I warned you that it might be awhile before I was able to update this and here is the proof - my first post in a month (but I'll make up for my time off tonight). I have had requests to post my other two Composition II papers, so here is my research paper (I hope you enjoy it):
Life
The Game of Life has been a successful board game for over one hundred years in which players simulate life by attending college, acquiring jobs, marrying, having children, and eventually retiring. It is possible that Life has survived so long because it provides a very general and simple picture for kids and families of what most people want to achieve, as well as allowing the players some control of their “life” without the sacrifices required in reality. American culture would do well to glean some advice from the Game of Life. Its focus is very direct and simple, a focus on living. Players do not need to learn formulas, memorize vocabulary, or be a star athlete to succeed. Generally, the same could be said about real life. Unfortunately, American culture emphasizes athleticism and academics as the most important parts of education and, in doing so, society neglects to teach basic life skills. America is in need of a change, a shift from current teachings to some that recommend limiting the use of technology and include important life skills such as money management and communication.
Money is essential. Everyone understands that simple truth; even small children carry around play money, but Americans run into trouble when they start spending money. A Gallup poll found that from January to July of 2009 twenty-seven percent of Americans had increased their debt (Jacobe 1). Twenty-seven percent may not sound like much, which may be why America hears little on how to handle debt, but twenty-seven percent of the American population is roughly 84,000,000 people. That is a large number that represents a very large problem. Future generations are not being taught how to handle their finances; they are taught the math; but rarely progress beyond concepts. Consequently, when entering the real world students do not know how to budget money or pay off the debts they accumulate. A debt of up to $15,000 has been reported by twenty percent of graduate students while credit card holders in their twenties and thirties admit to paying rent with credit and applying school loans to credit card bills (Williams 2). A fifteen thousand dollar debt is a large responsibility for anyone, especially for someone who is just entering the work force, and America’s upcoming generation does not know how to handle such a large debt. Experts understand the importance of creating a budget and warn that, as marketing targets younger groups, students never get a chance to establish a budget which results in a lack of understanding about what they can afford (Williams 4). This lack of understanding leads to more buying which creates more and more debt. What makes the situation worse is that Americans will not, or cannot, pay off their debts; a poll in 2005 found that “two-thirds of Americans are maintaining or increasing their total debt exposure” (Arora 1). To solve the problem of debt, one must first find the root of the problem, only then can a solution be found.
America’s debt problem is primarily one that has been learned; our society is part of a culture that demands instant gratification and the example that we present is not one of careful spending and budgeting. Mr. Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation, sums up the American view quite well, “We're looking at a generation that's been told that immediate gratification, the `just do it' consumption culture is the real new school.” He further adds, that “[d]ebt is an accepted and inevitable feature to enhance one's lifestyle[, a]nd after all, you deserve it; why not go ahead and do it?” (Williams 3). Society is not the only financial example Americans should avoid; perhaps the worst financial example for upcoming generations is our government. The Congressional Budget Office has released the predicted federal debt by 2020 according to President Obama’s 2011 budget and the numbers are staggering; cumulative budget deficits are expected to rise by ten trillion dollars (that’s $10,000,000,000,000) over the course of the next ten years, which means the federal debt will equal ninety percent of America’s economic output (“US Debt” 1). By now the source of Americans debt problem should be fairly obvious; the solution, on the other hand, is not so clear.
If upcoming generations cannot look to our government or society for finical solutions, they will be forced turn to another source. However, if society will take the initiative and work through its debt, it will have an excellent opportunity to teach the younger generation to handle finances correctly. Some programs already work to teach students financial success, but more will be needed in order to fully educate the younger generations. For example, a Life Skills event had high school students simulate adult life by assigning them a job and salary which they applied to a number of various expenses including taxes, housing, child care, transportation, insurance, utilities and many other expenses that people juggle throughout their lives; they were tasked with managing the budget so that they would come out ahead and were awarded with candy and important life lessons (Wells 2). Programs such as those put on by Life Skills are exactly what our upcoming citizens need, but ultimately they will have to turn to themselves, learning from their mistakes and making an effort to learn from those who are financially secure. If our upcoming generation will make an effort; they have the possibility to change America’s dire financial situation.
One thing America is not lacking is technology; we are a connected nation that can reach another person with a phone call, text, or even the click of a mouse. This massive network enables people to speak with nearly anyone in the world with little to no effort, but it is rapidly draining away meaningful communication. Consumers are now more connected than ever before; it is estimated that upwards of seventy percent of Americans now own a cell phone; that adds up to 216,000,000 American citizens who are walking around with a device that allows nearly instant communication to all corners of the world (Koetters 1). Recently “smart phone” sales have rocketed, up to forty-five percent in 2008 with higher predicted sales during 2009 and 2010 (Gallagher 1). These “smart phones” allow for more data to flow much faster across 3G networks, making it just as easy to send a message as it is to actually call someone.
These high speed networks and myriad of applications allow consumers to easily access all areas of their online life on the go, which lets many people dispense with the archaic idea of actually speaking to another person over a distance. Cell phones are far from the only way to reach someone; in today’s fast-passed world, connected computers open up a realm of communication options through email, instant-messaging, social networks (such as Facebook), blogs and micro-blogging sites (like Twitter), and free video conferencing software such as Skype. These online connections often confine communication with other people to a small virtual window that leaves little room for the personal side of communication. An article from 1999 in the Dallas Morning News reported that AOL was working to hook the consumer with advertisements and the possibility of increased communication with the intent to increase time spent online, which translated into larger profits (Goldstein 1). Modern companies are following the same philosophy, but it is not proclaimed as openly as AOL did in 1999; studies that have revealed adverse effects from too much time spent online guarantee discretion on the part of current service providers.
