I cannot help but worry about our future, if, at some point, our technology fails. If our computers are affected by some kind of Super Virus, like the one predicted at the time of the millennium. The Millennium bug never happened, but for a time, members of the public were freaking-out, because they had become so used to computers and other forms of technology.
I was not freaked out, however, because I have lived most of my life without computers and mobile phones. I have the skills necessary to be able to cope if technology fails, or the World Wide Web collapses around our ears. It is not that I am super intelligent. Far from it in fact! It's just that I, and others of my generation, learned the basics when we were at school. We learned our "Times Tables." Every week we had a spelling test, and of course, when we wrote an essay, it was always written by hand so we could practice our spelling and writing.
I recently wrote an article, "THE LOST ART OF PLAYTIME," published on socyberty.com, in which I voiced my concerns about young people becoming too Dependant on technology and loosing the ability to socialize and play, but I think the problem goes way beyond that. We have a generation coming up, who can't exist without computers to spell for them, and mobile phones at their fingertips, because they are so accustomed to these aids. Calculators are used in Math lessons to do the calculations which should be done by pure brainpower. The brain is the same as a muscle, in the sense that it improves with use. If we don't use our brains they become lethargic and lazy, just like any other part of the body.
Mobile phones, or rather, sending texts on mobile phones is something which really makes me squirm at times. Of course it is very handy to be able to send a quick message to a friend, but young people send texts all the time! There is no longer any such thing as a neat, handwritten letter, and the spelling in the texts is abysmal. C u 2nite, Thts gr8, etc. So young people are loosing whatever skills they have learned, and at the moment they are getting by really well. But that might not always be the case.
We no longer need to worry about an atom bomb destroying the world. If things go on like this, we only need to worry about the demise of the internet, or some other kind of failure which affects our computers and stops our phones working. Then society will be in a right mess. It would be up to people of the older generation to help the young people learn to manage without technology.
As I said, in my previous article, technology is not the enemy, and it's great to be able to send emails, search the web, or write, on sites like Triond. But we who are older, need to encourage the young to think for themselves, to learn the basic skills, “reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic, really well, and we must urge them to keep practicing those skills. They need to put away the calculators and do the old fashioned sums. Put away the mobile phones and write some letters whenever there is time to do so. The alternative is, that there could come a day when society can't function anymore, because not enough people are left who are truly self-sufficient. So next time your teenager has a birthday or a Christmas, maybe it would be a good idea to include, in their presents, a good pen, a writing set with paper and envelopes, and a good novel to read. There is nothing better than picking up a real book and curling up with it, loosing yourself in an excellent story and picking up tips for your own writing, from the masters.
If you are a young person reading this, I hope you understand that I'm not picking on you, or saying that you can't read and write. I am only saying that you should not neglect the old fashioned ways, they may be uncool right now, but one day they could be the in-thing. There are many very intelligent young people out there, but unless they can add versatility to their list of talents, the world may suffer in the end. We don't want to be dependent on technology, to the extent that we become afraid of viruses and corruption of the system. That is no way to live, and very soon, the world will belong to our Techno-teens.
