be fewer majorities and more variety, which is good because we can learn more from each other and we will not be so judgmental of the differences between us. This contradicts the idea that too much social networking will cause teens of our generation to be so accustomed to online relationships that they will seem artificial and they will have much harder time keeping legit peer to peer relationships. Dyson thinks that this ability to network with people over the internet is a good thing.
Conclusion: So Are These Advances In Modern Technology Good or Bad?
Dyson, Raloff, and Hempel all seem to agree that here is no question that these advances in modern technology will effect how the teens of our generation will interact with society in the future. The new, more important question is whether or not the pros out weight the cons. Sure, right now all these advances sound great and most people can live without them, but in the end the harm could overshadow benefits.