Technology For Teens, Good or Bad?

Technology, today became one of the elements in the earth’s that grows very fast. Technology in this context, is information and communication.

We, as modern human, at this time is no wonder anymore when seeing people using mobile phones wherever they are. In taxis, markets, houses, and even when driving, people still use of their phones.

One the other hand, we see that the use of technology is dominated by teenagers. They are very quick to accept and understand how to use technology. There are many students from elementary, junior high school, senior high school, and university that consistently using technology ranging from mobile phones, computers, internet, and games.

Is technology good or bad? Technology is a group of devices that can be bad for the development of teenager’s life.

First, many spread of information between technology devices is not filtered anymore. Information, whether it’s bad or good, it quickly spreads from one device to another. As a result, many teens are accessing p*rno*raphy and even addicted to access that bad content. Various cases of s*xual harassment, r*pe, and pr*miscuity that exists among teenagers today, many are caused by them who are very easy to access the bad content using the Internet.

Second, the addiction to the internet and games, makes the teens forget that they are social creatures who must interact with others. I see many cases where people meet at a place, but they do not talk; they just “chat” with their friends who are so far away. They prefer to interact online using Facebook, Twitter, Path, Instagram, and other social medias rather than interacting in real life by talking directly to the people who are near them.

This is a contrary ideology for us, the people of Indonesia. We should create a society that is tolerant and caring with each other. When this situation continues, we will lose our identity. Indonesian teenagers will grow up to be people who do not care about each other, do not like to socialize, and do not even know the people around them.

However, although the technology has a devastating effect, behind this sophistication developed by humans, of course, it has many good effects. First, technology is a device that is able to increase the speed and effectiveness of information flow. We are no longer a conventional man who must send a letter if we want to communicate with a long distance friend and we are no longer human being who have to wait for days to get a reply message from a friend. Nowadays, everything became easier because of technology. We are able to send messages using e-mail and SMS within a few seconds. We are able to chat with old friends who haven’t met for a long time while she or he lives far from where we live. We are able to chat with them using BBM, Facebook, Whats Up Messenger, Line Messenger, and many more.

Second, technology is a very good business media campaign. We certainly recognize the Internet, a medium of information that can be accessed by millions people from all over the world, whenever and wherever they want. When the Internet is used to promote a product, then there must be many consumers who come to buy the product. The marketing strategy by the Internet, is also used by teens. I find that many high school or university students consistently having a business by using Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or BBM. It is the impact of technology that are very positive and should be supported by everyone. Using the internet, a teenager does not need to have a big fund to make a business. They do not have to prepare tens of millions to rent a place as a store. They just need to utilize their mobile phones to sell and make money.

Technology, we know having the bad and the good effect for teenagers. To make them understand on how to use it well, as parents, we must guide them continuously.