Growing up in the 21st century has come with its fair share of interesting advancements in technology. Generation Z will never know what it was like to have to run across town to share news with someone, to bike to the library to find a definition in a physical dictionary, or sit through the irritating and loud beeps of a computer before it connects to the internet. Simply put, Generation Z has never known a world not dominated by technology.
The rise of technology has brought with it the birth of new media. Compared to traditional media, new media refers to information that we can constantly access with our phones, which we constantly have glued to our hands. New media has made it possible for people to access whatever they want, whenever they want, but how has this affected people’s everyday lives?
Wherever we go, we see people’s eyes all over their phones, not paying attention to the world around them. They are looking at the latest celebrity gossip or breaking news and processing new information at an alarmingly fast rate. While people are too busy looking at their phones to find out what new dress Kim Kardashian is wearing, they are missing out on what is happening in the real world. They miss what new clothes their friend is wearing, what beautiful bird just sat outside their window, and so many other simple things that make up such a large part of life’s wonder.
In my personal experiences, I have found that the constant media I am able to freely consume has had negative effects on my life. It has distracted me from enjoying the small but special moments in life. When I was a child and did not have my own phone, I would spend hours upon hours reading.
Although they were all fictional tales, I remember the scenes I pictured in my head like they were my own memories. Now, as an adult, I find myself picking up my phone and opening social media instead. I get bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information about celebrities and tech giants I could care less about with no memories left to stick with me.
When I am older and look back on my early adulthood, I do not want all of my memories to just be of the screen I had in front of me.
Generation Z needs to reclaim their right to possessing meaningful memories. It is much easier said than done, but we need to put down our phones and stop caring about what the latest craze taking over the world is.
We need to go outside with a good book, or take a walk around the block with our parents. We need to enjoy the wonderful world that we live in, so that one day, many years from now, we can smell fresh grass and remember that simple moment where we just enjoyed our life without worries. That moment may be mundane, but what is life if not a collection of the simple moments we make special?
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