I vividly remember first getting my Facebook account. It was a few days after I had graduated from the 8th grade, and as an incoming freshman, I was finally allowed to use the sacred site. My sister (already a senior in high school) sat me down at the family’s desktop computer and created my account, doing all the work for me, acting as the seasoned veteran she was. I remember being so happy to have a page of my own; I didn’t even care what she was writing under the “about me” section. I would come home every day after school and hours of rehearsals, utterly exhausted but excited to check the activity that had occurred on Facebook while I had been gone during the day.
Now in my second year of college, the addiction has gotten worse. Because I have an open college schedule, I’m able to constantly check the site throughout the day. We all know how it goes; it’s a major distraction, and to me, it seems like the whole world is hooked.
However, I learned differently two weeks ago when I headed out to Arizona to visit my grandparents.Throughout the week my grandma constantly asked me to give her another lesson on Facebook. So one afternoon, we sat down at the computer together and it took around 45 minutes for me to teach her how to find a “friend,” write on someone’s “wall,” comment on a picture, find people’s birthdays and finally how to make a status.
I really couldn’t figure out why the fairly easy tasks I was telling her to do were so hard for her to understand and remember. But then I thought to myself, this is still brand new to them. My grandparents were born in the late 20’s and early 30’s. Sure they played with toys, dolls and model airplanes when they were children just like us, but when they were teens, there were no such things as computers and internet sites where you could talk to a friend who lived down the street. Rather, they went to sock hops, diners, and drive-in movies.
This technologically driven age that we live in today undoubtedly belongs to “Generation Y,” our generation. We check our Facebooks, Twitters, Tumblrs, Pinterest accounts, and StumbleUpon to stay constantly entertained and connected. We listen to iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify to satisfy our love for music. We buy our clothes online on Hautelook, Nasty Gal, and countless other websites boasting new looks for free shipping. We live and breathe the Internet. I’m not sure if that will shape us into a better generation or not. Do you?