McKenzie Ricci
Towles/Amiri
Eng 101-006
24 September 2012
4Gs to the Wind
Social media has revolutionized the way people stay in touch with each other. It blew up the internet with countless sites to keep people entertained. Blogging, connecting with old friends, planning events, and even something as simple as keeping track of friends’ birthdays is now a breeze. Young people take full advantage of social media at every chance they get. Social media lets teenagers feel like they can always be hanging out even when they’re not together. Now social media has worked its way into our everyday lives. Since the invention of smart phones and tablets, video chatting and tweeting has become more convenient than taking a walk down the street to hang out with your friend. Many of today’s youth do not remember a time where social media was not a part of daily life. Social media is a good way to stay in touch with friends, but has stripped the importance of spending personal time with others from an uprising generation.
With the uprise of the technological revolution society is experiencing, the vast majority is absorbed in their favorite gadget. Now there is an array of smart phones and many households have more than one computer, so no child goes “unplugged.” Some people consider all this technology normal, to others it is a game of “Keeping up with the Jones’s,” when in reality it’s unnecessary. All major networks support 4G and there is a neighborhood of Wi-Fi everywhere you go. Any “tech-savvy” teenager would take full advantage of that. The center of many conversations of high school students revolves around new technology, the fight they saw on Facebook, and apps they use to send pictures back and forth. Feeling left out in high school is traumatizing to a teenager’s young world which means they would do anything to fit in. Begging their parents, working an after school job, and even selling drugs are measures that are taken so they can have the new iPhone or Droid. Evenings are spent surfing Facebook and Twitter so students can participate in the latest gossip at school the next day. This results in sleep deprivation and lower grades all for a temporary social high that will not matter by graduation.
On the other end of the social spectrum, there’s those who know all the latest gossip, but do not talk to anyone. Nothing is wrong with being naturally introverted, but constant contact with the web is keeping more and more teenagers from crucial social interaction. Naturally introverted people have always turned to things like books, writing, drawing, etc. Now these skill building activities that were once enjoyable have been pushed to the side due to social media. Blogging to the world has become more appealing to many people than writing in a journal where your thoughts are locked away. This new generation of people has grown up behind a computer. They were exposed to technology at such a young age that they feel more comfortable talking to