Technology Effects

As a generation were so focused with how people think of us, and who has the
newest items. Its almost like a game. As a generation, we are distracted from our
education because we are so focused on our need to stay connected to the internet.
School is becoming less entertaining, which contributes to my generations attention
span decreasing.
Technology is slowing becoming the main focus of my generation, therefore it
has created multiple distractions for todays generation. One form of a distraction is
todays current generation is the number of apps on their phones. In Don Tapscotts
article the eight net gen norms Don Tapscott states Theyve grown up getting what
they want, when they want it, and where, and they make it fit their personal needs and
desires. (136). In this passage, Tapscott explains how this generation can get anything
they want at any time. For example, if they want a game to occupy their time they can
easily download one in a couple of minutes. Since the access is so easy, it can easily
distract the students. If theres a class that a student does not enjoy at all, theyll most
likely pull out their phone and start to play a game. I also perform behavior like this.
Sometimes when Im doing an essay or any type of homework, I randomly pull out my
phone or laptop and begin to play a game. Some games I played were Extreme Road
Trip 2 on my laptop and I would always play Temple Run on my phone or ipod. Also in
the eight net gen norm Tapscott reported 81% of teens play online games.. (150).
This one statistic alone, shows how much of a distraction games can be. According to
this stat, eight out of ten students play online games which mean theyre most likely
distracted by it. Another type of a distraction is the multiple forms of Social media.
Because of promotion from retail and grocery stores to T.V. shows, social media has
become the main focus for todays society. For example, many television shows
decided to give hashtags during the show so their fans could interact with one another.
Also, they some times hold voting polls through twitter. An example of this occurring is
on the show Big Brother. Sometimes throughout an episode, if a dramatic or hilarious
event happens they will put up a hashtag thats related to that event. Another example is
NBA All-star weekend. On the Saturday Night of NBA All-Star weekend, they have an
annual slam dunk contest. Starting a couple years ago, They use twitter to have the
fans vote on the player that won the contest.
People have the ability to access all of their electronic devices and social media
at any time they want. It is very easy now to play with your electronic device without
people noticing. It is also very easy for the students to get distracted by all of the items.
Having the ability to interact with peers and access to unlimited amounts of information
can be very distracting. You can go from googling a definition of a word for language
and in a matter of seconds youre checking your Facebook. In Gary Small & Gigi
Vorgans article Your brain is evolving right now Small and Vorgan informs The high
tech revolution is redefining not only how we communicate but how we reach and

influence people,exert political and social change, and even glimpse into private lives.
(78). This passage reflects how much technology has changed the way we interact with
one another and how much access it gets us. Social media gives us the ability to look
inside somebodys personal life without them knowing. If you look at somebodys
Facebook thats is always on it, you will be able to find out what they has happened in
their life for the past week. With all this information thats out there on the internet that
allows almost anybody to have access to, it can be used against people. I know some
girls that stalk another boys twitter just to see what they have been doing that day and
just to find out personal information about him. All this access leads to a quick
distraction cause the minute somebody has a question, they will go on google and find
their answer. The accessibility can cause people to attempt to multitask. Because of the
quick accessibly, students believe that they can work on an assignment and read
through tweets on Twitter. According to the informative video What its doing to their
brains Professor Clifford Nass did a study on high school students, figuring out if the
quality of the work is still good if the student was multitasking. Nass found out from the
study that multitasking actually makes the student disorganized and their thinking is
slower. So when students decide to tweet and do an assignment, it will actually take
them longer. Also, their work will not be as good as it couldve been because their
attention is divided.
With the ridiculous amount of access, it can easily transition into an addiction. I
believe that most students in this generation is addicted to technology. As for the
students that are not addicted, grew up without having all the technology in their
household. In Gary Small & Gigi Vorgans article Your brain is evolving right now
Small and Vorgan states In todays digital age, we keep our smartphones at our hip
and theres no need to fret if we cant find a landlinetheres always Wi-Fi (91).
Small and Vorgan talk about how we as a generation can not go 1 hour without using
our phones. Sometimes when I go out to eat with my friends, a few of them will instantly
go on their phones and look to see if there is free wifi at the restaurant. I have witnessed
one time at a restaurant, one of my friends asked the manager for their wifi password so
she can text from her iPod. A scenario that occurs very often is when a group of kids are
a restaurant, and almost all of them either have their phone in their hand or on the table.
Sometimes when the conversation dies down they automatically go to their phone
instead of bringing up another subject to converse about. Another example of this
becoming an addiction is that sometimes while I'm working on my homework, I will
check my fantasy football team just to take a quick break. The break will easily go from
being 5 minutes to 30 minutes. After awhile, I am checking my team almost every hour
for about 15 minutes. I do believe that I am slowly becoming addicted to it, since I am
winning most of games. I also know a few girls that are addicted to social media, Twitter
to be specific. These two girls that I know almost tweet everything that is going on at
that moment. They take it to another level because they eventually tweet embarrassing
thing that happened to somebody, instead of keeping the embarrassing event a secret. I
believe that they do this because they value being the person that knows everything.
They want to be view as the social champion. For instance, they want people to know

