There is no denying that technology has progressed dramatically since the release of the first Nintendo. While the teachers at LHS have seen this advancement first hand, many of the students cannot remember a time without their electronic devices. The difference between the generations is startling.
“Technology I had when I was growing up was very limited,” math teacher Amber Craig said. “My first cellphone didn’t even come until after I was a kid. The only computer I had when I was a young kid [was a] big boxy old computer and I got to play a wheel of fortune game. That was really my only thought with them until I hit high school and the internet started to come out.”
For Craig, technology was a luxury not many could afford. For current students sometimes technology advances at such a quick pace, new innovations are simply expected.
“Some technology I had when I was growing up was just a simple iPod and a computer,” freshman Nico Flores said. “Technology came into my life more around 6th grade, when I got a phone and I started texting people.”
Some children might wonder, “What were things like?” or “What did kids do?” before they sat around all day in front of the TV.
“VCR came out when I was a freshman in college,” math teacher Pamela Price said. “I watched tv every day [and] used a calculator to check my work in high school. [The change is] indescribable… I’ve gone from a house phone, that we were excited when we got an answer machine so people could leave messages, to a cell phone where [people] send me [texts] 24/7.”
Although the growth of technology is exciting and useful, many abuse it. In younger generations children can become spoiled and cannot function without the use of the internet.
“I’m dependent on technology for a lot of reasons,” junior Travis Brown said. “My phone is my clock, my weather forecast, my way of communication and a way to have knowledge at my fingertips. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it at the end.
The emotional disconnect could be taken much further than their adolescence. Many parents and teachers fear the struggle children might have in their future. It could be difficult for them to form healthy relationships because of the seclusion the internet provides them.
“I think that’s going to hurt them in the long run,” Craig said. “[What]if they can’t tell a boss, or a boyfriend, or a husband, or a wife how they are feeling? They need to be able to communicate well. You need to be able to work with other people, not just individually, and a lot of the time technology just makes people want to work on their own.”
