Question Two

1       Do you think if kids had only robot toys, friends, and babysitters it would impact their future social skills in a positive or negative way based on the assumption that texting and social media is ruining teens and adults social skills today? (chapter 5)

First, I am going to start off by saying, as a 20 year old girl, born in the 90’s, I knew what it was like to live before technology was a big thing. As a child, I played outside, chased butterflies and lightning bugs, played hide and seek, explored the woods, and so much more. Outside was my toy. I grew up with nine other kids on my street and we always found something to do. Yes, we had videos games and television, but that was not what our days consisted of. Video games were for rainy days and television was an hour before bed time. Technology was not running my life back then. In elementary school, computers were part of our daily routine, yes, but it was nothing like it is now. In high school, computers were a major part of every class. I also remember when smartphones came out. I went from a child who did not care about technology to one of those people who cannot seem to get away from it. I do not like it, but I have to deal with it. I cannot do anything for school without my laptop or tablet. It sucks but at the same time it is very handy. I would hate to not have google or the internet. Research would be a lot more difficult. Also, I do use my phone a lot, but I would not say I am attached to it. Some days it is nice to leave all technology behind and go for a hike or be with family. But in today’s world, that is hard.

            Now, to answer the question… Today’s kids do NOT know what it is like to live without some form of technology in their lives. Three year olds today know how to turn on, unlock, and play games on an iPad better than I do. Teenagers today freak out if they have to go 10 minutes without their phone. When you go out to a restaurant, how many people can you count that are on their phones? More than half. I guarantee that those people know what it is like without technology but they are so used to it now, they do not know what to do without it. Can you imagine what is going to happen to the children who have to grow up with NO social interaction? A child who grows up with only robot toys, robot friends and robot babysitters, are not going to know how to interact in a normal situation. They are going to be robots themselves! When they become adults, how would they get jobs when none of them know how to interact with each other? Children need to grow and learn at a young age, and if you only let a child have robotic things, they are not going to have the social skills of most people right now. But who knows. 20 years from now, everything might be ran by electronics and robots. They might be the start of something totally different than what we are used to. Maybe we just find it weird because we know what it is like to grow up in a world without it. They don’t.