that they were invited to this specific place, while the other people that are reading their
tweet werent invited to the event. I believe there is no possible way to prevent the
addiction. Since the world is going to soon be revolving around technology, students
and workers will easily go and check their twitter every couple of minutes. Theres also
no way to prevent it because its so easy to access the internet or social media.
The technology world has now become a major part of the nations everyday life.
As for the current generation, we have the need the stay connected to the internet. One
reason why they need to stay connected is because they feel like they are missing out
on something special. In the eight net gen norms Tapscott says They appear to have
high awareness about the world around them They use Digital Technology to find
whats going on (139). The generation uses every type of social media just to find out
the latest and most interesting news. If theres a huge event that took place, most likely
everybody will research it on their phones so they can have a conversation with people
about it. Or theyll research it just so they can either sound smart to other people or so
they will not feel left out. A example of this happening, are the major elections that
happen every four years. People will google everything that happen in the election just
so they can tweet about it and sound smart. They also do it so they can join the
conversation about the election with all of their peers and not feel left out. Since the
generation feels this way, it causes them to be more focused on social media instead of
doing their homework. If they try to do their work, they will easily get bored and go back
to the social media so they can rejoin the conversation.
Technology has changed the way kids look at social classes. If you dont have
the new game system, youre basically being left out of the conversation". Most kids
lives revolve around being a part of the conversation Also in the eight net gen norms
Tapscott argues The latest product makes their friends envious and contributes to their
social status and their positive self-image. (154). I completely agree with this accurate
statement that Tapscott argues. This passage describes me and my peers very well. For
example, when the new iOS 7 software released, everybody in school wanted to
immediately download it, whether they were at school or not. Almost every one I knew
were deleting items from their phone in order to get the new amazing software. Some
people would get out of their seat during class so they can charge their phone while it
was updating. For that one day, everyones attention wasnt directed towards school, it
was directed towards the new software. For the students that already downloaded it,
they would pay attention for a bit then begin to mess around with their newly upgraded
phone. The idea of something new on the phone forces the students attention to their
phone instead of paying attention in class. This causes the students to have an
extremely short attention span. With the need to stay connected, it has caused our
timeliness to decrease. In Gary Small & Gigi Vorgans article Your brain is evolving
right now Small and Vorgan state Instead, when our minds partially attend. we scan
for an opportunity for any type of contact at every given moment. (92). In this
statement, Small and Vorgan argue that my generation needs to look at our phone at

