Teens Would Rather Give Up Their Senses Than Their iPhones Or iPads
So, here’s a pretty crazy story. Last Wednesday, a man from Washington state was shot in the head—with a hunting bow! by his 15-year-old daughter. He had to be airlifted to a local hospital in serious condition and his daughter had to be taken into police custody by a SWAT team after she fled into the woods by her house with the bow and 35 arrows. The reason, you ask? Her father had—*drumroll please*—taken away her cell phone. Blank stare. Oh, and to make matters worse, the man’s daughter refused to let him use the phone as he lay bleeding profusely out of his head after she shot him. Blanker stare.
So, yeah. That happened. And then a new study came out the following day that seemingly pointed out the obvious: Young people love their technology! Or, more specifically, young people are obsessed with their technology—to the point that they would rather lose one of their most important senses than to lose Facebook, the Internet and their cell phones. We’re not joking about that last part, either.
The study—conducted by a company called McCann Worldgroup—found that a staggering 53 percent of young people would rather give up their sense of smell right now than give up the technology that they use in their lives everyday. It took a look at 7000 young people between the ages of 16 and 30 from several different countries and examined the role that technology played in their lives. “To them, losing the ability to explore and communicate via technology would be like a blind man losing his stick,” wrote Helen Leggat, a writer for BizReport —a news site for online marketers.
And to that we say: Holy $^%#, are we in trouble or what? Just a few years ago—less than a decade, in fact—technology was important to people but it wasn’t that important. It was a luxury, not a necessity. But with the rise in the number of cell phones in the world, the emergence of Facebook and Twitter, and the general dependence on technology that we’ve all acquired, young people have come to need technology more than any other generation before them. To say they can’t live without technology wouldn’t be an exaggeration—it’d be a sad truth about the way that the world runs today.
So, what should we do about this study and its’ findings? Well, it seems that we may have passed the point of no return. Technology has taken over the world in a big way and, to many people out there, technology is the only thing that keeps them connected to the rest of the world. So, it may be too late to completely reverse the trend and get people—specifically, young people—to devalue the price that they put on the importance of technology. But this study—and the absolutely insane story about the little girl and her dad posted above—point out the fact that something has to be done before that 53 percent turns into 60 percent…and then 70 percent…and then 80 percent…and then, well, you get the point.
If you’ve got a kid, make them log off Facebook for an hour. Take away their cell phone—carefully!—and make them go outside and play. Encourage them to use their imaginations for awhile. Or, hey, here’s an idea: Log off whatever form of technology that you’re obsessed with (BlackBerry? iPhone? iPad?) and show them that there’s more to the world than gigabytes and wireless access points.
And if you’re a kid—or someone that falls into the age range used for this study—consider whether or not you would be willing to give up one of your senses for your technology. And if answer “yes,” think about why that is. Think about what it is about technology that makes it so valuable to you. Think about whether or not you might be too dependent on it.
Otherwise, we’re going to have another crazy story to tell. One that’s crazier than a girl taking out her old man with a bow-and-arrow. One about an entire world that gets sucked into a bunch of technological devices and was never the same again. Take a minute today to stop and smell the roses before it’s too late. And while you’re doing it, take another minute to think about how important your sense of smell is. You shouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Especially for something that’s probably not doing you any real good. Wake up and smell the coffee.
