[DMEC] Essay Finalist: Untitled Essay by Dayhe H.
Today I missed my bus for school, so I went to school little late. As I was arriving, I got a phone call from my classmate who said our teacher was absent. So I went to deli, got breakfast and walked to school slowly. In my third period class, my friend Jenny sent me a text message saying. "yo d ms.v isn here wanna go out after 6". As I was replying to her message my English teacher caught me. Thanks to my PDA phone, I turned on the dictionary and said I was looking for some word I didn’t know. My teacher began to complain about the new technology students carry and that they are ruining students.
My teacher is in her early forties, and she said when she was a high school student she didn't have a cellular phone, not even beeper. When she had homework that required research, she had to go to library, and check the entire card catalog to find the book she needed. She didn't have digital cable like we do with hundreds of channel. She didn't have Internet like we do now. The only media that was available in her day were television, radio, and newspaper. "Why do you need all that stuff for?’ she asked. “It's ruining teenagers."
I knew exactly how new technology, specifically digital media, effects my life. For any kind of homework that's not in the textbook or a handout, I always turn to the Internet. Some of the textbooks for music and communication classes even come with CD-Roms. It's more efficient to watch and learn from a video than from reading the textbook. I watch all the soccer games that the South Korean team plays. I put on my PDA many helpful programs, like a subway map, dictionary, weather forecast, etc; they can be update automatically all the time. I can contact anybody any time with my cellular phone. I can send text message, when it's not a good time to talk. Online messenger is even better, as I can chat with my friends without paying money. It's obvious I cannot live without new digital medias. I live in digital age.
So, I was thinking: is it good to have all of the new technology we have right now? We are so dependant on it and can not do anything without it. Back in the days, students put more effort into their work. They had to do all the research by hand. They hand wrote their homework neatly or typed it carefully on a typewriter. They had no devices that checked spelling and grammar for them. Since we started using online messenger, we are using more incorrect grammar and spelling. In the past, people wrote letters and called house phones to communicate. But it took so much time. Nowadays, everything is so fast. But is that good or bad?
I see teenagers who go crazy about pornography and games online. They see incredibly more violent stuff than available back in the day. Little children growing up are so negatively affected by all the media showing violence, learning to think that violent is cool. Children cannot protect themselves from the media. It's no surprise to see little children carrying cellular phones and portable game players. Lot of games are about killing; there's no such thing as helping the weak. It's all about killing and winning. Also there is much pornography online. I don't think it's wrong for teenagers to see it. But it's not normal to see videos of raping women or child abuse. It inspires teenagers to commit crimes for fun. They are so into those things and they come to school with sleepless face. How are they going to learn and get educated like that?
On the other hand, the Internet gives lot of information that is helpful. I can search online and can get more and faster information than from textbook. It's very time efficient. People can now get a college degree online. They can take the class whenever they want. People who have jobs and have no time to go to school can get degrees, too. New technology makes our lives comfortable. We can shop online through Internet shopping mall. It's very easy to compare prices and get the best deal. People can get information faster and easier. Therefore, the new technologies develop even faster. Digital media has helped us globalize the planet; since we can get any information from the Internet, it has became so much easier to know what is going on in other countries. Therefore, the whole world is now very interdependent.
I'm not any different from those whose lives depend on technology. Today society is all about speed. I need to carry my mobile phone with me all the time wherever I go, even when in my house. I have an MP3 player that I listen to when I go to school. I study for tests and read news from the Internet. I love online games and I play them. But I know how to control the medias. I don't watch television a lot. I choose what to watch, like news and soccer games. I go online and not only for having fun; I study, too. I use my PDA as my dictionary, since English is my second language and I need to look up words frequently. I also download e-books and read them in my PDA. There are countless things I can get from digital media, but to get the best out of them I need to choose and decide what I really need and balance everything.
We live in a digital age. All the new technology is about digital media, how fast and how much people can get something. I can watch the World Cup from the other side of the world, at the exact same time as when they are playing. I can call anybody and listen to music whenever I want. I have access to unlimited information and can surf online. It wasn't a long time ago since they were first developed, but most people’s lives depend on using digital media, including myself. They make our lives comfortable and easier. We own these new digital media. We shouldn't be their slaves. We have to be their masters and get all we can out of them.
Dahye H. attends school in New York City. This essay was a finalist in the 2006 Global Kids Digital Media Essay Contest. For more information, please visit GlobalKids.org.
