The weight of modern technology
Changing times lead to new ways of living, but not all of the technological innovations we’ve experienced are positive.
With the future of expanding technology comes increased complexity in people’s lives. People have a good idea of what problems they faced in their childhood. However, with a sharp increase in access to computers and smartphones, the new problems children face today are astronomically exacerbated compared to times before the internet.
I recently saw the movie “Eighth Grade” by comedian Bo Burnham, which is about, you guessed it, an eighth grade girl living her life through her last week of school before she goes to high school. The movie tackles the topics of social media use, social anxiety and acceptance in ways I didn’t expect.
The fact teens are so immersed and dedicated to their cell phones as much as they are in this movie made my stomach turn as I felt myself age about 40 years.
Children online, much like the main character in the film, record videos of themselves dispensing advice or blogging in some regard.
The problem of children’s access to technology is an ugly elephant in the room, but how it’s quietly demonstrated in the movie is the jarring part. With a dramatically increased and equally unhinged access to the world via smartphones and the internet, children’s self esteem is eroding.
Through the internet, children are introduced to millions of false representations of the ideal person or lifestyles and given unachievable goals. While one could argue that’s the case today with other media, the fact the internet is easily accessible through a phone, which many children own, is what makes this more caustic.
As shown in the movie, another route children take for acceptance is by posting pictures of themselves, or record videos about giving advice or how their life is going. Children before the age of social media never had to worry about reaching out to the world and getting a large subscriber or like count, but today it consumes them.
One of the perennial contributors to childhood anxiety is the ever-relatable quest for acceptance, in school, and eventually everywhere else in life. Throughout the generations, this will prove to be a constantly shifting goal, and expanding an audience from a school setting to global stage makes the journey for acceptance out of reach.
What can we do about it? Have we already gone too far when parents are introducing children to tablets and smartphones at early ages?
Though we can’t cure all of the problems children face in their adolescence, because that’s what ultimately shapes them into the people they become, we can take steps to mitigate the damage already done to future generations.
Limiting access to technology that gives unfiltered access to the internet is a good start, though that is easier said than done. Not everyone will be on board, and children will feel like outcasts for being the only one at school without a device. That can be worked around through more education on the dangers of overusing technology.
Restricting children from accessing social media can also lead to positive changes. Trusting a child, whose brain is still developing, with all of this free will and access is a recipe for disaster, as we’re seeing it play out today.
-Jacob Runnels is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.