Alan Burkhart

Enc1102 Tuesday 6-8

Digital Media

We live in a world run by computers that fit in our pockets. When this generation’s parents were in high school, the only computers they had were small square screens without the variety of colors or graphic quality we have today. The first computers were so big they took up the space of a whole room; now we have faster, better, more complexly built, and cheaper computers in our pockets. Some say that technology with children is bad, however the world they will grow up in is run by the very technology those people are trying to take out of their hands.

Men and women from older generations can have a sense of responsibility to bring their kids up as close to the way they were brought up as possible. They teach their children that cell phones are for adults and that video games are bad. What some don’t realize is that the same things they are withholding from their kids are what they will depend on by the time they reach their teens. It is important to introduce technology to the young in manageable increments to insure they know how to use it properly by the time they need it. Too much technology at a young age will corrupt the children of America. CNN says that by the time kids are five years old they already have an online history and interact with computer of some sort daily.

In the world we live in it is so easy to take technology for granite and forget how far we have come in the years past with the progression of cellular phones and laptops. The coming generations should be educated on the history of computers and how they

went from taking up a large room, to being small enough to hold in your hands. Digital media today is so easy to operate and to get your hands on; all you have to do is go to the local cell carrier, spend a few hundred dollars, and sign your name on the line that says you will pay for monthly access to the internet via the smart phone you just purchased.

 From a parental view, technology does tend to get in the way of school with the social aspect of the internet; however, technology is used throughout schools instead of books and physical paper material. With schools using laptops and tablets as learning tools, they are teaching the proper etiquette to use when in class and the same behavior they will need to use when they are older and working in jobs run by the technology they learned to use in school. Digital media is a crucial part of the upcoming generation’s lives. They will use it every day from the time they are a teenager to the day they die. Although it is distracting, the web is a valuable resource in class for the students.

Through the years we have advanced significantly in technology with computers going from giant metal objects that made loud frightening noises, to a small quite device that fits in the palm of your hand. Kids now need to be taught the right way to use these things and taught how not to abuse the personal computers they possess. Along with the advance of graphic display, they have come so far in the way they are used and put together. We can now use computers to do almost anything including do our homework or play internet games that simulate and alternate life. To say we haven’t advanced is crazy, also to say that the advances we have made are all corrupting and harmful to the upcoming youth is a ridiculous and uneducated statement.

 

 

 

Clinton, Chelsea, The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Chelsea Clinton, and James Steyer. "Is the Internet Hurting Children?" CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 19 Feb. 2013

Woods, Rachael. "Pros & Cons of Electronics in Schools." EHow. Demand Media, 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2013