Blog 9

I feel that in Jean Twenge’s Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? she is almost trying to blame someone for what is happening with technology. It seems as if she can’t live with the fact that this is all happening collectively, with all generations, and she’s trying to point fingers at who it is affecting the most to make people realize what is going on. She goes from pointing her finger at the kids to almost blaming the economy and parents. Twenge says that “[s]hifts in the economy, and parenting, certainly play a role.”(7).  What she means here is that, focusing on the parenting piece, parents arnt doing enough to stop their kids from using technology. She goes on talking about how parents are almost encouraging their kids to stay home and doing their homework instead of going out. I personally do not agree with this. I feel that parents are more encouraged to go out, get off their phones, go do something. That’s what my parents did. But I also feel that parents aren’t telling their kids to stop using technology because they are using it just as much. Parents are just as mesmerized with technology as kids, if not more. Because they haven’t grown up with it, this is all new, all different, and some are keeping up more than kids. You don’t often see teens sprinting into the Apple store when a new iPhone comes out, its always an adult. And there are so many people that work off of technology. My moms business is all online, she works with people across the county, along with people in Japan, Brazil, and so many other places. Parenting is the largest influence on children growing up, it all is dependent on how early they give their kid a cell phone, ho much tv they let their kid watch in a day, what kind of videos games they play. Parents have the ability to keep their kid away from technology for as long as they want, but they don’t just because they want the technology just as much.