"What's the Matter with Kids Today?" (Amy Goldwasser)

By: Jazmin & Kayla

Within the reading “What’s the Matter with Kids Today,” by Amy Goldwasser she comes across the topic of computers, cell phones/text messaging, iPods, and instant messaging and how they affect young teenagers. Her main point is that even though computers and electronics can be used for good things such as learning about history, they are more likely used to lead teenagers in abusing them by being obsessed with online chat and becoming more into a second self. We also feel that Goldwasser thinks highly of the doors the internet has opened to teenagers. She says “We need to start trusting our kids to communicate as they will online…”(239) and “Once we stop regarding the internet as a villain, stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America.” (240)
Four major points supporting the thesis
1. “We’re talking about 33 million Americans who are fluent in texting, e-mailing, blogging, IM’ing, and constantly amending their profile on social network site” (PG. 237).
2. Teens now enjoy reading and writing more than before because it is less familiar to them and something different then being on a computer.
3. “Had a parent introduced 20 minutes of researching the Holocaust to one month of their teen’s internet life, or a teacher assigned The Diary of Anne Frank (arguably a 13-year-old girl’s blog)-if we worked with, rather than against, the way this generation voluntarily takes in information-we might not be able to pick up the phone and expose tragic pockets of ignorance” (PG. 239).
4. “The average teen chooses to spend an average of 16.7 hours a week reading and writing online” (239).
We believe that Amy Goldwasser would have to agree with Sherry Turkle in the reading “Can You Hear Me Now?” This reading goes on about how we are all connected through cell phones and blackberries and how no one thinks that connecting through physical appearance is good anymore. Sherry’s idea goes directly off of Amy in how we are all connected through technology and have become a second self. Along with Steven Johnson, author of “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” in how Johnson explains that many new televisions shows are actually “enhancing our cognitive faculties, not dumbing them down.” (215) I think that both authors believe that technology such as the internet and television has promoted a new learning style in teenagers and young adults.