Addicted or Adapted?

After reading the New York Times article on America's youth being "addicted" to technology, it made me stop to analyze my own device usage. In the article, ut discussed how students can multi-task with various devices but fail to push that same sort of attention and skill toward academics. While reading this article, I realized that since I was reading the article from my laptop, I was logged into my Facebook, Twitter, and Yammer account along with checking the weather and selecting songs on my iPod with my cell phone by my side. I checked each item periodically for any updates on the homepage while reading.

It's not that I have difficulty reading, it's just if I'm not intrigued with what I am reading, I think of all the possible tasks I can be doing. Honestly, while I was reading this article, I sidetracked and realized that I forgot to take my medicine for my strep and check for the weather forecast of tomorrow. And writing this blog, I am still checking for any recent updates on my accounts. By performing all these different tasks, I feel productive. If I sit to focus on one assignment, I keep thinking of the other assignments I can complete if I do them all at once.

The article discusses how this form of multitasking isn't good for any student, but in this generation of advanced technology, we need to be able to function with all of them. Watching television and playing video games are forms of distraction, separate from productiveness. Those are meant to distract us from reality. It may seem that way for a computer with Facebook and such, but at least the computer has the programs and files that can make one productive.

Maybe I'm just speaking for myself and not for all students, but when I'm operating technology, I feel like a hamster in a wheel. I can accomplish so much if I continue in a constant motion, but when I stop to take a breather, I lose track of what I need to get done. Every day I have a set schedule. With caffeine to assist me, I walk all over campus running errands and attending classes. But once I receive that one text message from a friend to meet up for lunch, I figure I deserve a break to sit down and relax for an hour or so. And within that hour of doing basically nothing, I become lazy and need to motivate myself to continue on with my day.

I probably look like a technology addict with my iPod and cell phone all in one hand and operating them with my other hand, while drinking coffee wearing my sunglasses and carrying my books on my way to class. And it's probably a very addict thing to say that I'm in a zone when I'm surrounded by technology. But the reason why I would seem this way is because of those adults who aren't fully adapted with the technology of today. My mom would complain of how much time I spend on my phone with texting but when she gets on the computer to check her mail, she looks like she has never maneuvered a keyboard before.

I remember taking computer classes in middle school and high school where they trained us how to successfully operate a computer and even how to type without looking at the keyboard. It was like that course was meant to make us one with the computer. So is really our fault as the youth of the nation to be consider addicts when we are practically forced by society to use these products in order to survive? I remember the good old days when I handed in a printed paper to my teacher when it was due. Now there's the Angel dropbox for that.