Kids these days

'What an absolutely silly thought,' I tell myself. Nonetheless, I cannot stop the flow of terrifying pictures flashing through my mind and the waves of fear rolling in. As I wait for sleep to come and take me away, it seems as though the residents who are perhaps a good three feet above my face, could be dancing away at a raging party.


Images of the dorm crashing down, destroyed buildings, and my completely squashed mere human flesh dominate my mind. As I imagine what it would feel like to fall and how it would happen, my mind goes to the unthinkable.

Seriously. How in the world could I be that attached? In all of my melodramatic sequencing of being crushed by the dancers from above, I've started to ponder the fate of my dear, dear laptop (?!?), of all things, on the desk below me. Would she survive??? (Yes. She.) Maybe because she's shut flat and, I'm guessing, my mattress would hit her, she would have an inkling hope of survival as we took our great tumble down.

As possibly pathetic as it is, I am that attached. Not, perhaps to the extent of worrying about my computer's safety over my own, but I can not imagine what life would be like without the services it provides. That dear laptop is my access to the Internet, the WORLD.

The Internet has indeed become the world. Through it, we can access information, as no other age has. We can get instant replays on Olympics moments, video chat with family on the other side of the globe, find remedies to bee stings. We can research for assignments or listen to music to sooth our broken hearts. As the creator of "Web 2.0" creatively and effectively pointed out, the world is now forever linked and connected.

While the efficiency, plethora of information, and global connections make the Internet possibly one of mankind's most ingenious inventions, there is the fear that many others have also voiced, of us becoming beings comparable to robots. Beings who forget to enjoy precious sunsets, forget the feel of the burn of 20 minutes of laughter instead of 'lol' ing, beings who forget to live. There is the fear that, as so much of our lives centers around technology, that we will only exercise that very logical, analytical part of our mind which comprehends this technology.

As Covey says, "Many of us find it difficult to tap into our right brain capacity" ("Using Your Whole Brain" Covey 130), which is an absolutely valid point. When we, as adolescents, are geared towards achieving a perfect 2400 on the SAT s, very much a reasoning test, what good does being creative do? Dana pointed out, we have no need to look for books in the library and possibly stumble upon some very different, intriguing information when we can just Google it and get what we need in .12 seconds. And, as we progress into adulthood and try to choose our lives, there is much pressure to choose a life which will provide enough money and comfort in the future, and is needed globally- something many would argue, a liberal arts or fine arts degree could not guarantee. Therefore, we have all the reason in the world to be left-brained, no protest.

Yet this incredible techonology can be used to do so much more- we have grown up in this day and age of computers and .com, a brilliant source of information and data trade- and we should use it! It is a combination of both our logical/verbal side and our creative side. Verbal side, of course. And creative side, I definitely think so. When browsing for information on the Web, I know that the more aesthetically pleasing site will peak my interest more. As shallow as it may seem, I admit it, I- and I think, we, as humans- simply like pretty and interesting things. Therefore, we now have the pressure, in order to make our sites, posts, blogs, and videos more attractive, to think outside the box, to make them exciting and attention grabbing. They need to appeal to all the senses, for "[human beings] are four dimensional--body, mind, heart, and spirit" ("The Whole Person Paradigm" Covey 40).

So even though technology seems to be leading us to an era of soul-less robots, I think it is precisely what is going to lead to the younger generation's brilliance. Having sound, videos, visual "results in a more powerful and complete reading experience" (Bump 105), and make stronger and deeper connections in the brain. My 9 year-old brother, who has never lived in a house without a computer, started using the paint application to design cars for his future company when he was four. And when I'm having computer issues, guess who I go to?

Maybe trying to think of 'creative' captions for our photos and 'cute' lines for our status' on Facebook isn't such a bad place to start after all.