From age 7-12 I remember the feeling of my mom taking me to PartyCity so that I could pick out invitations to my birthday party. I would pick out my very favorite and start writing. After they were completed we would use the phone book and my schools directory to addresses the letters. After that I would wait for the invitations to come back with my friends RSVP. Weeks later the party would happen and I would then send out my thank you letters to my friends, thanking them for the gift they got me.
Then the next year I was ready to get some cool teenager invites at PartyCity. When I asked my mom to go she told me we should do e-vites. Since 2012 I most likely have not sent much of anything by mail except clothing returns. The world of email and e-vites had taken over. We used the e-vites because that way you could receive an instant response instead of waiting for postal time. The internet has been a very useful tool when it comes to staying in touch and being time efficient but it has taken away basic skills. I am sure today many children growing up do not know how to address a letter.
I like my personal relationship with technology when it comes to school. Although I did like writing letters, I would hate if I had to wait for my professor to write me back if I had a question about the assignment. With email my professors can get in touch with me within minutes.
Technology is completely informative, I am able to check homework online, turn in assignments, read the news watch videos and so much more because it is so instant. Although, not all of its information is properly informative. Cites like Wikipedia are mostly great and educational but did you know that ANYONE can publish on Wikipedia. That means right now I can post an article on how to write a novel and people would probably believe it. The bad part is, I do not know how to write a novel. We have to be careful using cites and outlets to make sure our quick information is actually information and not ideas.
Moving into social technology, that is a scary world and a great world. I love Facebook because my extended family is all across the country and world. My cousins in Germany like and comment on my post all the time, they are always telling to keep posting pictures because it keeps them informed on what I am up to. That also goes for my Grandma, my aunts, uncles and close friends. That part of social media is so awesome because I am also able to do the same thing with their lives.
Heres where the beauty turns to ugly. Online bullying is out of control and completely disgusting. I study showed that 87% of young internet users have experience cyber-bullying, and 95% of teenage have social media. That means that kids are getting bullied every single day. The suicide rate of teens was not rising until social media. In the time of 2000-2007 the rate of suicides among 10 to 24 year old was around 6.8%. From just 2017-present day those rates have change, today. The United States faces a 10.6% suicide rate in ages 10 to 24. That number is a 56 % increase in 10 years. To me it does not seem like a coincidence that around the time of the rise of social media there was also a rise in suicide rates.
I have a cousin who is 13 and she was allowed to get social media this year. She was so happy and couldn't wait to start posting. I began to notice she seemed to only be following models. Models are career driven individuals and I think they are respectable but they are hard to look at, especially all day long. I started to see that my cousins posts had changed from smiling and acting goofy to hot poses, to much make up and revealing clothing. I was shocked, then it hit me I remember seeing Kendall Jenner who is a very successful model post a rather similar revealing photo. Kendall had hundreds of thousands of likes and the same amount in comments. I wanted to guide my cousin and hold and open conversation about her pictures and she was honest. She told me that is the only way to get lots of likes. She also said that boys only comment on pictures like that, not the ones that are goofy. That broke my heart, hearing that my cousin is growing up in a world dominated by looks, likes and comments was sickening. The worst part was that was not even her fault. Her world has become all about the very things that are not actually important. This has caused an increase in eating disorders in the United States. 3.8% of females ages 13-18 have eating disorders, males ages 13-18 are at a 1.5%. Statistics also show that over 12,000 of teens 15 to 18 are a 4th under weight.
Technology is full of pros and cons. We have used it to go on the moon, makes cars, and heat up our food but it had also been used to hurt others. I think the post important thing in this age is to monitor is your a parent and educate. Educate early, before these kids are getting social media.Teach them that one opinion is not all and that life is to precious to loose. Technology has connected me to High Point, family, traveling and so much more good things. I hope that technology can improve on having more pros and less cons. Over all I think that we should all learned to practice safe use, and enjoy it. It is not going anywhere anytime soon so we should use it the correct way, use its powers for good and not even.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/cyber-bullying-statistics
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