Technology and Life: for Better or Worse?

  

    I still remember the day my dad brought home his iPhone 2G in 2007.  While my dad had horrible trouble figuring out how to even turn it on,  my mom and I would stare in awe at its shiny (bulky) exterior. My mom looked at me that day and said that I too would receive a shiny iPhone of my own when I began sixth grade. While my mom was thrilled at the safety features mine would have such as Find My Friends and later Life360, I couldn't wait to figure out how to change the wallpaper screen and use emojis! I look back on those days with nostalgia and excitement, yet I could have never predicted how much the iPhone would change my life for both better and for worse. 

    Along with designing my own wallpapers and emojis, I quickly found the iPhone to be highly useful for classwork, as digital technology was becoming increasingly more integrated into education every day. I grew up in a large public school district that prioritized the installation of the newest tech, and before I knew it, many of my classes had shifted from paper and pencil to Google Chrome books. While this transition certainly helped increase student access to information and simultaneously decrease the waste of paper products, it also unknowingly perpetrated a new issue at school: unhealthy competition. 

    Many of my high school classmates labeled me as a "goody-goody" or a "try-hard"; I was usually the first to raise my hand in class, I aced ten AP classes, and scoffed at the lowly idea of cheating. This is why I was genuinely shocked to learn when digital cheating rings began running rampant at my high school, and among some of my closest friends at the time. Much of my AP coursework and exams were administered via online platforms such as Canvas or the CollegeBoard online website. However, this made it incredibly easy for students to cheat with group chats, VPN,  Quizlets, and even hacking in some cases. The sad part is, the cheating rings were not insinuated by lazy delinquents but by the high-performing, top 10% kids that desired to outcompete their classmates for higher test scores and a spot at elite universities. I never participated in this type of cheating myself, but it was sad to see how much of a toll it took on others' relationships and mental health.

    Despite the inherent risks, I feel as though technology has made us more intelligent beings due to our increased access to online educational resources. According to a recent article published by Walden University, the top five benefits of integrating technology into the classroom are that it:

•  creates a more engaging learning environment for students
•  incorporates diverse learning styles and accommodates intellectual differences
• makes collaboration between classmates more accessible 
• prepares students for the real world 
• connects educators to their students even when they are not together in person

    Perhaps no better example of this exists than the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, in which millions of students, teachers, and professionals had no choice but to transition to remote learning. Despite the inevitable zoom fatigue we all experienced over the past year, we were still able to accomplish countless tasks that would have been near impossible without the aid of modern technology. Thus, we are now more than ever able to adapt to this ever-changing world and still thrive in complex environments.     

    Although my relationship with technology now can be described as average, it was not always that way. In my junior year of high school, I realized that I was becoming addicted to Instagram and could not detach myself emotionally from the pictures I was seeing. Having already been diagnosed with anxiety panic disorder, OCD, and atypical anorexia, the rapid pace at which social media was advancing in the early 2010s was not doing my mental health any favors. The sad thing is, my story of mental health being worsened by social media addiction is not unique, as just under 60% of teens and young adults today report having experienced mental illness as a result of online addiction and/or harassment.  This is why I decided to completely delete my Instagram account for a little over a year, and now my mindset towards the app is far more sustainable and emotionally detached.   Social media and modernized technology are not inherently bad but need to be approached intelligently and purposefully. Over a decade after witnessing my dad purchased his first iPhone, I have developed a relationship with technology that has taken a rollercoaster of turns, yet I can proudly say that overcoming these challenges has made me a stronger, more resilient individual.