In the spring, we challenged our Junior Reporters to think about technology use and its impact. Why? Because technology use has become an ever-growing hot-button topic. After all, is technology a good or bad thing? We recently shared a story about Facebook and its Messenger app for kids. Parents and educators were not happy because of concerns over security and device addiction, but do kids share the same concerns? When it comes to technology, does the good outweigh the bad?
Orly C., a middle school student at the Millennium School in San Francisco, wanted to know what people thought of technology. Is it safe? Is technology making a positive or negative impact on people and society? Take a look at his report below!
Nice work, Orly!
For my junior reporter mission, I chose to write about tech trends, and I interviewed four different people. First I interviewed a seventh grader named Summer—she was one of the best examples because she has a phone with social media but was able to recognize her decisions. One of the things I found most interesting was hearing what she had to say about her favorite and least favorite social media platforms. Summer said that the least safe is either Snapchat or Twitter because after you post something, it gets erased, which allows people to get away with posting inappropriate things. The safest is either Instagram or Pinterest because on both of them, you are able to keep your account private.
After that, I interviewed Aidan. I asked him where we would be without tech, and he said that it would be great for the people who are addicted, but for things like NASA, it would be counterproductive. He also believes that we should get rid of video games completely, except for Fortnite. I find it interesting that Fortnite is something good that people can have in common or something really bad that is taking their attention away from the world around them.
To get a different point of view, I interviewed my parents, and the answer I found interesting for my mom was the fact that if a child told her they wanted a phone, she would immediately say, “You’re too young.” When I asked my dad about where we would be without technology, his intriguing answer was that we would most certainly not be as productive, and for example, we wouldn’t have gone to the moon. He also said it would be like we were living in the dark ages. I personally found that comparison odd because creativity is so different than technology, but the way we live, it really isn’t.
Overall, technology has definitely changed our lives, and there is a lot of debate around whether it’s for the better or for the worse. I personally believe that tech has changed us for the worse. We might not be here right now, but we would be more involved with each other and the world. People would learn how to plant their own food, how to stop pollution, and what we can do to help others. There would be fewer problems, and that would be the result of having time to fix them rather than stare at screens. Now your turn: Is tech for the better or for the worse?