Live, Laugh and...Text?

Many of us consider it necessary to plug in our ipods as we walk across campus, turn on the T.V. as soon as we get home, grab our laptop and plop down on the couch. In fact these actions are not only necessary, they have become a habitual routine. Yes, it seems that walking to class would be quite uncomfortable if we were actually looking at the people walking by, maybe giving them a smile, instead of staring down at our phones. Texting, surfing the web and investing our money in the newest gadgets have consumed young peoples time away from school as many teenagers claim their lives would be “boring” without it. A recent study concludes that teenagers and young adults spend more than seven and a half hours with such devices. Look at how we are communicating though, through technology. As people sit on their computers chatting away with friends, while others text until their thumbs are so one starts to wonder where technology is leading us. Let’s fast forward to the year 2020, only ten years from now. A family sits down to dinner, in front of the television, all with brand new fancy phones in hand. They communicate by texting and pointing at their screens. The kids know when their parents are beings stern when the letters are placed in All Caps. Before they go to sleep they pull out their new gadgets Apple has just created. With these they can download things in seconds that most people go to the store to buy. Of course the word “book” has left their vocabulary, as turning a page has become something like pulling a sliver out of your very own finger. Yes, this family has forgotten how to speak, how to communicate. Technology has taken over. Oh wait, it’s 2010 right? This scene is already taking place today, let's not kid ourselves people.