The Internet Craze

Anybody who went to a Catholic school as a kid remembers learning to write; starting young with writing in print and around fourth grade moving onto the real stuff: cursive. I’ve got No doubt it is drilled into the back of your mind, the endless hours of writing and re-writing your lowercase ‘abc’s’ before moving onto the uppercase ‘ABC’s’. Boys were never quite as impressive with their writing skills, but we girls, we worked at it. We all had our battle scars, the calices that were formed from those endless hours writing between the lines with just the right slant, and just enough height in the letters. Those calices that formed between the fingers you held your pencil with. I know for me I was proud of it, the bigger it was, meant the better I was at writing and to a fourth grader, that was awesome. Watching my grandma write was my favorite way to learn, both my mother and grandmother have uniquely, beautiful handwriting and I can remember myself hoping someday I would produce my own styled handwriting. Now here I am in English class as a senior, only eight years later and I look at my writing hand where there is not even the remnant of a calice, not even a bump. I look around the room and find the one person who is writing by hand and see that what she has written is all in print. How could something that was held so high in my education as a child have not even left an imprint on my work today?

We have all become so reliant on the use of pixilated screens and key boards to communicate that we rarely even practice the act of writing. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly benefits to technology, I mean how could a school like Emma Willard even function without the introduction of Skype or e-mail right? With all the students from overseas the internet is in many cases the only reason they could have been interviewed or adapt comfortably to such a different community. As well as the only reason they can stay for long periods of time. But do we really need our entire core of education to be held up by the delicate structure of the internet. From e-mail to facebook and homework assignments, every aspect of school life is tied into the World Wide Web. Rarely does a teacher rely on word of mouth and direct contact to get a message out to the students. This is made clear as soon as you become an Emma student, before the year even begins you are placed into the database and an e-mail account is made for you. You don’t make it or sign up for it, it’s made for you. Right off the bat you have no choice to be integrated to this part of the Emma community.

At first I resisted, I rarely checked my Emma account; I just have never been too excited by the land of technology. Soon I would learn that avoiding this was nearly impossible and a mistake. Many meetings missed and changed assignments later I realized I should give in. Oh and the free food, I missed a lot of free food by not checking my e-mail. I learned that communication through e-mail was, yes, more efficient but more stressful as well. The constant over stimulation and connection was hard

on me. To know that at any moment what I was told before could change and I was expected to know about it and get it done. It is a lot to ask of a teenager. Aside from the e-mail, facebook now has a school component to it, where school organizations notify and contact me on a daily basis. It ends up feeling like there are no brakes, It never ends, you never lose touch; which isn’t always a good thing. This year, to add more to the already technologically reliant community, we decided to become a part of ‘Schoology’ so that each and every one of our class assignments was solely on a website, categorized and filed away in the way it ‘should be’. Now there was really no choice, either go online to get the work and resources or don’t, in other words, fail. Just to add one more component of connection college came along; the college application process is another technological based process. Granted, I would rather fill out one application form to send to all 13 colleges I apply to, but maybe if it weren’t so easy to apply to 13 or more not so many people would and we wouldn’t have to fill out 13 forms by hand. I have had personal experiences with removing myself from the technology world of Emma. None of which ended in my favor. A broken lap top at Emma is no joke, immediately you lose touch and the work becomes nearly impossible.

When it comes to school work, the internet serves realistic purpose, but when it comes to the reliance on social networking the issue grows to an entire new level. It has become amazing to see just how much social networking has penetrated the developing generations. It is a lifestyle to be attached to our phones, and computers. The constant updating and editing has come to define a group of children. Just the other day I found myself astounded at the conversation I was engaging in with my best friend, I couldn’t believe the amount of information we could find and infer about someone neither of us had ever encountered in our lives, all from her facebook page. It made me realize how I wished I could let go of this alternate world for some time and see what is tangible again. We have created an entire society that has its own set of ambiguous rules, and regulations that are followed at will, almost like an unspoken code.

There is an entire world being opened up by this generation with the power to impact any aspect of our lives, from education to government. The power in the internet and web is immense as well as misunderstood. Things are easily skewed and for our generation we are only tampering with fire. Opening up the lines of privacy and exposing everyone, to everything will change even in the way children develop and grow. For example, many girls mention when asked what they think about the accessibility of facebook, bring up their younger sisters. When I spoke to Caroline Sidford and Emily Morley, both who are older sisters, immediately expressed how “scared” they are by their younger sisters becoming a part of the social technology craze. It scares many girls to see their younger sisters growing so quickly and being so sucked into the media like they seem to be. It is well known that girls now are developing at a much faster rate, weather this is attributable to social media or not, it is clear that media is pushing the limits of young kids. Both sisters feel deeply about knowing what their sisters are doing on the internet, and in their lives. By staying involved they are helping them navigate what Morley calls “that huge other world you can go into”. It is comforting for these sisters to know that they are a part of their lives but is difficult because they are unsure of what is really out there that they are getting into. By showing them how they “should act” kids are learning their behaviors from a virtual reality. It is not only young kids it is teens and young adults as well. The constant use of networking is often defended as being a good thing because young generations will need to be prophetic with the internet, and technology to excel in the business and college worlds lying ahead (Sax, 2010). When in reality the hours spent online are only reinforcing the ‘simple language of teens’ poor spelling and lingo are implementing bad habits (Sax, 2010). In addition to these poor habits girls are losing a sense of themselves through the constant stimulation “as these girls become hyperconnected to their peers, they are disconnecting from themselves.” Says Lenord Sax Ph.D. This is exactly what “scares” Caroline and Emily about what lies ahead for their younger sisters, with no way of controlling or containing their exposure they can only hope their siblings have learned how to deal with these problems through their own vices.

Social media has become a disruption into the lives of nearly all people, at the dinner table, in work, at school, while doing homework, even driving, and operating equipment. People, teens boys or girls are always striving to be connected. Rarely do they have a productive reason to be using one of these websites. So why do we feel the need to perpetuate this. There are nearly no boundaries facebook is attempting to strip people of their privacy. Humans are intrigued by the ability to pry without invading others space and feel empowered by it. All in all the addiction is compiling with all other technological advances that are bombarding the daily life of American people. Slowly making people lose grasp on what their society was built upon and how the basic behaviors of communication help people to thrive and grow in an enriched way. The amazing technological advances that have arisen in the recent decades will either become a bombarding compliment of problems that build up a society that is unsustainable for human nature eventually crumbling at the foundation. Or they can become a vehicle for revolutionary advancement and it is up to the generations to put themselves back in touch with reality and explore these possibilities responsibly.