Do Electronics Damage Independent Thought in Our Youth?

All around my high school, I hear voices repeating all they've seen or heard through media. Jingles quoting Rick Asley's Never Gonna Give You Up, SpongeBob's The F.U.N. Song and Taylor Swift's Shake It Off bounce through the halls. Even obscure, nonsensical shouts of "JOHHHHNNN CEENNA!" echoed in my ears one class period when my teacher stepped out of the room for a moment.

Sometimes, we get the reference, remember something rather funny and laugh it away. Other times we get annoyed to the point of grinding our teeth and form fantasies of whipping around to growl two simple words, "Shut up,"

Where do we get these odd coined phrases, and why do we feel compelled to repeat them? Ask any person, and they'll shrug and say that it's funny. However, the media could actually imprint the things we find "funny" onto our memories to the point we think of them first instead of formulating an original conversation starter.

While it's true that simple "gifs," "memes" and references implanting in memories are rarely dangerous, technology's lasting footprint on our brain has far worse effects. Recent studies find that the way we depend upon our devices actually alters the composition of our brains when it comes to simple problem solving situations.

Technology wires some students so much that they fear math without a calculator and believe themselves incapable of strong mental solving skills. Technology is in our classrooms, in our phones and at our fingertips, leaving elementary principles such as simple multiplication tables up to twelve or carrying digits in the dust.

When I listened to my fellow classmates after we finished our PSAT, I heard scattered but constant claims of this:

"I BOMBED that part without the calculator. I didn't get any of that."

What does this mean for these students in college if they don't change now? Being average or lower at math is a curse when that calculator is inches away, making your hand itch to grab it.

To my surprise, I recently discovered that the calculator curse doesn't only affect the struggling and average students negatively.

Just last week, when I attended Math Honors Society tutoring, FIVE tutors said that they couldn't tell me how to solve my homework problem without a calculator. I protested immediately to their solution that I could just punch it in because my teacher wouldn't allow a calculator on my midterm the next day.

I received a frown and an "I don't know what else to do," before they began wracking their brains for the lost lesson they failed to retain.

Thirty minutes of internet searches and five minutes of explanation later, I finished two problems with a tutor. It bothered me to the bone. They were the best math students in my school, recognized for their achievements, and even they preferred the supposed lesser of two evils. Developers of the device like Willhelm Schickard and Blaise Pascal invented calculators to assist mathematicians, not act in their place. Our modern times are proof that their meaning is butchered, along with those of countless other inventors.

This leads me into an article titled Why Johnny Can't Add Without A Calculator. The author offers many valid criticisms towards technology's effect on human skill level but puts their main point quite simply:

"Math and science can be hard to learn--and that's OK. The proper job of a teacher is not to make it easy, but to guide students through the difficulty by getting them to practice and persevere."

The logic itself is simpler than its application. We need to instill in our students that they must build up their problem solving stamina and creativity to look for different solutions on their own without pounding endlessly away on plastic buttons. Encouraging the study and memorization of the in-depth details is better for students in the long run. It will take longer to teach and learn. Despite that, it will stop embarrassing moments like the aforementioned incident of the five honors students.

We want our students confident in problem solving and their ability to think for themselves. The best way to mold our future complex thinkers and innovators for success, while preserving their dignity along the way, is to wean them off using technology as a first resort instead of as a necessary one.

Citations:

• Kakaes, Konstantin. "Why Johnny Can’t Add Without a Calculator." N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. <http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/math_learning_software_and_other_technology_are_hurting_education_.html>.
• "The History of the Calculator." The History of the Calculator. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. <http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/history-of-the-calculator.php>.
• "The Struggle For Productive Struggle." Emergent Math. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://emergentmath.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/calvinandsusie.jpg>.

Great Expectations or Just Unrealistic?

                In our age of higher education standards and helicopter-parenting, do we pressure our students to unnecessary extremes to reach what we believe is the modern definition of success? Never before have we given our young learners so many opportunities to learn at a higher level, but never before have we expected them to soar so closely to excellence. New queries and studies revolve around a central question: Is this newfound stress thrust upon those enthusiastic, overachieving and approval seeking students the right way to create a future?

                Not all students fit the bill of the adjectives used above, but every student who enrolls in one or more of these higher level classes has a drive to succeed. Some quake under the pressure, while others find alternate but not always healthy ways to deal. A lucky group finds itself motivated by the atmosphere of demands and difficulty. Avoiding anxiety is virtually impossible for any human being, especially a teenager.

                Our modern and ever-changing methods of testing and how we define achievement have exceeded reason. In some cases, they may create unhealthy environments for our youth population.

                For example, an article entitled High-Stress High School documents the specific rigorous and Advanced Placement courses a private school offers. Parents spend an average yearly sum of ten thousand dollars so their children have opportunities such as sports, music, student government and SAT Prep all while attending the top schools.

                The article quickly moves past listing the benefits of the schools, stating this about these "best options": "'These experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives,' says Marya Gwadz, a senior research scientist at the New York University."

                How can we say that we are only providing our children with the best if we put their future successes on the line to do it? For what is a college admissions essay backed by the perfect SAT and ACT scores if less than 2/3 of all college students graduate? The intensity that high school students work at today has the potential to destroy their functionality by the time they try to decide their future. This is what Gwadz means using the term "burn out" when she describes the effects of our all around attitude towards this issue.

                Today we define success as working as hard and as long and at the highest level we can without failing to meet the standards of a system. The flaw is, this system is built upon how everyone around an individual manages. Instead of success being weighted by understanding of concepts as a whole, it's weighted through tests and lining up grade by grade in comparison.

                Students should have high expectations and challenges at all times because, without these in life, they do not know how to learn, especially in the face of a challenge far greater than what you learn in school. Expecting perfection in every area of a student's life is not the same as this though. It is essential for our future that we learn this early on, so students don't continue developing bad habits that harm their learning more than help it.

Citations:

• "High-Stress High School." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/high-stress-high-school/409735/>.
• "College Dropout Statistics." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.collegeatlas.org/college-dropout.html>.