Impact of technology on adolescents--the great debate

By Nivischi Northover
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March, 2011

The technology debate that was done in class today was very fun and also informative. When we were first asked to choose a side whether negative or positive that technology has on adolescents I immediately picked negative because, I felt that because of how adolescents use technology today it has a more negative than positive impact on them.

As the debate got underway and began to get more heated, I thought I should have chosen the positive side because I realized technology is not to blame for negative effects, but rather how it is being used and who it is being used by. Although my team came up with many examples of how adolescents negatively use technology, and the inappropriate use of it causes destruction on their behalf, technology is innocent and is not to be blamed for the inappropriate use. Technology is actually a great asset that has impacted the world in a great way and had enabled news, medical care, and other areas to be more advanced and benefit people in a very positive way.The positive team gave a more realistic reasoning as to why technology has a positive impact on students.

I changed my mind about technology having a negative impact on adolescents when someone from the positive team stated that technology has a positive impact because it enables students with disabilities to have equipment that helps them work to the best of their ability. For example, for autistic students and other students with various types of disabilities, their is a speaking note pad device that wa invented to help them communicate with others and get their message across. Without technology, certain people with disabilities may never have had the opportunity to be productive people in society. Technology gives disabled students their livelihood, which by itself in my opinion is the greatest reason why technology has a positive impact on students. It is a wonderful asset for those students.

Technology also has a positive impact on adolescents because of the ease of how quickly they are able to access any information online. It is the teachers responsibility as well as parents to teach and guide students in the proper way to use the internet, and not to abuse the usage of the internet. When adolescents know how to correctly research information, and not spend useless hours on the internet for no valuable reason, technology will always be an important tool they can use that will have a positive impact on them. Teachers and parents have to monitor the proper use of technology for adolescents and with that guidance, they won't be exposed to too many negative things on the internet and they will know what information is necessary and what is unnecessary. As a new teacher, I will make certain that I have informative lessons on how to properly use the internet and other technological sources that adolescents use. This way I know that my students will be able to know what information is valuable, and what isn't on the internet.