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Effects of Living in a Technological Generation

CM 384-01

Emily Angelo

Worcester State University

February 4, 2023
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The media has become our world's main source of communication. It has brought people

together in ways they could not have imagined before. It has allowed there to be an exchange of

news, messages, images, etc to be shared between individuals. From the videos, articles, and

readings provided the main topic that stood out to me was how growing up in a technology

generation has affected each of our lives differently. Since each video, article, and reading was

published by different authors it allowed me to see various sides of this topic. I will go into depth

about how each generation spends their time online, along with how that has affected their

relationships with others around them.

To start off my readings Julie Frechette , and Rob Williams in their introduction of

Media Education for a Digital Generation stated “ young people are often referred to as digital

natives (Prensky, 2001) because they are born into a culture that is immersed in media and

technology”. I believe that this is something that has gotten worse over the years due to the fact

that older generations did not have technology at their fingertips like we do. Children of young

ages know more about technology than older generations do which says a lot about how the

younger generations are raised. Within the age range of 12-17 according to the PEW Research

Internet Project, “ 95% of teens are online, 81% of online teens use some kind of social media,

and three in four teens access the internet on cell phones, tablets, and other mobile devices”

There is a benefit to having a generation that knows how to navigate through technology, and

having older generations that do not. We are able to teach each other things that will benefit the

both of us. In today’s world, “screens of every size dominate every aspect of our lives, and it is

the image, rather than the word, that commands our attention.”(Frechette.Williams, 2014) It is

because we all have some form of handheld technology that we can look up anything within

seconds, and we are to find visuals rather than words.

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Growing up in a world where technology is everywhere, and used by such a drastic

amount of individuals it is hard to not be involved with technology as well. What this results in is

having all new and old information right at your fingertips at all times. This can be good yet also

bad in many ways. Let's talk about the negative effects having this information at your fingertips

cna cause. In past years for older generations the way you would get your information would be

by watching the news on television. I specifically remember watching the bottom of the TV

screen to see if my school had closed due to snow. According to Tariro Mzezewa in the article

entitled Is it possible to get millennials to watch the news, “a few under 30 watch the nightly

news, or even TV at all.” This is a negative effect because if news channels are not able to

convey information to millennials then we have more to worry about for the future when the

millennial generation grows older. There are some positive aspects they have found though.

Further on in this article Mzezewa goes to talk about how there is one news station that has made

adjustments based on their viewer statistics that benefit themselves, and millennials. In 2014,

CBS “launched CBSN, a free, 24/7 live-streamed digital news channel that can be watched on

computers, tablets, phones, and smart TVs.” By doing this it allows for all news to be in our

hands 24/7, allowing us to watch previous news statements and present ones as well. Mzezewa

then concludes by saying that “ the network, in other words, is trying to lure millennials not by

providing programming targeted to young audience, but by making the news available for the

way millennials watch it.” Adapting to all generations is needed in today’s world. For example,

we do not see newspapers being our main source of news anymore. That is because as new

generations emerge, so do new generations of technology and new ways to learn and engage with

one another. (Mzezewa, 2015)

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Going back to the statement in Media Education For a Digital Generation, that we are

“born into a culture that is immersed in media and technology”. We spend our days on our

smartphones, watching television, on tablets/computers, and even talking to one another online

instead of in person. The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled Digital Addictions Are

Drowning Us In Dopamine where the author, Anna Lembke, goes on to talk about the rates of

anxiety and depression, and how our screen time is linked to those rates going up. The reason for

us to do things we enjoy over and over again is because it releases a chemical called dopamine.

This allows us to feel good which can form habits in anyone's life, good or bad. For example, in

my own life I go get coffee every morning because when I drink it, it allows me to get a small

dose of dopamine to start my day off right. The bad side to dopamine is once you stop doing the

thing that makes you feel good you experience a side of “withdrawal”. In Digital Addictions Are

Drowning Us In Dopamine, it explains that everyone has a digital addiction whether it be video

games, social media, etc. When taking time off from your phone it makes one feel “restless and

cranky” (Lembke, 2021) which results in depression and anxiety. This is why many younger

generagers stick to the same routine they have with technology because their bodies become so

immune to the dopamine levels they get that they need to spend so much time online just to feel

“normal”. (Lembke, 2021)

Photographic communication is something this generation is too familiar with. In Media

Education for a Digital Generation, “scholars have studied people’s motives for sending and

sharing photographs.” Our generation shares photographs online for everything. Referring to

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, etc. All of these apps have in common the fact that

users are sharing photographs, videos, anything to do with their personal lives. Daniel Hunt

stated that this generation uses photographs “to tell image-based stories to their peers” instead of
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using words to communicate. (Hunt, 2014) During the study scholars conducted, they found

that there are “two types of expressions given off when making an impression, intentional and

unintentional cues.” (Goffman 1959) We all post photos for a reason, but most important to

express ourselves. What this generation that has grown up in the technology world does not

understand is the privacy they should keep for themselves. Not to overshare what they are doing

with their lives online. Oversharing such photos online can cause problems within workspaces

such as not being hired for a job due to what you post online. For the older generations they can

“ provide students with formative photo sharing experiences that will help them to foster a solid

comprehension of their image sharing choices.” (Weber, 2014) Common questions that you

should ask yourself before posting online is “who will see this image” and to also keep in mind

that everything you post on social media will be out there forever.

When it comes to posting photographs online you are posting it to give a message to your

viewers. In this photograph viewers can analyze everything from the way you pose, or others

pose, to the items you have in the photo so that they can get a sense of who you are. Something

that would be beneficial would be for older generations to teach younger generations what to

share and what not to share, they are to educate them on image analysis as well. “One might

examine the aesthetics, pose, objects, syntax, and photogenia while examining the connotative

layer of an image” (Barthes, 1977). By teaching younger generations how to present themselves

in a photograph, and how to “declutter” the photograph so that their viewers do not get the wrong

impression it could save them from many negative outcomes with job opportunities. As we all

know, social media will not be going anywhere anytime soon, so it is important that we learn,

understand, and experience knowledge from other generations to keep us all professional online.
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In short, as the years continue to pass technology will continue to improve, and I am sure

there will be new ways to look at the media. As of right now, it is important to understand how

this generation is with social media, and how it can affect themselves and those around them.
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Work Cited

Mzezewa, Tariro. “Is It Possible to Get Millennials to Watch the News?” Columbia

Journalism Review, June 2015,

https://www.cjr.org/the_experiment/is_it_possible_to_get_millennials_to_watch_the_news

.php.

Lembke, Anna. “Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine.” The Wall Street

Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 13 Aug. 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/digital-

addictions-are-drowning-us-in-dopamine-11628861572?mod=djemalertNEWS.

Frechette, Julie D., and Rob Williams. Media Education for a Digital Generation.

Routledge, 2017.