This ted talk about generation z has made me become aware of the things that are happening and it has shed light on many ways technology is bad for people. Generation Z, also known as gen z is the age group of people born within 1995 and 2015. I am a gen z and this video has really related to me and my life within the realm of technology. I had never really thought about how bad technology was for me, I have only thought about the positive side. I always thought of technology as a blessing, something to help me learn new things and expand my knowledge, however after watching this ted talk; the amount of negative impacts from technology seemed to compound every time I think about it.
The first point she talked about was memes on the internet that only gen z seems to find amusing. There were memes of death, which seems to be a subject talked about repeatedly in my classes. My peers talk about how they would rather die than complete this one homework assignment, which isn’t even that hard. It must have been so hard to take in for my teachers, as one of my friends have told our human skills teacher that she even considered suicide once. The look on my human skills teachers face was ghastly; and for me to think about it now is extremely hard. Since I know how hard it is and was for many people to get food on the table and survive, it’s extraordinary that people in gen z are thinking about taking their lives.
The main reason why death and suicide is such a common thing in the gen z community is because of the stories, horrifying things we hear and see on the news, social media apps, and google. The ted talk brought up many examples, one of them was a screenshot of the news on a normal day, however the negative stories were circled in red. How many red circles there were was a paradox. I couldn’t believe my eyes, more than half were stress-causing stories, wars in Iran, why Trump’s tariffs were causing bad things, a school shooting, an interminable list. However, this is not the only negative affect of technology, the internet is replete with stories similar to the ones I listed above, and those aren’t even the worst.
The ted talk speaker gave a personal anecdote, in 2016, there were stories about these killer clowns who would kill you if they found you. A very photo of these clowns would give you nightmares for months. For the speaker, she was afraid to even leave her house, afraid to even speak or write the word clown! You can see that technology can have such a immense impact on your lives, the speaker was even afraid saying a common word like clowns. It may not have been true, but whoever put the story out must have been in a state of inebriation to have even thought about ruining a child’s life like that.
The main lesson from the ted talk was instead of focusing on the negative affects of technology, turn the technology into place full of positive and helpful things. There are people in the gen z like Malala who have already accomplished so much, and they have been helping the world through many ways and means, from singing songs, to creating non-profitable organizations, to even just educating the public about the current situation and the dangers of technology. The main takeaway for me personally is to change the negative things into a place where anyone can educate themselves, read about people’s amazing journeys, and other positive things that can brighten ones life.