Multiple studies alongside a few extreme cases of the virtual world gone wrong should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that technology is not always beneficial, but many Americans are still in the dark about the dangers of the virtual world. A recent study conducted by Dr. Rose Richards of New Zealand revealed a correlation of poor relations between teenagers and their parents that increased with the amount of time they spent watching television (“Teens” 1). South Korea has a number of cases in which virtual reality was taken to an extreme; for example, after playing a computer game for fifty consecutive hours, a man fell over dead after forgetting to eat or drink (Phillips 2). Another couple residing in South Korea chose to raise a virtual child instead of their real daughter, and the three month old child died of dehydration after they frequently left her at home for up to twelve hours a day to live their virtual lives at an internet café (Phillips 1). In Australia, the Vourlis family recently lost a son and brother in a fatal car crash, and they heard the news not from an officer on their doorstep but through “rest in peace” and remembrance messages on Facebook (Heussner 1). The stories are everywhere; the virtual world can be addicting enough to cause individuals and families to suffer both physiologically and psychologically. As the world becomes more connected, we will continue to see stories of information that appears on the internet before it ever should and studies that show the degradation of communication and relationships in relation to time spent online or watching TV. The pressing question is how to nip the problems in the bud.
As with the problem of debt, the source of the virtual problem must be unearthed before a solution can be reached. Jaron Lanier suggests that our acceptance of the internet and the interactive technologies teach us, in a small niche of our brain, to humanize the internet and computers while dehumanizing the “person” by asking us “to accept . . . that you might also be conceived of as a program” (4). Such a shift in thinking would not usually be visible, which would make it hard to measure, but the example of the South Korean couple who chose to raise a virtual child should provide plenty of evidence in support of Lanier’s theory. Each step our society takes toward technology and the virtual world is a step we take away from our humanity as we embrace a new reality. Studies have shown that, of the time spent on the computer, upwards of sixty percent is spent unaccompanied (Calvert 15). Time spent alone only increases the temptation to immerse oneself in a virtual reality, which is detrimental in excess.
The future may look dim, but there is a chance if America avoids the dangers technology presents in a two stage process of knowledge and action. Society first has to educate itself against the dangers of technology; we need to understand the consequences of humanizing technology and be proactive to erect barriers and limitations on new technologies. We certainly should not eliminate technology altogether! Technology itself is not the problem; societies’ tendency to assign it to a higher position than it deserves creates the problems that we encounter. The limitation of technology could open doors to older methods of communication that strengthen relationships such as speaking face to face or on the phone, or even the occasional letter. Limiting time spent viewing electronic screens has been thought to strengthen relationships also as Dr. Richards explains: “[O]ur findings give some reassurance that it is fine to limit TV viewing. In fact, it may result in stronger relationships between young people, their friends and their parents” (“Teens” 1). Dr. Gerald Goodman, who holds a Ph.D. in psychology, believes that to enrich personal relationships, one simply has to develop one method of communication (xiii). It is truly quite simple, improve communication and strengthen relationships by turning the electronics off for a while; relationships are well worth the sacrifice of technology.
America is an amazing country; we have survived for over 200 years by shifting and changing to fit the times, and it has come time for some new changes to fit our new problems. Teach life skills such as real communication by turning off the technology for a while in order to build relationships and money management so future generations will know how to handle debt. Knowledge may be power, but it does no good if action is missing to channel the power that knowledge provides. No one would succeed at the Game of Life if they did not know the rules, yet the next generation of Americans are asked to do just that; the necessary life skills are missing to fully succeed; they do not fully understand the rules. Now is the time to make a change; now is the time to educate the new generation because soon America will be shaped by their hands.
Works Cited
Arora, Raksha. "Consumers Anticipate Less Debt: But so far few Americans have been successful at reducing balances." (2005): TOPICsearch. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Calvert, Sandra, Amy Jordan, and Rodney Cocking, eds. Children in the Digital Age: Influences of Electronic Media on Development. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2002. Print.
Gallagher, Kathleen. "Sales soaring for 3G products: Smart phones are making cell phones look kinda dumb." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 31 May 2009. EBSCO. Web. 4 Apr. 2010.
Goldstein, Alan. "America Online Expands beyond Computers as It Aims to Build Global Medium." The Dallas Morning News (n.d.). EBSCO. Web. 4 Apr. 2010.
Goodman, Gerald and Glenn Esterly. The Talk Book: The Intimate Science of Communicating in Close Relationships. Emmaus: Emmaus, 1988. Print.
Heussner, Ki Mae. “Twins Learn of Brother's Fatal Car Crash on Facebook: Australian Teenagers Die in Car Accident, Some Family Members Learn of Crash Online.” ABC News. ABC News, 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 4 April 2010.
Jacobe, Dennis. "More American Consumers Added Debt in July." (2009): TOPICsearch. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Koetters, Michelle. "Pay phones vanishing with rise of cell phones." The Pantagraph. (Bloomington, IL) (2007). EBSCO. Web. 4 Apr. 2010.
Lanier, Jaron. You Are Not a Gadget. New York: Random, 2010. Print.
Phillips, Rhodri. “Couple's Baby Dies While They Raise Virtual Daughter Online.” Fox News. FOX News Network, 4 Mar. 2010. Web. 4 April 2010.
“Teens and Screens Under Microscope.” Dunedin School of Medicine. University of Otago, 2 Mar. 2010. Web. 4 April 2010.
"US Debt will rise to 90% of GDP." Arabia 2000 (2010). EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Wells, Valerie. "Life Skills event gives students a taste of the real world." Herald & Review (Decatur, IL) 18 Feb. 2010. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Williams, Juan. "Analysis: America's rising credit card debt and how consumers are targeted even in college to acquire credit cards." Talk of the Nation (n.d.). EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
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