Technology Influencing Teenagers Essay

Teens are always on their phones. Whether it’s at the store, school, or even driving. Teenagers are losing communication skills, getting into fights more, and getting distracted in school. These are the effects of teens getting on their phone way too much.

Ever since smartphones were created, they have changed teenagers’ lives entirely. The article Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? by Jean Twenge, shows the ways the invention of the smartphone has changed recent generations. The article mentions the rise in teen depression and suicide, cyberbullying, and teen safety. It also mentions the decline in our social abilities, dating, and sleep. Smartphones have had both negative and positive affects on teenagers, but the negatives significantly outweigh the positives, which points to the need to put down the smartphones, as the article suggests.

According to Twenge, the number of teens that go out with their friends has decreased by 40 percent compared to earlier generations. Twenge compares iGens to different generations such as Gen X (born between 1965 and early 1984), baby boomers (1946-1964) and Millennials (born around 1982-2002). Twenge emphasizes on the time teenagers spend on their phones. Social media plays a huge role in this. In accordance to Twenge, different forms of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are what teenagers spend more time on. According to Twenge, the more time teens spend on smartphones the greater they are at risk for suicide, depression, and loneliness. Twenge also explains how teens are not receiving an adequate amount of sleep, many teens now sleep less than seven hours. Twenge concludes the article by sharing her own experience with her children and technology, she recommends parents to limit the time their children spend on phones. (59-65)

Although following the brief acknowledgement of outside influences, Twenge quickly recapitulates that teens are spending more time at home (and therefore less time working or hanging out with friends) because their social lives are on the internet. Technology has undoubtedly had an impact on the generation of kids who grew up with it, but it does not necessarily mean they are taking longer to mature than previous generations. Later on in the article, Twenge explains how iPhones are affecting the lives of the new generation in another way.

Almost a generation of teens have access to a phone with text messages. They spend so much time shorting words, they lose the ability to be literate. Teenagers today are more worried about their phones, in school or out of school, causing them to drop their grades and get them in lots of trouble.

Years of research show that texting is leading to an increase in social awkwardness in teens and children. “Nini Halkett has taught history there for two decades. As her students are increasingly immersed in texting, Halkett also finds them increasingly shy and awkward in person.” (Jennifer Ludden’s article “Teen Texting Soars; Will Social Skills Suffer?” paragraph 14). With a majority of teens feeling more at ease texting each other, this can and will lead to

A teen sends 2,000 text messages a month and spends 44 hours per week in front of a screen. (Tarish, 18) 94% of teens who have smartphones use them daily. (Tarish, 19) To much online communication can get in your way of making deep friendships. (Tarish, 18)

We hear a lot these days about texting - the ability to get/send a text message from/to anyone, anywhere, via wireless networks and some kind of portable device, which might be a fancy pager, a digital cellphone or a palmtop computer. The technology is here, though it doesn't work everywhere yet. We could argue about how affordable or reliable texting is, but we can't deny it exists and will probably become more widespread. But is this a good thing? In my opinion, there are certain ways in which texting affects many teenagers.

Everywhere you go teens seem to be glued to their phones, tablets, or computers. Technology is an addiction that does not seem to be going away any time soon. According to the Washington Post, teens can spend up to seven or more hours on their digital devices a day and the usage is still increasing. Not surprisingly enough, more than a third of all teenagers own a cellphone, ranging from a smart phone or just a plain old-school flip phone. But can spending all that time on their computers and smart devices be such a bad thing? Today’s easy access, always on world presents a wealth of opportunity for teens as students, but also challenges them to retain them essential humanity and unique personalities.

Technology has taken control of most teenagers of today. Mostly every new inventions that has been invented teenagers have been using and have been controlled or obsessed with it. For example, the Xbox and the Playstation, teens have been playing those two systems since they have been released. They spend hours playing video games day and night and get to obsessed playing with it. Other electronics that have been invented and teens have been using all the time are ipads, the TV and portable video games as well have all been taken control by teens, adults and even kids now spend time play video games or watch tv till their eyes ache of pain. Finally, and probably the most successful and has taken control of many teens today the cell phones. More teenagers everyday are getting too addicted with their cell phones and they also they have been getting a negative influence on themselves. They receive bad influence on social media, places like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter etc. There are many reasons why social media is a negative influence but

Teens have many different uses for phones. In the article "Teenagers and New Technology " it says that cell phones offer teenagers "new worlds of opportunity." The article also says that new technology are essential to success in Today's world. It says that tools like texting and social media can help needs to all teenagers like defining personal identity and establishing independence. Cell phones are new and exciting avenues for teens to do what they want to do, for example flirt, boast, gossip, get news, complain, and tease. As well, cell phones today can take and share pictures, play games, listen to music, swap videos, and access the Internet

Texting has become a common tool for kids to communicate with friends. Teenagers often text each other to plan events, study, multitask, and to stay in contact with one another. However, many people text to avoid face-to-face

Since the technological phenomenon towards the end of the 20th century, text messaging has been widely used by cellphone users, specifically teenagers, in order to get their conversations across easier and quicker in a very convenient way. In the modern technology world, people have become so accustomed to the idea of

The use of technology is to abundant with growing teens. They mostly get side tracked when, "when the kids have the devices at there house it interferes with the kid and teens relationship with their

Technology caused various of changes in this world. In the article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” the author Jean M. Twenge discuss how technology has caused a different effect on teen. “I called them iGen. Born between 1995 and 2012, members of this generation are growing up with smartphones...” Many teens now are dependent on texting then having a group conversation as compared to generations we can see the differences. The generation after 2012, which Twenge calls iGen, rely more on smartphones than earlier generation. iGen use of social media, like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, began before they even started going to school. These kinds of uses have caused health issues, and teens are going out less to parks and using less outside resources. While it be safer that kids stay inside, they are more likely to go into depression. Smartphones have made teens less able to communicate, caused a higher risk to their health, and become too much in a iGens life.