I have definitely a lot in common with Vishal. Although Vishal
does something constructive, like filmmaking instead of doing his homework, I manage
to do nothing valuable. Vishal is not a unique case. Every teen with computer or other
entertainment access is distracted from doing school work. Like how teens get
distracted from social networks, instant messaging software, tv, and video
games today, a decade ago, teens were distracted by other forms of
entertainment i.e. board games, tv, playing amongst friends. Similar to all other teens, I also have
trouble disconnecting from the digital world. Although lately I have stopped
playing a lot of video games, I have gotten obsessed with instant messaging and
social networks. Instead of finishing homework quickly, I spend majority of my
time socializing, waiting for the last moment to start my homework. This
obviously has a big negative impact on my grades. By leaving my homework till night
time, I complete it with my mind being half asleep. This causes my assignment
to be completed with not all my effort and potential, and thus a lower grade
than what I would want it to be.
With all the software and social networks on the internet these
days, I believe it definitely amplifies my personality. I am able to catch up
with old friends, get closer with some of my friends and even make new friends.
With technology having some negative impact on my life, it has its positives
too. I am able to explore what I would like to do in the future using various
tools on the internet. It also makes it much easier for me to read more and
start viewing different aspects of life from different perspectives.
In my opinion, gaming can affect sleeping patterns in certain
cases. I was an obsessed gamer ever since my teenage years began till last year.
Gaming never really affected my sleeping pattern unless or until I played late
at night, ruining my sleeping cycle. As far as ability to retain information,
it was never really a problem. In fact, with the MMO games that I played, I
actually expanded my vocabulary and developed a greater general knowledge. Thus,
just saying that gaming affects sleep patterns and ability to retain
information is incorrect. It depends on the game and how many hours an
individual is playing. Sure, if an individual was playing a shooting game for
hours past midnight, their ability to retain information and sleeping cycle
would be disrupted.
Using technology most of the times does not involve physical or
healthy activity. Alan Eaton definitely has a point when he says that
technology has led to a “balkanization of their focus and duration of stamina.”
A great chunk of teens spend a significant amount of time using technology,
which in result costs them their health. When one is on the computer for quite
some time, the duration of their stamina goes down due to the lack of exercise.
They also start losing focus on other
things as they are too much concentrated and distracted from technology.
The cost of technology definitely has more benefits than
disadvantages. In fact, technology is taken for granted and its only negative
impacts are highlighted in our society. Using technology we can research,
interact with the community, entertain ourselves etc. If it’s overused and
abused, then is when it makes a negative impact. Too much of everything is not
good for you. The schools should be embracing more technology in the curriculum
as it is efficient, convenient and interests a lot of teens.
The students in this article are depictions of regular average
teenage life. Almost every teen is distracted by entertainment that can be
extracted from technology. It is human nature to do something that interests
you. In a life of a teenager, social networking and other entertainment sources
are much more interesting than school course work. The author of the article seems to have done
good research to grasp the use of technology among teenagers. His points are
valid as this response took me 3 hours to write thanks to Facebook and Msn.
