Example Of Too Much Technology Is Available To Teenagers Essay

Fifty years ago most people could not even imagine what a computer or a cell phone looks like, in this twenty-first century the average home has two computers and almost every child twelve years and older has a cell phone. These means of communication in the hands of teenagers is like entrusting them with “Pandora’s box’”
There are oppositions to the idea of taking technology from students, mostly by teachers because they say it gives them a medium to interact more with their students. They say that technology has enhanced learning, no doubt it does. Nonetheless, the danger is not worth the risk; Teens have gotten into trouble that they never dreamed of before technology. Not so long ago a teenage started to communicate with a man from Australia, the next thing she is travelling across the world to be with him. This man made a thirteen old girl feel important and provided her with the necessary papers for her to come to Australian; she got to Australia and of course when she got there it was not what she had dreamed of ; she was made into his sex slave. This is not an isolated story, Date Line, 48 Hours, and 60 Minutes are full of these kinds of story and there are myriads of others that are not reported. There are reports of fatalities and cyberbullying, results of social network dating. Free access to communication technology is like equipping students with dynamite and telling them to be careful not to trip or fall.
The World Wide Web is crowded with social sites and just when one thinks that he or she has the count down, a new one pops up. Alvarez states that; “75%—of teens have cell phones, 73% have social networking accounts like Facebook, tumblr, Twitter, and MySpace, and 97% of teens play computer, web, and/or massive multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.” A great number of these sites are created for teenagers and teenagers are drawn to them like ants to sugar. These sites empower youths and they do and say things that they are not able to say face to face. The creators of these sites should restrict what is said and done on these sites; this can be done as the face-book creator did when face-book was first created. “Facebook began by catering to undergraduates and for many years restricted membership by requiring all users to have a “.edu” email account” (Jeffery Yan, 30).
Some of the behavior of these “children” is atrocious and causes one to wonder where their parental guidance is. These young people spend more time on these sites than they spend doing lessons. Computers and cell phone take away time that family should use to interact with each other and parents should be more alert to their children’s activities.
Teens do not need to go to date sites if they cannot get a boyfriend from among the boys in the neighborhood or from school, they can wait until they are mature enough to handle meeting a man or woman online. Often times they get in trouble with these online dating. Paris Strom and Robert Strom has reported that technology has changed the way friendship are formed and how the new issues in communication forums will affect how students develop and keep friendship. Do they have the skills necessary to build computer-generated friendship with foreigners; and how parental guidance will enhance teens’ ability to nurture online friendship and cyber dating (39).
Not every teenager abuses social network sites, however a great number of them do and it seems as if society is invaded by a group of sex-craze, over-active teenagers. Allie Conti reports the story of a young girl Loli-chan. At thirteen she began she began posting pictures of herself online and become the friend of several older men who encouraged her to send more and nude pictures of herself in different poses. Loli-chan story is a long one that did not end well; first she was expelled from school. She went to an alternative school to finish high school and when she went to college she was overwhelmed by the number of students who knew her from her the pictures she posted on the different sites online; she lasted less than a year at college, ending up in the psychiatric ward at Jackson Memorial; today she lives on medication that she takes three times per day. To tell all the stories of young girls who have been foolish on web sites would require a manuscript.
Reading used to be a pastime teens enjoyed by young people, not so anymore. A young girl in Los Angles said she was bored, and reading was not appealing to her; she started surfing the internet and ended up on a chat line with a seventeen year old boy, she was sixteen. They exchanged pictures and finally decide to meet at the mall; he was nothing like his picture, he was an old man. She did not know what to do however, when he invited her into his car she refused. That was her only sensible move. They walked around the mall talking about nothing. Eventually they decide to sit and the only place where they could sit was in a restaurant. They sat in Potter Barn where they sat on the couch and make out. There several stories where the reality of internet dating leads to rape and murder. In Rhode Island a seventeen year girl was drugged and rape by three men she had befriended online (Nancy j. Sales). Clearly, teens need to have their easy access to technology communication curtail.
The misuse of technology can have serious repercussions. Like Loli-chan’s story, the abuse of the internet can mar some people for life. A student from the University of Chicago lost his chance for a summer internship when an executive from the company he was supposed to intern view his profile where had included in his interests, smoking cigars stuffed with marijuana, shooting people, and obsessive sex. Similarly, a chemical engineer major stunted his career because he wrote in his profile that he likes blowing up things. A student at Boston Fisher College was expelled for defaming a college police officer online (Dana L. Fleming). It boggles the mind how undaunted and how readily young people are to display their inner=most thoughts to the entire world.
The advancement of communication technology has really changed the world. Every type of correspondence is only a click away, unfortunately there are abusers who use it to commit crimes; and there are brazen teenagers who are not afraid tell all or show all, as a result its easy access should be taken from young people to keep them safe.