Notes

How Technology Affects Our Youth
Recently I was invited to speak at our local high school as part of their "Great American Teach-in," an application held here in Florida whereby guests are asked to speak to the students on a variety of subjects. One of my business related articles caught the attention of an area teacher and I was subsequently asked by the Business/IT Department to come directly into make some remarks regarding business and technology. My talk was entitled "Our Changing Times" which discussed how technology affects us as human-beings. It was my argument that technology has an adverse effect on our mental acuity and productivity in this country. I conducted two consecutive classes of around 50 senior high school juniors each. Both sessions were interesting.

I began with an extremely brief description of my company and our methodologies for system design, data base design, enterprise engineering, and project management. Basically, I needed to determine myself as a credible businessman who had extensive experience in the business and IT world. I then reviewed the cultural and technical changes I witnessed during the last 40 years. I even brought in some old mainframe magnetic tapes, printer wheels, and plastic templates used for flowcharting.

I then discussed how technology affects us as humans. It is my contention that technology has conditioned us to be intolerant of inefficiencies and limitations thereby causing us to think faster, virtually, also to multitask. Think about it; we don't like to hold back in traffic, we wish information at our fingertips, we expect to be able to pay attention to any song or watch any movie whenever we're in the mood, we want to enter and out of hospitals, we wish instant food, instant pictures, instant credit, instant money, instant everything. We drive faster and talk faster because we've been conditioned to take action.

To illustrate the point, I quoted some references; first, Dr. Mack R. Hicks, author of "The Digital Pandemic," who demonstrated how technology alters the minds of impressionable youth. So much so, linked with emotions . exhibit exactly the same robotic mannerisms of the technology they use that is not conducive for grooming socialization skills. Hicks basically argued that technology is really a genuine threat to the human spirit.

I next referenced the task of Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, who in 2005 was hired by Hewlett Packard to research the result of technology at work. During his study he found that workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and texts suffer a greater loss of IQ than if they'd smoked marijuana. The IQ of those juggling messages and work fell by typically 10 points - equal to missing a whole night's sleep and much more than double the four-point fall seen after smoking pot. The drop in IQ was a lot more significant in men.

These studies surprised the students. To stress the idea further, I asked the students how they received their news. Out of 100 students, only 4 read a newspaper, a couple of first got it from an app on their iPhone and virtually none watched the evening news. Interestingly, a few said they got their news from Jon Stewart on "Comedy Central." Obviously, I came across it rather disturbing that students were out of touch with the world's ever-changing events and considered Jon Stewart a credible source for unbiased journalism. Whereas adults are usually upset with politicians, the economy, jobs, military conflicts, etc., our young people are rather apathetic. I don't think parents even talk to them around the dining room table, which I found rather disturbing. Fortunately, this particular group of students will never be old enough to vote in the 2012 election; but should they did, I'm confident they may be easily swayed.

As students in the late 1960's we obviously didn't have all the elegant technology as can be acquired today, but most of us knew what was going on on the globe. Everyone browse the daily newspaper and weekly news magazines, watched nightly news, paid attention to radio, and discussed it over lunch or making use of their parents. We all knew about the War (Viet Nam), the protests, major accidents and catastrophes, elections, the various assassinations, etc. If you didn't stick to top of recent events, you're considered a dullard. Not today. In fact, I got the uneasy feeling that you are an oddity if you follow the news headlines today.

Attempting to understand their dependence on technology, I asked the High Schoolers should they could live without their smart phones. more info except one said they believed they could manage. The main one exception wouldn't budge, even though I pushed her to guard her position. In her mind, the phone was her lifeline to her friends and social life. Without it, she was lost.

In the summary portion of my presentation I admonished the students to develop a feeling of history, not just American history, but history pertaining to their chosen career path. I told them this is needed so that they wouldn't commit exactly the same mistakes we made and realize why we made certain decisions through the years. I challenged them to resist the temptation to go on "automatic," in order to avoid repetition; avoid stagnation; to question the status quo, and THINK (a vintage IBM expression).

I have no idea how successful I was at getting my points across. Some students looked as apathetic as plenty of adult programmers I've taught over the years. The teachers appeared to appreciate my presentation and explained so. I also had a few students thank me for the presentation afterward, shook my hand, and asked a few questions. I don't think I batted 1.000 with the youngsters that day, but easily got them to at the very least start thinking about things, i quickly believe I made a hit.

Keep the Faith!

Tim Bryce is really a writer and management consultant situated in Palm Harbor, Florida.
http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm

He is able to be contacted at: [email protected]

Copyright � 2011 Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
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