Technology: Hindrance or Help?

"The Internet doesn't impart adult information; it crowds it out," he wrote. Students -- even top college students -- read rarely now, and the slang used for online chatting is eroding writing skills."

When I studied abroad in Japan, I remember the teachers being very concerned about how much young people relied on their phones and computers to write the kanji for them. What happens nowadays is the students are able to just type in a word in hiragana, and the systems are able to automatically change them into the correct kanji. This makes students forget how to effectively write the kanji, though they can still read and choose the correct one when given the option. I remember thinking it was a shame that that's what is happening there, as I think kanji is very hard to learn and that I would give a lot to be able to write them all effectively.

I read this article today about how American society is starting to be like that as well, texting and messaging hinders young people's ability to write and read effectively. And you know what, they're probably right. Though the internet is a ridiculously powerful tool, all too often people use it just for virtual social interaction or just surfing the web. We get very little out of in comparison to what we could be doing instead of web browsing and wasting time. I am in no way exempt from this grouping, as I spend a vast majority of my time online basically wasting time. I could write a lot more about society and how it forces us to "progress" by using these tools, but I don't want to spend too much more time sitting on the intarwebs doing it, so I leave you with the intent to spend my time more wisely, though I guarantee nothing except the fact that I will be blogging still :D