Objective:
The goal of this night is to look at the advantages and disadvantages of many of today’s technological advances, especially those in communication, and to encourage the middle school youth to use these forms of technology in the right ways.
Overview:
Advances in technology over the past 20 years have provided us with many new forms of communication, easy access to all sorts of information, and more efficient and effective ways of doing a variety of things. However, it has also changed some of our ideas of communication and community, created a whole new set of dangers to beware of and created a huge generation gap between those who know how to use the technology and those who do not. Technology has its advantages and disadvantages and we are able to use it in both positive and negative ways. One of the biggest problems with technological advances in communication is that they can allow us to become very isolated, separating ourselves from community. It is easy to hide behind a computer screen or a text message. Young people have become so accustomed to multi- tasking (i.e. texting while eating dinner with the family, or talking to multiple people at once online) that they’ve lost the ability to be present with one person at a time. Many kids in today’s world are losing the ability to have real, authentic relationships with each other and their families. It is important to be aware of the different ways that technology can control our lives.