Technology, the Destructive Liberator of the Millennial Generation

THESIS: Modern Technology has began to deteriorate the Millennial Generation.

Now, you may be asking yourself how can modern technology be hurting the Millennial Generation? With all the advances in medicine and greener products it seems like an easily disputed argument. However, this is a problem that is rapidly growing for the Millennial Generation. The Millennial generation is the first to grow up with what we call modern technology such as cellphones computers and advance videogame systems. Other generations had it introduced to them after they had developed as children, but with the Millennial Generation this is not the story. According to the Health and Wellness Resource Center, a study has shown that children who are “staring at the computer screen for as little as 20 minutes causes the visual system to become locked into focus at the screen’s distance;” this would not be a major issue if over 38.5 million kids in the United States alone did not spend 2.5 hours or more a day playing computer and videogames (Kogan 32). Not only are kids spending more time on the videogames but there are even cases of videogame dependency which I will cover later in my paper (Griffiths 247). With the growth of online games and Xbox live, children are spending more and more time on videogames every year.  This has caused an influx of shortsighted children and may even result in more critical eye damage. Other effects from repeated computer use can include carpal tunnel syndrome and awkward postures (Kogan 32). As well as these issues there are other  byproducts of videogames like poor diets; Barbara Anan Kogan, a writer for Health and Wellness Resource Center, states how “ kids often eat junk foods high in fats, sugars, and carbohydrates while playing computer games”(32). This leads to obese children and an increase of diabetes for the Millennial Generation (Kogan 32).  We begin to see a chain effect when you look at the effects of computers, video games, and even cellphones on health problems. Yet even with all these issues, few seem to care about protecting themselves from these effects, instead they just pretend they do not exist or may even be completely dubious to the effects at all. There are simple solutions to some of these issues such as taking a break from the computer or even using stress relieving computer glasses (Kogan 33). But these solutions are not well known and very few practice them.  Suddenly, I feel like computers do not seem as safe as before. Just take one stroll through a public library and look at all the children playing videogames on the computer, starring at it for hours. Their eyes are victims of an invisible danger that they are unaware of. I know when I was growing up I was never educated on the “dangers” of computers, yet apparently they are a bit drastic. What teenager wants to grow up to be a poor postured blind man or woman? That certainly wasn’t on my list of achievements. Yet, no companies advertise these risks or set limits on online games. So not only is the Millennial Generation being harmed by this modern technology, but most do not even know of the effects until they are hit by them. These trends are likely to continue and I just hope technology can evolve to fix the health issues faster than in creates them.