Technology and the new awkward and socially inept generation of kids

I've been noticing lately at grocery stores, gas stations, libraries, and other places that today's youth seems to embrace social anxiety disorder in way that makes it seem self inflicted.

I think they're so used to text messaging everything, that they actually fear going out in public and dealing with people. They won't look you in the eyes when you talk them, they won't come out to do outdoor activities, and all communication is handled through text message even if your in the same house with them.

It's actually kind of weird to see this next generation grow up and will be quite interesting to see what becomes of this social anxiety deal.

It's really sad that they spend so much time on their gadgets that they have no skills dealing with actual face to face encounters.

reply to post by dominicus


Even tho i love technology, Cell Phone is something i only use for 1 purpose.. to talk. Sadly a lot of my friends get this "lost" feeling when they forget their cell phone at home, its like they can;t function without...

Another thing was that, when i was young, my dad made me do calculations without a calculator, but when i went to university, using calculators was normal, now i can't do calculation as fast i can before i replied on calculators.

depending on tech a lot makes you weak eventually.

On top of that they are totally indocturnated with shallow and fake values that were forcefed into their brains since their youth. The mainstream hiphop culture which focuses on living impulsively rather than teaching the ability to meet one's virtues such as patience and honor.

I threw my cell in the river almost 1 year ago.

Don't miss it at all.

Peace

reply to post by chadderson

The mainstream hiphop culture which focuses on living impulsively rather than teaching the ability to meet one's virtues such as patience and honor.

I agree about "Today's" hip hop culture. However, I grew up in the golden era of Hip hop around 92-97, and one of the groups, Wu-Tang Clan, is who introduced me to illuminati, philosophy, martial arts, chess, and most of the topics here on ATS. I would listen to their lyrics and then go look for books and read about the topics they rapped about

Coming from someone thats had social anxiety disorder since before it was fashionable I'm not so sure that these kids have sad, to me it seems to be more a kind of need for constant visual / aural and tactile stimulus, to always be either typing listening to or watching something new from one millisecond to the next without ever actually bothering to think about the last thing they saw / heard or said.

Twitter is a prime example of this, a constant stream of people commenting on everything that happens to them from one second to the next with no depth to any of the writing at all just a constant update of new useless information to be read and then forgotten about a second later.

I'm not so sure they don;t interact out of anxiety, rather more out of boredom and an inability to concentrate for long enough to have any real conversation.

We have still refused to buy our 15 yo a cell. At that age what are they really gonna use it for???

And if safety is your issue then have your child trained in self defence and make sure they know how to handle bad situations. And if they need a phone they can turn in any direction and find someone carrying one.

If their is anything that never ends it complainig about kids today. Every generation thinks the next one is screwed up. It is they way things have been and always will be.

Technology is great but the mass becomes fixated on such items.
its another part of the Shroud in place to make the people complacent.
They are losing all physical ties to reality, in a world that needs action.
They have what "they" want. or think they want. all this programming
placed in media via commercials and suggestive advertising makes people
believe they will die without such items. but its in fact that very lack there of
that would save us all.

Go to the library and get a book, go for a hike, get back to the real world.

For the love of Mankind, take the RED ONE already!

reply to post by davespanners


This is exactly what it is. Every time you interact with the flashies, you get a reward of dopamine, and adrenaline. People are techno-junkies, and I'm one of them. Pretty much just evolution in progress as far as I can tell. Heck, within the next generation we'll be beyond mere human beings, it seems. We ain't seen nothin' yet!

My 4 year-old sister was given her own iPod touch, iPad and a plethora of other fancy gadgets. Its kind of scary to see how isolated her senses are from reality when she has one in her hands. I have no doubt that this will end up affecting her ability to communicate face-to-face as she grows up.

I use my iPhone as an extension of my own body and consciousness, but it doesn't replace any of my existing senses or abilities.

If I'm in the same room as someone, I speak to them...unless I intend to say unflattering things about someone present, or if I want to make sexy-talk with my boyfriend when his parents are around; in those cases a text message works like a charm.

I find that having a phone with wireless internet kind of reduces the need for detailed memory. I only remember the name or basic idea of a complex topic, and if I want to explain something in depth it is usually just easier to whip out my phone and search up a wikipedia article, youtube video or image to get a point across. Its like my brain is now only an index and all the info is stored out there in cyberspace. However I kind of see this as an enhancement to the regular ability to communicate rather than a detriment.

Sometimes I don't even bother to take notes in my (college) class, I just snap a picture of the board for reference.

However it bothers me how the new generation takes all this new tech for granted...

I'm constantly amazed by the fact that I have a tiny hand-held computer that allows me to communicate telepathically with text and images, and expand my consciousness by watching videos and reading stuff like ATS. This is the kind of stuff you'd see in science fiction when I was a kid.

Try telling any of these kids how f***'n amazing these things are and they just give you a blank stare and say "EL OH EL". I just want to smack em and tell them you're living in the future dammit! BE AMAZED!

Originally posted by luciddream
reply to post by dominicus

 

Even tho i love technology, Cell Phone is something i only use for 1 purpose.. to talk. Sadly a lot of my friends get this "lost" feeling when they forget their cell phone at home, its like they can;t function without...

Another thing was that, when i was young, my dad made me do calculations without a calculator, but when i went to university, using calculators was normal, now i can't do calculation as fast i can before i replied on calculators.

depending on tech a lot makes you weak eventually.

