Kids today have no clue how great they’ve got it. While teens used to have to actually make plans and arrange to meet and do things in person, “I’ll call you” or “I’ll text you” via prepaid smartphones have replaced this archaic method of trying to control the future proactively.
You can say what you want about how kids today are this and that, but you have to give them credit on a lot of fronts. They’ve learned more about technology’s role in creating a self-actualized lifestyle than most retirees have, despite having less than two decades of life experience.
When it comes to technology, nobody beats the teens of today. They actually think they need it, and for good reason. Let’s take a look at a few technologies that kids today think they couldn’t live without.
1. Mobile Internet
These days, the Internet is practically everywhere. From public parks to classrooms, and from cafes to some school buses, you can pretty much look up anything from pretty much anywhere you happen to be. Do you remember when you had to actually go home to look up things or do homework? Worse still, do you remember that semi-bronze age period of history when going to the library was actually useful for studying?
Teens today actually think they need the Internet everywhere they go. One tends to wonder how this impacts their critical thinking skills if they’re so reliant on one type of technology over which they have no control. Of course, you can’t blame them for wanting the Net everywhere.
2. Touch Screen Prepaid Cell Phones
Are you old enough to remember when your nearest lifeline to help or your friends was the nearest pay phone and the change in your pocket? Did you ever have a pager, which required you to find a phone and dial up the person who called you? Guess what — kids these days don’t have to use that much creativity in their communications.
According to a survey conducted in 2008, nearly half the teens who responded said that not having a cell phone would either cripple or totally eliminate their social life. It makes sense that they’d feel this way, considering how little time anybody today has.
Task lists that used to take a week now have deadlines of 24 hours or so as everyone struggles to put more effort into getting ahead. Your kid can be talking to you, texting their best-friend-forever, and searching for such important information as how many dimes it would take to stack up to the Moon. If you just did a search out of curiosity, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
The really good thing about prepaid versions of touch screen phones is how you can keep your teen from constantly being on them by making them ration their minutes and texts. They’ll still use these phones extensively, though, and you can’t really blame them.
3. Tablet PCs
Who needs books anymore when anything you want to know about or pretend to experience is just a few taps away? Are you old enough to remember when learning something meant opening up a paper object and physically turning pages until you found what you were looking for, without any digital assistance?
While the old saying goes a book can take you anywhere, your books can now come anywhere. It must be pretty ironic when a teen sits in study hall reading a Harry Potter book — essentially a story about school kids. Considering how many schools are going to an all-digital format, it might not be long before young people ask such heretical questions as, “What’s a book?”
4. Kinect
Do you remember when you had to use your hands to play video games? While we haven’t quite gotten to the mythical age when people can simply think about playing their games and do so, we’re getting closer by the day. One easy example is Kinect, which allows teens to physically affect their games, in a way other than throwing them out the window.
When a teen wants to play a game that isn’t just about throwing birds at pigs, they can activate their Xbox and dance with Michael Jackson or do yoga with an instructor who’ll actually help them with their form. Remember how you used to have to actually attend a class if you wanted to do yoga? That’s pretty much a thing of the past.
5. Wii
If you don’t like the idea of having a camera staring at you while you work out, there’s Wii. Using its renowned custom remote, teens don’t have to go outside to box, play tennis, or play golf. They also don’t need a table to play Jenga.
Such a contrivance was unheard of just a few years ago, but today they’re in homes all over the world. It really beats the stuffing out of your old Nintendo Entertainment System, doesn’t it?
In Conclusion
Your younger siblings in the Millennial generation and the other kids born about fifteen years ago have things you couldn’t have hoped for at their age. While you might’ve had to beg for a pager, they’re all but ordered to carry a cell phone.
While you had to hoof it to the library, they could hardly escape the Internet if they wanted to—which they don’t. Kids these days really have it better than they know.
