Addiction to Social Networking

By Keith (Age 16, ISF Academy)

We used to think that the word addictive only applied to drugs, but now, more people are addicted to technology than to drugs. We see people around carrying iPods and iPhones up and down the streets for entertainment purposes. 30 years ago, people who traveled up and down the street chatted around with strangers. They had time to care and observe the surroundings. Now they play Angry Birds.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

I think the problem nowadays is that we get access to friends so easily that we are kind of spoiling the friendship. It is, first, a waste of time spending so much time talking to one single person whenever you can. Back in the old days, the only way to get in touch with your friends was to meet them face to face. If they were more fortunate, the only thing that they could do was to call their friends through the land line. They would treasure their friendship even more by doing this. We are in the state of texting each other every now and then and checking the Blackberry every 20 seconds, so it seems that we do not have an excuse to refuse to be socially connected anymore. It is just impossible for us to get out of the connection zone.

I absolutely think that  this is an unhealthy addiction. Under these circumstances we are getting dumber and dumber by using technology all the time. For example, typing on the computer will make your writing less fluent on tests, and you will make more mistakes in grammar when you rely too much on the computer's spell-checker. Social network addiction is also not healthy for young kids, because their mindset is not as prepared for differentiating between good and bad friends they meet. They might randomly add friends on Facebook, post statuses they didn't mean to put, and end up doing something offensive.

One recent invention called the Petimo, a type of social robot, encourages children to connect with real friends whom they have met. When both of them use Petimos to kiss each other, they automatically make friends on Facebook. The advantage of this is that parents can monitor their friends and it makes the whole friendship making process safer.

Of course, some may argue that the use of technology is crucial for one's future career. Their future jobs all rely on computers. Without these skills, it would be hard for them to adapt to the future. Only training them from a very young age can benefit them.

I think that children should restrict the use of technology. They should not be using it for entertainment purposes. All it is supposed to do is help you with your fundamental studies. Seeing young children using iPads worries me. Will our next generation still be able to write fluently? Will they be able to get away from the communication circles?

Technology is always useful. However, the way we are using it goes against the whole purpose of the invention. It is just making our lives more difficult and at the same time, making most of the technology users less efficient in their work.