<p>Hey, how much time do you guys spend on screens?</p>
<p>I try to think of myself as a more "paper and ink" type of person, but as the world moves in the digital realm I am moving with it.</p>
<p>While the interconnectedness is sometimes good, I see almost everybody abusing it. They brag about themselves nonstop with fake smiles and fake lives.</p>
<p>And to me it is sickening to see everybody on their phones all the time!</p>
<p>As a reader, book collector, and writer (pen on paper), I see what the digital obsession is doing to our society. It is ruining our language, psychology, friendships, and civility.</p>
<p>I use the Internet a lot for homework and learning about stuff and general procrastinating. I don’t use social networking sites and I don’t have text messaging. The phone I do have is only so I can call my mom to pick me up after work. I don’t bother to take it anywhere else.</p>
<p>I can’t write as well on paper because it’s not as easy to erase and it’s hard for me to reorganize things if I want to. Word processors just make it easier. (And I can read Times New Roman faster than I can read my handwriting. I like the uniformity.)</p>
<p>People are still reading books all the time. What do you mean by ruining the language? Language changes constantly and it always has, but it seems to always continue to exist.</p>
<p>I don’t have text messaging either, or Yahoo, FB, Twitter, etc. I think it is a privacy threat and waste of time. I have a cord phone on my desk, that’s it. I like life without digital chains.
People are still reading books, but not as much as before, and they are paying the price for it.</p>
<p>Honestly, I see more people complaining about tYpInG lyK diiiiis more than I actually see it happening. I feel like the only people who type like that without irony are 12-year-olds who have just started using the Internet and think it’s the custom and don’t realize it’s annoying to everyone.
Confusion based on they’re/their/there and your/you’re and loose/lose has probably always existed. They sound sort of the same, so they’re easy to confuse and people have trouble with them.
People have complained about the destruction of the language ever since we’ve had language. Any changes result in an outcry. But the language still serves its intended purpose of communicating ideas, and it will probably survive this too.</p>
<p>As for books…people are reading more, but the books may be of lower quality. Young adult literature is frequently kind of dumb.</p>
<p>I’m a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge advocate of technology, ESPECIALLY in schools.</p>
<p>My school runs entirely on Google Drive. We have zero paper handouts as of this year. It’s wonderful. We even have beautiful new Chromebooks to do everything on.</p>
<p>And all that makes my life a lot easier. I don’t take a backpack to school anymore. Everything is online for me.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s a long story, but my philosophy is that communication is becoming a more necessary skill in this descent into the digital age…so if, in school, students learn how to communicate digitally through social media, email, and websites, it’s all the better for employers, college, etc.</p>
<p>I love seeing people ignoring authority and being on their phones…imagine the power they have at their fingertips. With one click, they can tell all their friends about an issue they care about. They can raise awareness thousandfold just by making an event on Facebook and asking their friends to share it.</p>
<p>Sooooo much power is contained within technology that is completely untapped.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time on the internet lol. I still can get an A in my AP English class, can hang out with friends, and can have mature conversations with adults. I don’t think it has as big of an effect as you say</p>
<p>And I like the general availability of information. If I want to know about something I can look it up on Google instead of getting bundled up and scraping the ice off my car to go to the library.</p>
<p>I really like technology because its pretty helpful in general. But yesterday I screamed “I hate technology!” because I just get exposed to too much and become depressed. In addition, some things on the Internet often offend me or scare me.
A few days ago, I was in the toys section of Target, which I hadn’t visited for a couple of years. I was very surprised to see so many “toys” as extension packs for apps on the iPod and iPad. There were other talking plushies and motion-sensing gadgets. An image of a toddler swiping his or her fingers across a screen felt rather queer to me - what do you guys think? I don’t welcome the idea that children should be pulled into technology at such a young age, but I guess it might just be inevitable in this generation.</p>
<p>Meh, everything I do academic (studying, papers, research even) is done on paper, but after that all my free time outside of ECs is on the Internet or reading eBooks.</p>
<p>I am thankful for when I was born though because I wasn’t really exposed to all this technology until middle school after the days of running around and playing outside rather than growing up inside on iPads and stuff.</p>
<p>“I don’t welcome the idea that children should be pulled into technology at such a young age, but I guess it might just be inevitable in this generation.”</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with it, other than that people should go outside more. But kids seem to be inclined to stay inside and play with toys all day even if they’re not electronic, especially if the weather is bad or they live in an unsafe area. The idea that there’s something inherently wrong with kids using computers just sounds paranoid.
I got my first computer when I was six, in 2002. It was my parents’ old Windows 98 computer that they gave me when they got a new one. It had one of those cathode ray tube monitors and didn’t have Internet access, but I had a bunch of those educational computer games and I liked to use the word processor to write stories. I don’t think it had any huge benefits but I enjoyed it and I don’t think it was harmful. As long as parents are watchful of how much their little kids are allowed to use computers and make sure they’re not giving out personal information on the Internet and such. It’s not the devices themselves that cause problems, it’s parents who use them to occupy their kids so they don’t have to spend time with them.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time on the internet too, but mostly for fun. I don’t like doing homework or studying on a computer if I don’t have too, since I can’t focus with the internet.</p>
<p>It is great for research papers and learning about random things though. Not always as useful as a book, but much faster, and it can help you find those useful books.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time online, whether it’s social networking, gaming, or academic. I’ve been using the Internet since I was 2, I was a Nintendo fiend when I was growing up, and I treat my iTouch like it’s my child. With that said, I have a lot of disdain toward technology. </p>
<p>I feel that, rather than making technology work for the person, many are doing the reverse. When I can’t spend a day with someone without them being on their phone half the time, there’s a problem. When people complain about always being bored, but don’t have the desire to get out & <em>do</em> something, and opt to go on FaceBook or Twitter instead (and are still bored), it makes me wonder where the line blurs between healthy and obsessive use.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time online and a lot of my HW is not do-able without the internet. One thing I don’t like is audio books a ebooks. I see the benefits but they just don’t compare to reading a paper novel.</p>
<p>I’m always on the computer. I love that it lets you connect instantly with people all over the world. I like being able to stay in contact with friends I’ve made that live all over. Plus, writing is so much more convenient when you can type it out.</p>
<p>I’m on quite frequently. I have an Acer laptop and an iPad.
I think I grew up addicted to the internet…
I’ve been on the internet since 2000, surfing on a bulky old chassis
Some good came out of that, but mostly bad. I knew HTML/CSS since I was a kid.</p>