Social Media, and Technology is all They'll Ever Know

 There is a waiting room at the gymnastics place that I teach at, for the students to wait in before their class starts. A few weeks ago, I looked into the waiting room and I saw three four year-old girls, all sitting in a row, all had iPhones in their hands. They were all staring deeply at the screens, moving their fingers across the screen quickly and with ease. Their parents are sitting across the room from them, because they don't need help. They all knew their how to play on their mommy's iPhone like they know the back of their hand, at four years old. Call me old fashioned, but when I was four I played with dolls, I played with blocks, I even spelled out words like CAT or TEA and MOM with those colorful plastic alphabet magnets. It's only been 11 years since I was four but something has definitely changed. When I was little I did have the internet, but the internet was so different. I would play some games on the PBS kids website a few times a month, but I wasn't dependent on it, if the internet just dissapeared I might be sad, but that's it. I wasn't invested in it, I knew other things. Those plastic alphabet magnets will probably become obsolete, and even though “there's an app for that”, something else gets lost along the way.

Social networking sites, are ingenious. I could go on and on about all the great things they have to offer, but I don't need to. I assume that anyone who reads this has a Facebook or a Twitter or Google + or something along those lines. I assume you will at least know what a social network is, and if you don't than there are seriously more important things to be checking out on the internet rather than reading my blog post. The thing is, social networks make it so easy to be social. You talk to your friends, without having to see them. You can tell hundreds of your friends something funny that happened at the grocery store with just some clicking on your keys. Social networks are so powerful that they can start a revolution. And it's all so simple! Too simple, because then you're hooked. You start to spend more time talking to your friend on facebook, then you talking to your friend in person. You can spend hours on flickr looking at other peoples photos or different places, rather than going out and seeing different places. It becomes your life, you rely on social media to be in touch with the world. But it's only going to get worse, the internet is addicting, it's just like smoking, you physically can stop... but really you won't. They keep you coming back for more, if you don't keep checking the social networks... how will you know if something interesting happens? Curiosity will keep you coming back for more. It's okay because the internet is a really good thing that keeps people entertained and connected, but with the good comes bad. The more you use it, the more you depend on it. Since it's such a thriving industry it will keep improving, getting better as time goes on, but more addictive.

As time goes on people will no longer rely on it but depend on it. Just like the four year old girls who can use iPhones, kids will be incredibly good with computers, that's good! But some will grow up not knowing how to do certain things without technology and it will worsen as generations go by. Their social skills in real life will get worse and people will feel more and more uncomfortable talking in person. Kids won't be able to entertain themselves anymore because they've been spoiled by technology, all the imagining has been done for them and they will no longer know how. All those creative minds will be to distracted by the genius of social media to realize their own capabilities. Sure kids nowadays still do have fun with toys, but if we continue on this path most kids will end up with kids who are tech junkies who are much more likely to have ADHD. It's healthy for children and their attention spans to learn to entertain themselves once in a while and sometimes life is boring. I'm not saying I'm against social networks, I think they are just going to keep getting better and better as time goes on. It's just that peoples dependency on them will grow too till it gets to a bad point. People should definitely use social networks, just in moderation. There are ways to have fun without computers, and every kid should know how. Same goes for adults, you don't need facebook friends to have friends.