Childhood is a time of exploration, discovery and imagination. For most of those, that disappears and gets replaced with bills, family life and dashed ambition. Is it the time to ditch our handheld and computer technology?
For many months, I have toyed with the idea of burying all my computer accounts, setups and software in a digital bunker. Free from nuclear holocaust but enough external strengthening that there would be no immediate desire to remove all the linkages and jump through all the loops.
Facebook, Twitter, Twoo, LinkdIn, Gmail. Countless cyber accounts for staying in contact with friends, family, work colleagues and distant memories. With our lives so heavily centred around mouseclicks - when was the last time we sent a personalised letter, made a lengthy phonecall on a landline or just walked the mileage to meet a friend.
Whilst society has moved forward eagerly with technology, genuine socialisation has depleted. The English language is crumbling with missing vowels, punctuation and structure. Evident from the latest crop of English examination papers. In spite of making life seem easier by using mobile apps, facebook pokes and twitter tweets to grab attention, it is at a cost of a generation interacting appropriately with one another.
Lives become visual for all to see. Our precious photos. Our timeline of events. Our thoughts, feelings and memories are no longer contained to a memory box or diary - they are exhibited to millions on a square screen for those to like, comment and troll on. Life has become an exhibition and expected reciprocation of affection and attention. Recruiters/Employers are using facebook feeds to rule out the unruly candidates and use posts to incriminate their workforce.
Cyber bullying and trolling is the new phenomenon. Gone are the days of waiting at schoolgates, cyber bullies can permeate homes, mobiles and family life causing widespread isolation of our youth. Cases rise annually of young people committing suicide as a result of relentless abuse from anonymous bullies. Sites such as Facebook are slow to react. Mild-mannered in their pursuit of weeding out parasites. Youtube diddling to prevent amateur filmed violence. The glorification of happy-slapping, playground fights and gangland motiveless crime.
The internet has also engaged a younger generation to more explicit version of pornography both in pictorial and video form. No need to raid dad's drawers - most of it, is available free of charge, catering to all tastes. This has lead to greater sexuality in our youth. Able to transmit these images to peers readily.
Greater levels of sexual appetite hasn't lead to better practises. Teenage pregnancy is still at its highest levels in the UK and Europe. Perhaps, each pornography video should contain a pre-ad of contraceptive support.
Paedophiles have used technology to adopt new methods to prey on vulnerable youths and groom those into engaging in indecent, illegal acts. Parents from a non-cyber background are unaware of content locks, filtering and sufficient monitoring of behaviours. However, even those that are computer savvy, the advent of mobile technology has allowed a public computer to become privatised.
Whilst the internet is a supermarket of knowledge and commerce, it unfortunately provides too many negatives to remain untackled. A serious dossier of legislation needs drafter to protect the vulnerable, create stricter age-appropriate filtering and bring social media onboard to tackle content uploads and inappropriate messaging.
For many months, I have toyed with the idea of burying all my computer accounts, setups and software in a digital bunker. Free from nuclear holocaust but enough external strengthening that there would be no immediate desire to remove all the linkages and jump through all the loops.
Facebook, Twitter, Twoo, LinkdIn, Gmail. Countless cyber accounts for staying in contact with friends, family, work colleagues and distant memories. With our lives so heavily centred around mouseclicks - when was the last time we sent a personalised letter, made a lengthy phonecall on a landline or just walked the mileage to meet a friend.
Whilst society has moved forward eagerly with technology, genuine socialisation has depleted. The English language is crumbling with missing vowels, punctuation and structure. Evident from the latest crop of English examination papers. In spite of making life seem easier by using mobile apps, facebook pokes and twitter tweets to grab attention, it is at a cost of a generation interacting appropriately with one another.
Lives become visual for all to see. Our precious photos. Our timeline of events. Our thoughts, feelings and memories are no longer contained to a memory box or diary - they are exhibited to millions on a square screen for those to like, comment and troll on. Life has become an exhibition and expected reciprocation of affection and attention. Recruiters/Employers are using facebook feeds to rule out the unruly candidates and use posts to incriminate their workforce.
Cyber bullying and trolling is the new phenomenon. Gone are the days of waiting at schoolgates, cyber bullies can permeate homes, mobiles and family life causing widespread isolation of our youth. Cases rise annually of young people committing suicide as a result of relentless abuse from anonymous bullies. Sites such as Facebook are slow to react. Mild-mannered in their pursuit of weeding out parasites. Youtube diddling to prevent amateur filmed violence. The glorification of happy-slapping, playground fights and gangland motiveless crime.
The internet has also engaged a younger generation to more explicit version of pornography both in pictorial and video form. No need to raid dad's drawers - most of it, is available free of charge, catering to all tastes. This has lead to greater sexuality in our youth. Able to transmit these images to peers readily.
Greater levels of sexual appetite hasn't lead to better practises. Teenage pregnancy is still at its highest levels in the UK and Europe. Perhaps, each pornography video should contain a pre-ad of contraceptive support.
Paedophiles have used technology to adopt new methods to prey on vulnerable youths and groom those into engaging in indecent, illegal acts. Parents from a non-cyber background are unaware of content locks, filtering and sufficient monitoring of behaviours. However, even those that are computer savvy, the advent of mobile technology has allowed a public computer to become privatised.
Whilst the internet is a supermarket of knowledge and commerce, it unfortunately provides too many negatives to remain untackled. A serious dossier of legislation needs drafter to protect the vulnerable, create stricter age-appropriate filtering and bring social media onboard to tackle content uploads and inappropriate messaging.