Or: Depending on tech gives you more time to do math and solve problems.
Do you wash your dishes by hand? If not, you will get slower in that skill too, same goes brushing the floor instead of vacuuming, washing your clothes.
Enjoy the pointless hard work!

I think technology is great and can be great for kids if used and monitored wisely. There are really good educational things online and it's great for children learning about the world.

I also think kids don't need to use mobile phones as early or as much as they often do. I won't allow my son to play video games, so Wii, Playstation etc aren't an entertainment option, unless at childminders or friends. I know at home it would be all he wanted to do and it wouldn't be great for his development.

He has a phone he uses for making movies of his toy cars etc and a few of the games but no texts or calls to friends yet.

When I was a child we played outdoors, as often as possible,in all weather, it was great but it was the countryside and the 70's / 80's. The world isn't as easy as it was then and because people are more wary, kids have to find other ways of entertainment.

I think my son is better at writing stories, doing animations of his stories and having other interests than he would if he was allowed video games and texting. His character is creative and he finds ways of creating that are inventive. Though you can imagine this isn't always seen as good by his peers.

reply to post by Consequence


It's not just "doing hard work". It's that people are becoming so dependent on this technology that they are losing their ability to do anything without it.
The dishwasher and washing machine have been around for a while now, and are poor examples to relate to this situation.

Calculations require you to know and understand how math works, rather than just type it into a calculator and *poof* magically a number appears. I don't think any functioning person couldn't scrub their dishes if they didn't have their dishwasher.

I've never understood our culture and its obsession with being constantly drip-fed useless pointless information. I have a twitter, but I use it to keep up on information that I'm interested in (such as following the Curiosity Rover), not for reading "i jus cookd ramen lols #collegelife". And the obsession with reality television such as 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' and 'Toddlers and Tiaras'. The quote by Eleanor Roosevelt comes to mind, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people".

OP and Moderator,

I agree with both of your perspectives on this topic. I agree that the kids don't have the clinical version of SAD and that they require a great deal more of stimulation more along the lines of someone with ADD.

However, the fact remains that if you don't use a skill like directly communicating with other people instead of some emotionally safe method like texting, you loose that skill. I think for most kids of the generation we're discussing have got to the point that making the hurtle to actually talk to someone is too inconvenient. Instead of procrastinating the communication like in the days of old, they have a new option, send a text devoid of half the info one would get from actual voice communication.

In my opinion its a copout. because the kids are too lazy, and that it's gotten to the point that there is some subconscious fear of reaching out to communicate with other people, so they fall back on the text. They call it inconvenient, but call it a subconscious fear. So that is why I agree with both of you.

What a weird mess the world will be in when these kids grow up and are running things. Not that we did any much better.

reply to post by Quibbler


Those programs are awful. I couldn't imagine the need for following such 'reality' shows or wanting to know about the Kardashians. In the UK we have all sorts of nonsense like Big Brother and other such shows, they aren't even watchable IMO.

We watch selective programs in our house, mostly of educational value, or comedies for entertainment.

Following Tweets etc is a bit asinine, and Facebook, whilst nice to keep in touch with family and friends, especially if far, has become a bit of 'boast book' and I think kids shouldn't be allowed to use it until 16.

Originally posted by Glass
My 4 year-old sister was given her own iPod touch, iPad and a plethora of other fancy gadgets. Its kind of scary to see how isolated her senses are from reality when she has one in her hands. I have no doubt that this will end up affecting her ability to communicate face-to-face as she grows up.

I use my iPhone as an extension of my own body and consciousness, but it doesn't replace any of my existing senses or abilities.

If I'm in the same room as someone, I speak to them...unless I intend to say unflattering things about someone present, or if I want to make sexy-talk with my boyfriend when his parents are around; in those cases a text message works like a charm.

I find that having a phone with wireless internet kind of reduces the need for detailed memory. I only remember the name or basic idea of a complex topic, and if I want to explain something in depth it is usually just easier to whip out my phone and search up a wikipedia article, youtube video or image to get a point across. Its like my brain is now only an index and all the info is stored out there in cyberspace. However I kind of see this as an enhancement to the regular ability to communicate rather than a detriment.

Sometimes I don't even bother to take notes in my (college) class, I just snap a picture of the board for reference.

However it bothers me how the new generation takes all this new tech for granted...

I'm constantly amazed by the fact that I have a tiny hand-held computer that allows me to communicate telepathically with text and images, and expand my consciousness by watching videos and reading stuff like ATS. This is the kind of stuff you'd see in science fiction when I was a kid.

Try telling any of these kids how f***'n amazing these things are and they just give you a blank stare and say "EL OH EL". I just want to smack em and tell them you're living in the future dammit! BE AMAZED!

edit on 28/8/2012 by Glass because: (no reason given)

No offense to you at all, as you seem to be very intelligent. But I noticed in your post that you have a 4 year-old sister, you're in college, and you text when you and your boyfriend are around his parents, yet, you say today's tech was like sci-fi ''when you were a kid''. You still are a kid, just saying.

reply to post by poloblack


I'm turning 22 in a couple months. Not a kid. Just saying.

reply to post by dominicus


woah woah good hip hp is still around, it just went underground.

check out immortal technique, MF DOOM, eyedea, blueprint, brother Ali, etc etc etc!