Technology concepts and applications

Technology Story

STORY IDEA:

When I was a young kid in elementary school, like most of my friends, I spent a lot of time out of doors. My mom would switch off the television set, as I yelled in complaint about missing the end of a show I had already seen three times. As she was pushing me out the door she would say, "There's no way you are going to sit around and watch TV all day. You need the fresh air." When I complained once again, "What will we play?" she responded, "Use your imagination."

And that is what we did. We would play Star Wars and Monster and baseball and soccer and whatever else came up at the moment. Sometimes we took out our action figures and other times we became the ones being the super heroes. By the end of the day, we would be exhausted and hungry and ready to collapse. Sometimes I would actually fall asleep watching TV when I came in at the end of the day.

However, I am also the first generation of kids who were someone raised on computer games, video games and, later, the Internet and web. It was not long before my mother was screaming, "Get off that game and come to dinner," or "You have been playing that game forever. Get off now!" During my teen years, she no longer tried getting me to go outside. It was hard enough for her to get me out of bed and to school or weekend sports and church. She also had a harder fight getting me away from the video and computer games. Also, even if I went out, there were fewer and fewer kids to find. They were also hypnotized inside by the screen games.

In high school, my parents had to fight even bigger odds. Instant messaging was becoming popular, as was a lot more entertainment on the web, and games continually became more sophisticated. Everything was right there for me on my computer -- my friends, my entertainment, and even sometimes my homework assignment. I did not have to go further than my chair. My parents said I was addicted, but of course I denied being online as much as they said. If they would have actually put a time clock of when I started and got off, I would have said they rigged the results. It never seemed like I was on the computer as long as it really was.

The story would then continue on to the pros and cons of my computer life. From a positive standpoint, it connected me to my peers and kept me part of the circle of friends that kept me going through high school. Through the online games, I played with kids all over the world. I also learned a lot about strategy and believe I improved a lot of my technical skills.

However, from the negative point-of-view, the computer all but ended any imagination. When I did get together with friends, we had a difficult time figuring out what to do besides playing computer games and watching television. The spark of creativity that came out when we started playing together outside did not seem to light up again. I was lucky that I played sports, which gave me some physical exercise, but some of my friends did not even do that.

Of course I did not realize it at the time, but my instant messaging got me in the habit of abbreviating, misspelling and really bad grammar. When I wrote papers in school, my teachers would circle stupid things like your for you're. I had to remember not to put down "U went 2 school," for a sentence. The spell check on my computer did not help matters much, since I became very reliant (and still am very reliant) on it for spelling correctly.

If I made this into a real story, I think that other students my age could identify with it and realize how our computer lives (because they still continue) are both an advantage and a disadvantage. There is a controversy raging about whether or not instant messaging is positive, because it encourages kids to write, or negative because of the spelling and grammar concerns. More studies have to be done, they say, comparing earlier generations' writing with today's youth.

I believe my story would be successful, because the readers could identify with it. It may also raise some debates. Also, the kids probably have their own similar stories and can relate to comments and quotes from my mom. This, I think, helps make a story work or not. People have to be able to see themselves in a similar situation. If it is so far out, then they cannot get into the plot.