Growing Up Digital How The Internet Affects Teen Identity Summary

Older generations don’t realize how much technology has affected this generation of teenagers, along with the social media that comes along with the technology. As stated in “How Social Media Changed Teens’ Lives Forever”; “Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem.” (Ashley Black, Thomas Atseff and Colleen Kaveney) While many parents think social media is just a way to connect with others, many teenagers take it for granted. For example, “quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online”, is what a teenager felt about social media and what it has done to her. Though many think that social media is a great way to connect, teenagers take it to another level.

“Our phones are not accessories, but psychologically potent devices that change not just what we do but who we are.” (Turkle 2015). As the technology era is on the rise, the face-to-face talking era is on the decline. Technology now days is being used in our every day lives. Just like everything technology absolutely has pros and cons but do the cons out weigh the pros? As stated in the article: “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” written by Sherry Turkle, she lays out how technology is affecting the people in the society. Today’s technology comes with consequences: leading us to be vulnerable, unaware and shallow.

People think that technology is their life but in reality it is not. Technology is just something that entertains you. It is not the most important thing in life you can literally go at least a month without your phone even though you think that you cannot. I have had to do it before for six months. People can live without their phones and one example of putting our phones down is when I went to Altitude last night and we were all on trampolines playing dodge ball and throwing and dodging during the game and being active and none of us had our phones out texting or looking at social media so it really was not that hard to put down my phone. In Fahrenheit 451 there was a character named Montag

When people are too into their phones they forget about the people that are actually around them. In “The Pedestrian” Mr. Mead explains a futuristic world where people do not go outside or do much of anything that does not involve a screen. The story makes the statement, “... deciding which way to go, but it really made no difference; he was alone in this world of A.D. 2053, or as good as alone.” This shows that by being too “plugged-in” people lose touch with what being human really means. Even though most people use technology as a way to stay in touch with people who they normally would not talk to in real life the conversation lacks what an in person conversation would contain. Some of these are the empathy that is not all the way there when sent through technology also, context is shortened and not as in depth than if it was in person. Right before Sherry Turkle’s TED talk in 2012 she got a typical text from her daughter saying “Mom, you will rock.” Sherry explained that getting this text was “like getting a hug” but even though this was a good message in her eyes people should acknowledge that no matter how much a text could touch someone being there in person to deliver the message yourself will always be better. These are the reasons humans should watch how much time is spent on technology instead of time with the people around

Picture a family in a living room silent. All you can see is the light of their tablets and phones lighting up their faces. Technology is everywhere we go. You can not walk down a street, take a plane, or go to a coffee shop without seeing someone staring at a screen. Technology can hurt us in physical and social ways.

I recently watched Sherry Turkle give a presentation on the effects of technology on society and how we communicate. Her stance was that we are increasingly becoming more disconnected interpersonally because of our over use of technology. I could not agree more with her statements. The worldwide culture of constant access to information and social networking should have pushed us all together, instead we find the world drifting apart in a sea of posts and text messages. Discussions have now been replaced by text messages and email chains we can choose to ignore or respond to without ever acknowledging we ever received them. While technology connects families across continents, we rarely ever speak to them in person or even on the phone

“American children between eight and twelve say they spend an average of six hours a day using digital media, and those between thirteen and eighteen say they spend nine hours a day,” Goldsborough mentions (62). It is apparent that children and teenagers spend an abundant amount of their time on digital media. However, due to the fact that adolescents are spending an excessive amount of time on social media, more and more people are beginning to change their identity. The internet user may get so caught up in the virtual world, that they begin to lose sight of who they are in the real world. Thus causing a myriad of problems. Cyr acknowledges this fact by claiming that technology is causing people to change their identity. Another issue social

The urge to be connected has become more of an addiction than a form of convenient communication; due to the amount of time people spend on technology. This causes a severe disconnection with others around them. People spend more time looking at the “perfect” lives of other celebrities, that they forget to enjoy what is around them. If people spend more time looking up from their screens, they could make more friendships or companionships with other people. Imagine all the possible conversations you missed because you were too busy talking to people through a screen, instead of those around you. People often use their means of technology as a way to distract them or avoid talking to others. Perhaps this is due to the social disconnect they have with others around them. If people spend less time on technology, more connections with people would form. You would have more time to do things you want to do, such as reading, exercise, or more. Instead of connecting with people through technology, we should make connections with people close to us the top priority.

In “The Flight from Conversation”, Sherry Turkle focuses on the decline of conversation because of certain technology, such as cell phones and computers. Turkle wanted to get her opinion about the lack of communication between people because of the technology we use daily out there. She was motivated by the way technology has changed us for better and for worse. In this article, Turkle informs readers of the affect that using technology has on our communication skills, the different ways we rather communicated rather than face-to-face interaction, and how we should maybe put our technology down and just converse more often. Turkle uses identifiable examples and notable evidence that help support her claims.

Technology was made to connect us to the world and people around us. It is actually disconnecting us. When one thinks about it, technology could stop a marriage. A girl could be at the bus stop and ignore a guy asking for the time because she is too busy looking through her Instagram feed (Nilles). Maybe if she would have looked three inches up, she would be staring at her future husband instead of turning into a zombie. Now, when people meet up for some lunch or coffee they are either on their phones or the conversation is awkward because no one has good social skills anymore (Nilles).

Even though technology has linked people together by keeping people in touch with family, friends all the time through different sources, people pay more attention to their technological activities, lack valuable, real-life relationships with people around them, only associate with people who share the same interests, while they denigrate those who oppose their viewpoints and, lastly, people are losing communication skills because of it.

Technology causes a distortion of what is action being said. All around us I see so much of life being swept away purely due to it not being paid attention to. The norm has come to people worshipping their phone as well as any other technical device around. It is so easy to overlook details that should be recognizable, but are missed because a phone becomes a priority. Take

Up until about twenty or thirty years ago, no one really knew what technology was or how to use a cell phone, tablet, or computer. The iPhone was not even invented until ten years ago, but today, technology plays a role in almost every aspect of every person’s life. It is just about impossible to go a day without seeing or using some piece of technology. The extensive amount of technology available today has really influenced the world and how people live. Unfortunately, that influence is not entirely positive; it has hindered human interaction and communication by making people socially awkward, creating relationship issues, and limiting people’s abilities to understand and use the written language. Because technology hinders human interaction and communication, people should limit their technological use.

Most the people here in the country use technology because we don’t want take the time to just talk to another.

Society has become slaves to technology. Our society depends so greatly on technology that we have lost the ability of face to face communication. Nowadays all you see are people with their face stuck in their phones or latest gadgets and being oblivious to the world. The obsession and need to use technology affects every developmental stage. The affect starts at the young age of infancy and continues into childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It may have a greater effect on one developmental stage over the other, but it is clear the technology effects even the youngest child.