every moment that we get. I agree, whenever we are bored, we instantly pull out our
electronic devices and go on social media website or application. Whenever we feel or
hear our phones vibrate, we have the strongest urge to check it, no matter what we are
doing. Technology is controlling us a generation, and with the rapid growth of
technology theres no way to slow it down. Since technology is controlling us and we
basically respond to our phones whenever it makes a simple noise, it contributes to our
short attention span. For example, someone is in math class and theyre engaged into
the lesson, the minute they feel their phone vibrates all of their attention gets directed
towards their phone.
Students attention span is also affected because school isnt entertaining to the
current generation anymore. One reason it isnt entertaining anymore is because the
current education system is still using the same old teaching styles that were used in
previous generations. In the article the eight net gen norms Don Tapscott states The
current model of pedagogy is teacher focused, one-way, one size fits all. It isolates the
student in the learning process. (149). This passage shows how the education system
is currently failing to teach todays generation. In the system today, teachers follow a
curriculum that is given to them. The curriculum is made to teach all the students
without having to do anything special. This method is very ineffective. All students learn
differently, and it takes different teaching styles in order to get them all to learn to their
full potential. Most teaching styles that are used right now a very boring in some way.
Therefore this causes students attention span to shorten and the students begin to play
with their phone or just simply sleep during class. In Marc Prenskys article Digital
Native, Digital Immigrant Marc Prensky argues, Adapting materials to the language of
Digital Natives has already been done successfully. My own preference for teaching
Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious
content. (4). In this passage, Prensky suggests that we create new teaching styles but
at the same time still include the old teaching styles. By doing this, the education
system will not only be effective for the kids that were able to learn from the old teaching
style but now other students will be able to learn effectively. Making theses changes will
lead us to newer levels in our society. Old school teachers that are close minded will
most likely struggle to change, as for a open minded teacher will have a more fluid
transition. Closed minded teachers are the ones that refuse to change their usual
teaching ways for the better of the students. If the system does change, I am certain
that the school will do better when it comes to test scores and overall grades.
Another reason why school isnt entertaining for the students is because the
students are not engaged into the lesson. This ties back into the teaching style,
because of the old teaching style students are less interested causing them to lose
focus. In the article the eight net gen norms Don Tapscott informs Many Net-Geners
learn more by collaborating-both with their teacher and with each other (149). Tapscott
provides information on how todays generation learns the best. They learn more from
one on one contact instead of the teacher giving one explanation for the entire class

without going into depth. Also, they learn more from hearing analysis that their
classmates have made. This type of discussion gives the students different point of
views therefore giving them an overall view about what they were discussing. Having
them talk to classmates is also a great way to keep the students involved in the lesson.
Its a great way to keep them engaged because this current generation is based off of
socialism. Majority of the kids this generation are more focused about their social image
more than anything else. Which is the reason why most students prefer activities that
involve talking to another person.
The education system needs to change in order for this generation to get better
and smarter. The system has to create a teaching style that will not only keep the
students engaged but also keep them entertained. In Marc Prenskys article Do They
Really Think differently Prensky states Their attention spans are not short for games,
for example, or for anything else that actually interest them. (18). Prensky brings up
how students have a longer attention span for activities that actually interest them. This
statement also brings up the idea of using video games to teach. I believe that using
video games to teach will help the student get engaged into the lesson causing them to
learn more. A perfect example of a game that has been used to teach is the Jump Start
series. The game has many mini games that engage the player based off there age
group. For instance, the 5th grade version has mini games involving sports, because at
that age kids are starting to become more in love with a specific sport. Using games like
these will keep the student engaged and their attention span will increase. Allowing
them to reach their full potential in school. Although playing video games for six hours
straight doesnt not sound pleasant for the health of the students. Which is why they
need to combine the old fashioned teaching styles and combine them with using games
to teach. Using games to teach can be effective but only for 1-2 hours a day. Eventually
the brain will get burned out and will hurt the student. Also it increases the probably of
the students getting addicted to gaming. PC Bombs are a great example of this
occurring. Some South Korean students have died in PC bombs because they played
video games all night.
To summarize this problem that Im addressing, our generations attention span is
slowly decreasing. Its decreasing because we have an abundance of distractions, we
have the need to stay connected and because school is becoming less entertaining. As
the growth of technology continues to rise, our attention span is decreasing. Since we
can recognize that our attention span is decreasing, it shows that the technology is
changing our generation thinks. For example, the reason why school is becoming less
entertaining and we have a low attention span. In order to fix this problem, we need to
create a new education system involving new and old teaching styles. Doing this will
allow us to increase our attention span and reach our full potential in the educational
world.

Works Cited
Rachel Dretzin - - - Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline. Digital Nation, 02/02/2010
Bauerlein, Mark., and Marc Prensky eds. Digital Divide. Peguin Group New York, 2011
Todd oppenheimer: . teaches you that you should be able to have every urge
answered the minute the urge occurs.