Another year of brilliant ideas spurred by the technological advancement from intelligent and brightly minded individuals has once passed again. It would be wrong to deny that  technological advancements over the years have improved society for the better in many ways; however, this message isn’t a depiction of all the positives that came from that. This is a message I’ve wanted to write for a long time on what technology has done to children in society today.

Firstly, we’ve all assumed, as years go on, that the world would get better and better. While in many cases it has, I personally believe in a mental and physical sense, it has not. Technology was intended to build connections, yet it has separated us even further. Kids used to go outside and use their bikes every single day in the summer and spend time with their friends not because they were told to, but because that’s what they wanted to do. Friends weren’t usernames or avatars, but they were someone who you would talk to everyday. They were faces you’d recognize from down the block, and showing up at your friend's door step without a call wasn’t usual back then, it was something that always came naturally.  

Today, many kids often stay indoors not out of pure laziness, but because the world has changed around them, and I wouldn’t blame them. Social Media has altered many children's realities into something that it shouldn’t be. Lunch tables that once buzzed with conversation of anything are now dominated by social media and its entrapment. How can a space feel so empty and so crowded at the same time?

I won’t criticize parents for feeling more scared, because in some ways screens have become a safe haven. However, the childhood that was once so fun and unpredictable, has turned into a social media encapsulation. Adventures that children would use to go on in the summer have now been replaced with the constant scrolling of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Tiktok. The lack of curiosity and creativity in our children should make you worrisome. 

I believe that the late 1990s and 2000s offered more than just nostalgia to them. Yes, we are the most technologically advanced and the healthiest we have ever been in history, but we have to ask ourselves, are we the happiest? With this constant rise of social media, we try to reflect the idea of our lives being “perfect”, carefully painting and posting a picture of who we are. But, that’s not truly who we are as individuals. What happened to insecurities, when we didn’t believe that everything needed to be flawless. Somewhere along the way, we’ve assumed that imperfection isn’t good enough– yet our flaws are what make us who we are.  

Finally as a society, we’ve established this term “comfort zones” as something that we should remain in and not escape out of. However, spontaneity and face to face interactions is something that we need in our lives, and not try to avoid. We should want a life where we build friendships and find happiness in the most usual ways, because we can’t go back and change the great remarks of technology; but we can change how we approach and use it.