Edwin Calva
English 1B
Professor Fisher
17 June 2013 Technology has been a means of advancement and a quality of a better life. Over the years it has influenced everything we do. Education, medical advancement, and the way we live and communicate with one another on a daily basis. Others see it as a negative influence, and say that we are abusing and are relying on technology too much. People have become excessively dependent on technology. Technology is a vital need and necessity for us humans to function on an everyday basis. We see the use of technology at home, work, food places, hotels, and pretty much every else we go. Mostly everyone uses technology to communicate with someone else everyday. Even the cars that are made now, have self-parking, hands free, cameras around and in the car, and Wi-Fi. Specialists fear, that if it’s ever all gone there will be madness and chaos because that’s all were all learning, and newer generations are growing up in this new era where technology is everything. In general, technology can be divided into cell phone dependence, automobile, medical, and Internet dependence. “We are now more wired than ever”. This means of tech has had a major influence in how education is being taught. In many school districts, students are receiving ipads or some sort of tablet instead of textbooks. Supposable it is more useful and easier for the student to do how, but what people does not seem to understand is that it is more distrustful than useful. Bartos says in his article how, “Critics argue that online learning cannot and should not replace interactions with teachers and other students in a classroom” (Opposing View, Intro to roles of education). A teacher cannot really know what a student is doing at his desk, if he is actually on task or just playing games or sending emails and texts. It all comes down in trusting the student, but statistics show in how immature and how students rather see it as a means of fun rather than work. In my experience we had ipads at my old school, but we were only able to use them in a class. The two times I used it, with other classmates, we were not fully concentrated in our work and work experimenting with the tablet.
Throughout history technology has and will always be playing a vital role, but now in society we are seeing drastic changes to how technology is affecting and harming society, especially how students are viewing education. There was a student that was interviewed in how his phone can help him do his work easier and he responded, ‘On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification’ (Education, New York Times). In this student’s case, instead of reading a book he said, it would be easier to listen to it or have a short summary read about it. There are many kids and students that are relying on their phones, tablets, or Internet to help them work. Besides an easier means of doing homework, students tend to cheat and send one another text messages about the test or during a class session “their bored” so they text one another distracting themselves from paying attention what the teacher is going over that day.
Technology has been a big advancement in creating and shaping the future, but.
Even though it is changing and trying to make a brighter future, it is changing how generations were and how we communicate with one another. Kids now a day, instead of playing and letting their curiosity run wild in nature, their playing video games or sitting behind a TV screen. “In 2004, only 18 percent of 12 year olds owned a cell phone; now 58 percent own one” (Doctors solve). If one notices closely, all little kids want is an iPhone, ipad, or some sort of video system.
Technology is affecting the way kids are interacting with one another and how they learn. Nancy talked about how she was surprised in what her child was doing, “as I sat talking to a friend, her 3-year old