Effects of Technology

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 2)

My daughter turned 13 on Sept. 27th. What did she want for her birthday? Texting! My husband and I had blocked texting on her cell phone up to this point. All she wanted was to have a couple of friends spend the night with her on her birthday and to get texting on her phone. As noted in my original post I have a deep concern how texting is affecting individuals ability to communicate face-to-face. My husband and I talked it over and decided to grant her the wish of texting. After dinner we took the girls to the mall shopping, which in the past meant going from store to store looking at everything in the stores. As we moved from store to store I could not help noticing all three girls standing in the stores texting on their phones; rather than shopping. I could not believe my eyes. This was my daughter who before receiving her birthday wish would rather shop as to eat. I almost panicked, but my husband convinced me that the newness would wear off. I am not convinced that it will. I have students in my classes who have used texting so much they can text with their phone in their pocket. We also watched a news cast at school a couple of weeks ago from a doctor warning about the dangers of ?text walking.? He stated that he was seeing at least one patient a week with an injury resulting from texting while walking. He told about an individual who stepped off a sidewalk into traffic resulting in death. So once again I ask, Is technology a lifestyle or a tool?

Posted at 08:12PM Oct 04, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[2]