It was long ago when we heard our parents or grandparents used to spend numerous hours of the day being occupied with nature. But today's people have been preoccupied with technology, which has rather been for good or bad. The emerging high-speed computers, cell-phones and two-way messengers have made the world ahead of us few generations. Gadgets that were once only available to few Intelligence personnel or prestigiously positioned person are seen today in the hands of a high school pupil. The data is merely entered on a device and you screen calculations in colourful graphical format. In this era all possible manual work has gone to the edge and electronic notepads have become the need. But a question rises here, is technology helping the youth of today or taking from us our intellectual power?
The early computers when introduced were of a shape of a whole room. Now they very simple fit into a school bag and even your trousers pockets. The necessity of the technology has become so intense that many colleges are even beginning to require students to have a personal electronic notebook.
A study reveals that around ninety percent of people ages 5 to 17 use computers and about fifty-nine percent of them are online. Even we see younger kids are happening to become computer savvy. A decade or half ago our parents might haven't had the advantage of today's technology; they never used PDAs and TI-89s and so haven't had online archives, libraries, databases, which would connect them to the rest of the world.
With the blessing of this online connectivity the level of today's youth mental power has dropped down that using much less of their own intellect and doing more cutting and pasting with the click of a mouse. Most of the schools and colleges and even universities' students are the prey of plagiarism and are merely limiting the brilliant use of their own brains. Today's youth tend to delay their homework and projects until the night before the task is due. They have a simple one click solution to their problem and that is copying someone else's time and hard work.
For educational organizations they must modify their teachings slightly and lead teens to struggle a bit on their own basis coming up with their own ideas and just taking assistance from others work rather than owning that. The technology is introduced as a tool to let you enhance your own abilities supported by own beliefs and thinking, not to steal someone else's. What has the internet done to help students who aren't looking to take someone else's idea? Online libraries give us access to resources we may have never had any other way.
In our parents time everything they did was worked out with a pen on a piece of paper. You learned how to add, subtract, divide and multiply all in long hand and possessed a very strong IQ level capable of solving a very complex equation orally. Whereas today's youth have developed their grounds taking help from these electronic devices. Calculators have become a big help of say you're in calculus and trying to work out a problem that would take you hours to complete and multiple pages of paper. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommends the integration of calculators into the school mathematics program at all grade levels. They believe though that calculators need to be taught as an extension of the student's mathematical knowledge.
So we've covered the internet and calculators in an educational sense, but what about the aspect of technology and entertainment with today's youth? Long gone and the summers spent entirely outdoors. With the invention of new technology and game consoles and many others devices, today's youth are trading fun-in-the-sun for hours spent in front of a monitor or television screen. You will find younger children having such facilities even in automobiles.
Many may look at these games as a waste of time, but they could be very educational as well. Numerous gaming companies are looking to put more educational aspects into their games. These high action games can also enhance your hand-eye coordination drastically. In this connection a very interesting quote from a former president Ronald Reagan goes as: "Video games could do more a lot than just wastage of time which many of us think that way. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets."
If the former president believes in you, then you know your business can never be a total waste or aimlessly offered.
So in the long run the question is posed: Has technology helped or hindered today's youth? That's up to whoever interprets the question. From the integration of the internet and calculators into today's classrooms to the hours of sitting in front of the tube playing Call of Duty, Rainbow, Need For Speed on PC, Xbox and PS, technology has definitely changed the youth of today. Good or bad? The answer is left open to the eye of the percipient.
Computers have brought a world never before accessible to many, but opening up a new chapter of plagiarism and internet crime. Calculators are helping us figure out detailed calculus, but are we becoming too dependant on them. The gaming industry is one of the nation's largest, but is it all just for fun or is there benefits behind the gaming. There are advantages and disadvantages to all aspects of today's technology.
Ismail Ahmed is a Family Law Advisor. He manages http://www.aboutdivorce.org and http://www.aboutonlinedegrees.org
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