Facebook, cell phones, video games, television. It could be said that we can never be bored with the limitless gadgets and options we are bombarded with to occupy ourselves.
If anyone has me added on Facebook, you’d know I’m on the Web site at least three hours a day. That’s 1,095 hours a year or 45 days out of the year.
I’m an avid video-gamer as well, and with “Modern Warfare 2” now out, you can imagine the time spent with my eyes glued to the TV to the point of straining from staring at the screen for so long.
After playing for two days on a steady basis I had accumulated 10 hours of playing. Ten hours that could have been spent looking for a job. I feel I’m not alone though.
Young people today have developed a dependence on today’s technology. Why shouldn’t we though?
Technology makes our lives easier and things have been accomplished faster because of advancements like text messaging, email, social networks, etc. But when does it become a hindrance instead of a convenience?
According to an article from bizreport.com, American broadband users account for 76 percent of social media usage, and those using a social networking site such as Facebook, Twitter or Myspace has risen to 93 percent since 2006.
With the rise of these Web sites, a new awareness must be reached.
The potential for overuse and even abuse is higher as social media become more ubiquitous. Although users must be a certain age to use Web sites such as Facebook and Myspace, parents still allow their young children to create a profile and talk with people online.
I’m all for staying in touch with friends and family, but is it appropriate for an 11-year old to post pictures of themselves on the Internet? I don’t think so.
Unfortunately, many parents aren’t aware of the perils that social networking sites can bring. There have been horror stories, of course, but the main defense against this is just to use common sense.
The “violence in video games” issue is something that has been in the public dialogue for the past 10 years at least. Yet, more and more people have turned to them for a serious form of entertainment.
In fact, the recently released first-person shooter “Modern Warfare 2” has broken all previous entertainment release records, selling 4.7 million copies in the U.S. and the U.K. in one day alone. That includes movies, music and television shows as well.
We now live in a society where we could be entertained without ever having any interaction with any other person.
We now have entertainment that requires no mental legwork whatsoever.
It’s something that I know that I am guilty of: endless hours on Facebook, reality television and video games. Maybe it would benefit me more if I read a book now and then or watched a documentary on PBS. Mental stimulation could do me some good.
Today’s entertainment is worlds away from the world in which our parents lived. It is vastly different even from even 10 years ago. Like many other issues and new circumstances we face today, it is beneficial to approach the choices we have with an informed and open mind.
If we don’t, we’ll probably just end up on Facebook playing Farmville all day. Let’s try not to let it come to that.
Sam Ashby is a freshman journalism major.
Social media sap valuable energy, time
I'm just sayin'
Published: Monday, November 16, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 16, 2009
3 comments
I, too, find it painfully annoying when "loose" and "lose" are mixed up.
I also find it delightfully ironic that, in your post criticizing Ian for what could have been mere typos, you made three glaring syntactical and grammatical errors.
1) Your first sentence is a run-on.
2) You failed to capitalize the first word of that run-on sentence.
3) You misspelled "it's". That you managed to fit all these errors in under ten words is pretty impressive.You would think college students would know how to use proper capitalization, how to write complete sentences, how to differentiate between possessives and plurals, and how to form a contraction by now.