My Parents vs. Technology

Over the past few years, I've seen personally the rise of quick talk technology. Since my first smartphone purchase, I've been able to compartmentalize my life onto one tiny device. I'm able to check my email, surf the web, watch movies, listen to music, and talk to my wife and friends anytime. The possibilities of this new technology made me feel limitless in the connection to my world. Unfortunately, when I found out my parents were both using smart-phones, I had a sinking suspicion that my new world would suddenly seem not as calm. I can now admit that I have somewhat of an "addiction" to my smartphone. I immediately check it when I wake up, and look at it till I fall asleep. Essentially, I have created my own "media ecology." This environment I've created is by my own doing. But, I feel it is a happy existence. But since my parents have joined this "environment" of mine, it has certainly seen better days. When I had to spend 4 hours of combined help to teach my parents how to turn on and off the phone and the basic functionality, I had hoped that it would end there. Soon I started receiving texts from my parents, my mother more so than my father. Then inevitably my parents soon faced their worst enemy: autocorrect. The action of which the phone begins to predict what you are trying to say in texts, became a whirlwind of a journey for both my parents.

Obviously funny to the outside, it has taken all of my brain's neurons to decipher the texts my parents send to me. With such websites as www.damnyouautocorrect.com , society has put a humorous spin on those who feel the unforgiving wrath of autocorrection. The biggest argument I would like to make is how dependence on such technology has and sometimes will slap us back in the face. How many of us have made a simple text to a friend or family member and realized all but too late that it came out perverted? My ultimate fear is that someday, when technology has passed me by, my own children will have to deal with my interference into their "technological world."