"Studies show that the average couple talks to each other twenty-nine minutes a week; the average mother talks seven minutes a day to her teenager, while the average father talks only five minutes. Supervision is a problem. The small tight-knit communities that helped families rear children are increasingly extinct. Instead television is the baby sitter in many homes." -Pipher
This quote may not seem directly related to the idea of teenagers and technology, but it is. There is a large underlying theme: communication. Communication is something that we tend to undervalue in our society. There are many reasons for this, but the greatest reason is because of technological advances. Communication is a natural instinct for human beings, but in recent years our communication skills are becoming much poorer than we should let them be. An important thing to note is that Pipher wrote this book in the nineties. These statistics were taken before cell phones were popular, and before texting and social media even existed. Therefore, this statistics do not hold true today. The statistics are vague as to whether or not "talking" is defined as face to face, or if it includes talking on the phone. Those were the methods of conversation twenty years ago!
In the technology era, most communication is done through texting or social media. This does not even require hearing the other person's voice! It makes us detached from the intimacy that conversation provides. Teenagers are being exposed to these communication methods earlier and earlier in life. Most middle schoolers and high schoolers would say that they have a cell phone with texting and possibly even internet service (iPhones are becoming increasingly popular), Facebook, and/or Twitter. While these methods of communicating are useful, no doubt, they are destroying our relationships with others. However, since these are the norm for teenagers, they do not realize it because these methods are all they have ever known.
Sharon Cecil wrote and published an article in the Courier Journal this morning about the way teenagers view technology. It is drastically different from how adults view technology. Adults use technology as a helpful tool, while adolescents are dependent on electronic devices. There is a generation gap that results in entirely different mindsets. Who knows how the next generation will view technology; just imagine the advances in technology by then!
