I’m walking to class today with my face looking pointed down at my phone as I pass two older men. One of them scoffs, turns to his friend and says, “It’s sad that people can’t even walk around without those things being glued to their hands.” I’m texting my mom, actually. She’s sending me updates about my baby sister’s day at school. Yet, even if I wasn’t texting my mother, should I honestly feel bad about being on my phone? In my hand, I have every little piece of information and connection to the outside world that I could possibly ask for. So who cares if I was on Twitter or swiping right on Tinder?
People seem to think that our youth today is “backwards.” We get a self confidence boost when we get 50 likes on an Instagram post, and on our birthdays we feel like royalty scrolling through our Facebook. Some older generations look at us as being disconnected from the real world. I disagree completely. Our generation has used technology in better ways than to just play "Angry Birds" or find casual hookups on dating apps. With the technology we have at hand, our generation has flourished into a society of caring, open-minded people.
Facebook is always my favorite example of this topic. I can’t believe how many times a day I hear someone complain about "Candy Crush" invites or their older family members trying to friend them. The truth is, we never stop to appreciate what Facebook actually allows us to do. I can see my cousin’s graduation pictures from 100 miles away. I can go back and look at my old memories any time I want. I can share the most important moments of my life with all of my friends at the click of a button. I can connect with people on my campus through groups, announcements, and event invites. Let's be real, without Facebook, I would never know whose birthday it is.
Facebook is a portal to which we connect with the rest of the world. It lets us change our profile picture to support different causes: LGBT rights, the Paris Bombing, Autism Awareness Month, and even our favorite NCAA basketball team. We get most of our news through reshared articles where people can openly post their thoughts and opinions. Think about all of the Go Fund Me pages that get donations for important causes, all of the babies that get operations because strangers on the Internet just want to be kind, all of the “I’m Safe” check-ins that save families the terror of not knowing where their loved one is during a horrible event.
Instagram and Snapchat are also ones that I hear a lot of people complaining about, yet everyone has them. Sure, they can be viewed as just a way to share selfies and pictures of your lunch, but who cares?! I mean honestly, if you take a beautiful picture of yourself and you want to share it with the world, that’s great. If you had an amazing eggs benedict for brunch and you want to capture it in a photo, go right ahead. Your life is yours to share with whomever you please.
My point to all of this is that, no, technology is not our enemy. Technology is our best friend. Technology is what has made this entire generation closer together. Now, people can pick up their phones and find support anywhere. A depressed man can pick up the phone and find help on a suicide hotline. A confused transgender teen can log onto Facebook and find a support group. An athlete can use her phone to track her workouts. A college student can set reminders on his calendar for all of his assignments. A scared new mother can go online and get advice from mothers all over the world. A girl with low self-esteem can post a selfie and be told by all of her friends that she is beautiful with a click of a button.
The real enemy is ignorance. You can chose to be ignorant and believe that technology is nothing but a waste of time. You can choose to laugh at all of the baby and engagement photos. You can choose to mock people sticking their tongue out at their phone to make a dog face on Snapchat. However, at the end of the day, we’re infinitely connected to the world around us. We’ll have our face in our phone but the world in our hands.
