New Technologies

I never thought I'd be the kind of person to depend on materialistic things. However, in this modern world we live in, its difficult to escape this dependance on new communication technologies in everyday life. I use my mobile phone, all day, every day. When I dont have it with me, I feel lost. I honestly feel like i need to be communicating with people throughout my day, who are not physically close to me. And I hate that. I hate depending on things, particularly when those things are machines. However, in the technology rich world we live in, the ability to be contacted on a device which does not require you to be at home, or work (using a landline), is an incredibly important thing, and one that is difficult to ignore. Dont get me wrong, I love my mobile phone and think its a great invention. My problem, however, lies with the age at which young people should start using them.

I'll never forget the day a little girl I've known since she was born, came over on her 8th birthday to show me her new mobile phone- an LG flip phone that would've cost about $200 more than mine. She was so excited and was showing me all these features that I didnt even know existed. And then i looked through her contacts. She had 4 numbers. Now, I can completely understand parents wanting their kids to have a means of contact between their friends and themselves, but seriously, what 8 year old (where I'm from anyway) goes anywhere without their parents, their friends parents, or some other older person who is looking after them? There is no need for an eight year-old to have a phone, apart from the purpose of playing snake and pranking your contacts (what few you have).

This age issue is also relevant to internet use, and parents' ability to control what their children are exposed to in cyber space. Young people are becoming familiar with MSN and MySpace at increasingly younger ages, and this to me, is a rather scary thought. Young children do not understand the dangers of such programs and the implications that can come from them. I use MSN, MySpace and Facebook almost everyday, and i can understand why young people would want to be part of such widely used technology. However, every single person I communicate with on these programs, I know or i have atleast met in person. Young people, however, will accept adds from complete randoms, just for the sake of having someone to talk to online. This is where the problem lies. I do not see the point in talking to randoms on the net, because 1- i dont know who i'm talking to...and 2- people are never the same when they're online. You never truly know what someone is like until you interact with them in person.

It seems that I'm always the last to know when it comes to new communication technologies. Most of my friends already had mobile phones by the time I got one. I was the second last person in my close group of friends to discover the wonderful world of MySpace, and, when it comes to facebook, I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago, and only use it because my American friends use it. I'm a late bloomer, you could say. I dont think theres a definitive age of when you should be exposed to such technologies, predominantly because technology is advancing all the time, increasing the number of people who depend on it. The only reason i started using these things was because my friends were, and I guess I didnt want to miss out. Without my network of friends using these programs, there would obviously be no point to it all.

I find it rather scary to think that, with the increase in technologies, I, and so many others will become more and more dependant on such devices. Not only will we depend on these things, but our lives will revolve more strongly around them, and they will control our everyday activities, more so than already. I love technology, but sometimes I feel the need to escape it. It gives me a sense of freedom and control over my own life, which is sometimes needed in this crazy world we've created.