INTRODUCTION – in progress

I think that technology is a tool that can influence human behavior in ways that are both positive and negative. When it comes to my overall opinion of technology, it’s not something that I can easily pin down. My connection with technology is something that I have found good and bad in, depending on how it’s used. There have been many times where I have really appreciated technology, and others where I wonder if I should regulate how much I use it. While attempting to gather a solid opinion on technology, I read pieces of writing from two excellent writers, Sherry Turkle and Jonathan Haidt, and both had very strong and profound views about technology, and the ways it is affecting today’s youth. I found things that I both agree with and disagree with within these works, and came to accept that my relationship with technology is far too complex for me to label with one word, and I think there’s a lot of other people who have come to the same conclusion I did.

BODY PARAGRAPH 1 – complete thought

The lack of communication that younger generations are receiving is concerning, and I often find myself worrying for kids much younger than me. In “The Empathy Diaries,” Turkle explains how she was contacted by the dean of Holbrooke School, a middle school in New York. The faculty and staff of Holbrooke were concerned with the behavior that they saw among students. The faculty was worried that students were making acquaintances and superficial connections with their peers, rather than true friendships. Kids were excluding each other from group activities and seemed to lack empathy. When the Dean called a student to her office for excluding another student from a group activity, she claimed that she noticed a lack of empathy within the student. Turkle blames this lack of empathy on the increased use of phones among students. Turkle claims that rather than talking to each other in person, there is a “new form of conversation” through social media. However, this new form of conversation “is not doing the work of the old conversation” because “the old conversation taught empathy” and now “students seem to understand each other less” (Turkle 345). Face to face communication is extremely important to the mental health and wellbeing of all people but is particularly important to children. Childhood years are where people are most impressionable, and the experiences we have during this time shape the people we become. If we don’t receive proper communication and contact with others, it can have detrimental impacts on mental health and social ability, like the lack of empathy that Turkle is observing. This is why I find the lack of communication among young kids so concerning, because so many of them are bound to grow up with anxious and depressive tendencies, without the people-skills they would have learned so young. Similarly, in “Get Phones out of Schools Now,” Haidt also found negative impacts on children in the new age of social media and smartphones. Specifically, Haidt found a “global increase in loneliness” in schools, as kids became “less likely to agree with survey items such as ‘I feel like I belong at school’ and more likely to agree with items such as ‘I feel lonely at school’” (Haidt 2). This discovery began in 2012, when kids began using smartphones, and when social media apps like Instagram appeared. As smartphones became common among kids, they began to feel lonely in school, lacking personal connections because everyone was so distracted with their phones. I found the connection between Haidt and Turkle particularly interesting, because they seem to have very similar opinions. As a teen who grew up in the age of smartphones, I have experienced what both authors are describing first-hand. Just like Haidt’s study, I spent my middle school years feeling lonely, as everyone was on social media, except for me. I was the odd one out, and as everyone was constantly using their phones and sharing pictures and videos, I was left out. I felt an extreme disconnect from others, as it felt like I had no real relationships with my peers, just as Turkle describes. Once I reached high school, I began to dabble in social media, and I quickly became engulfed by it, just like most of my peers, but it didn’t make me feel any less lonely. The only thing that made me feel truly connected to others was the genuine, face-to-face conversations I had, which in turn helped me to create meaningful friendships. I had a hard enough time connecting to people in my middle-school years without the added distraction of my phone. With kids younger than me receiving smart phones at ages 8 or 9 and being on social media as early as 10 or 11, I can’t help but worry for them.

BODY PARAGRAPH 2 – not started

BODY PARAGRAPH 3 – in class time

CONCLUSION – not started