Generation M

The problem with today's youth is their addiction to technology. We have an undeniable hunger for entertainment. The hunger must be fed and sustained or we cannot function properly, yet it is never filled. We yearn for more and more. This, in turn, produces new technology to meet consumer needs. MP3 players, cell phones, and laptops are all objects to entertain our dulled minds. Rarely do we cure our boredom with a book or another form of "intellectual" entertainment. We would rather let the screen display colored lights and sounds to satisfy our epic appetites.

The quest for entertainment can be seen in the 2005 study of Americans ages 8 to 18 using technology by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation found that 8.5 hours of a child's day is spent using technology for IMing, listening to music and watching movies. With so much time spent at the computer or on the couch, one begins to wonder when the children exercise or interact with family and friends face-to-face. Clearly with so much time spent being engrossed in their technology, the youth of today do not met the physical and social requirements they should.

We fall back upon technology today. We know we'll always have the T.V. and the music, so we rely on it to make us feel better. For example, your parents are fighting in the other room. What do you do? Go to your room, crank up the stereo and let your favorite band drown out your parents. Or let's say you've had a bad week. Your boyfriend cheated on you, you broke a nail, and to top it all off your cat died. The solution? A chick flick and a tub of Ben & Jerry's.

Multitasking is the devil. It's sucking the life out of America. When you're multitasking, your percentage rate for errors goes up and it takes longer to finish what you're working on, says David E. Meyer of the University of Michigan. This causes youths to be inefficient in their work, and in