Second Draft

Andrew Vasquez
Ms. Bertucci
English 101
November 19, 2009
Draft 2
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.
The Basics: The New Gateway to the World
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.
The Body: Article Relevance
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. 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 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 intertwined 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. They have even invented a new way on 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. In Hempel and Lehman’s article 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.