Teens and technology
From the clay slate of our forefathers to the inter-active interfaces of the next gen-x; technology has taken a giant leap. Mankind all over the planet is facing problems of concern whether they maybe environment pollution, global warming, water shortage, insufficient crop production or erratic weather patterns, to name it a few. What is encouraging is that the next generation... the teens of today and the adults of tomorrow all are optimistic they know and believe that a greener solution is attainable and possible via technology. The plunging temperatures of 2010, rising temperatures in the summer, with glacial melt-downs all will be a thing of the distant past. Powered by technology and fuelled by creativity, fundamental change is about to emerge in the electronically connected world they inhabit. Gasoline powered automobiles, compact discs; desk-tops are headed for the technology scrap yard or the graveyard! The next-gen feels that their i-pods, lap-tops, cell phones are entry level tools that combined with education and creativity will lead to changes that improve the world.
Gurmehar Sangha , class twelfth student home form Sanawar aims to be a automobile engineer and his dream is to design a fuel – efficient car on the line of the new Mercedes engine , but as he says his would have zero emissions !! You will probably read this and say tall claims but, no that’s what not they perceive. The fierce determination and the steely look in the eyes say it all. Acc. to a survey, 33% of the young adults say that gasoline powered cars will be obsolete by 2015. The tech-savvy teen with the phones which are smart, which lets them access the web, text, download tunes a flash drive which is their real wealth. They seem to be incomplete without them; they can’t even begin to comprehend life without their external organs…Teens believe that global issues have solutions which can be solved collectively by working together to apply new technologies and innovative thinking to concerns which affect the world. The advantage which these kids have is that they are not bound by boundaries which have been created by the so- called custodians of Earth: the politicians. They have not been jaded, or haven’t become cynical to life or the challenges thrown by it.
Using cell –phones to download music, to search, face book to keep in touch globally and to blog communicating ideas is fun but the teens of India are optimistic that creativity is unleashed by computers and modern technology can help solve global issues like clean water. Pune, students top the list in the country in blogging and researching. 91% think that technology will help and 89% think that hunger can be eradicated by the end of 2015. Disease eradication (88%) , pollution will be down and energy conservation are within the realm of our reach.
These electronically connected teens will develop better solutions which seem un surmountable. The teens, the actual wealth of ours have hopes of changing destiny and the actual tryst with history will begin (to paraphrase Nehruji’s speech)! Today’s teen is more comfortable with technology. It is their domain, the comfort zone, the security blanket without which they seem rudderless. A mother of teen age boys says that they know more what to do, how to restore or work the computer more than her. It seems times have changes where smart was a compliment attributing to the person’s appearance or his overall bearing now it has a different meaning. Smart is used for the smart phone you carry! One which handles everything of your life to the time you get up, to the notes you need to text email, book transportation pay bills, withdraw money. The only thing Mr. Jobs hasn’t figured out is the substitute for love, but there are reports he is working on it, after all it is a chemical reaction, as the teens say!
The positive trend is that teenagers feel that learning computers has opened horizons which were not available or were not know n before to them. Onkar Sangha , who has just finished his boards from Sanawar hopes to become a doctor but wants to study robotics at the same time to use robots to perform surgery in the future. This idea he says all came from browsing the net. Just, imagine the fertile mind which is given fodder by the internet or the wide platform available to them. Of course, there is the downside as always there is, technology is used by kids where bullying is not on the school playing fields but cyber space. 25% of the kids felt threatened at one point of time by peers or by their friends who resorted to intimitadation via the next frontier.Students are bullied in the first year for over a period of one month and the forms include verbal bullying, exclusion socially, in some cases sexual insult and the worst one of all spreading of rumors. Mrs Sandhu, found out that her daughter was being targeted after she found her sullen ad depressed after she had joined a new school Girls are targeted more, when they are online. The pressure to fit in to an all girl’s school to be in the ‘group’ made her vulnerable, she says. The comments are nasty and also physical; she had to tell the principal who pulled up the girls this happened in an elite convent all –girls’ school of Chandigarh.
Another aspect of technology is sexting which is gaining grounds in today’s world, where teenagers are resorting to sexual virtual foreplay mixed with today’s technology. This is gaining ground and is giving vent to the raging hormones which start rearing their head. Some kids however are against it and want to wait for the real thing. The chat/ texting take sexual connotations as a substitute to the parental controls. It is an easier way to circumvent the parental control.
Putting aside the couple of problems which we as parents face, it is a positive note which ushers in 2011 where our next generation is upbeat and optimistic to tackle the problems of the society on a smaller scale and humanity at large
Ravneet Sangha
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Reading pane settingsThe New Year resolution is an annual ritual for tens of millions of people who make them, and for god reason. It’s a perfect time to re-evaluate the past twelve months, a time to set goals, adjust priorities. Every year’s end people all over the planet give themselves firm intentions that beginning of the New Year we are going to lose weight be more confident, achieve more success and travel. Surprisingly, enough losing weight figured in 92% people’s wish-list and success and money came after! Just goes to show the low self –esteem we all suffer from. Gym enthusiasts and exercise freaks swear by diets, cardio and abs–crunches and one house-wife Tanu has drastically started the K challenge and a cabbage soup diet to fit into her dress for New Year’s Eve. She swears by this diet and expects to knock the extra weight to usher in the New Year.
Women of the city also swear to spend more time with their children but it is so difficult in the rounds of parties and weddings and girl- time/ kitty parties. As the New Year approaches they are making up by taking them out to the local bowling alley or organizing them in after-s school classes to occupy them! Duneep is finally fulfilling her desire to get herself a tattoo proclaiming her to be a pure desi jatti.
The rush of the days, the heady feeling that the year is ending is giving vent to all suppressed desires and feelings. Be it a new hair color or the newest laser treatment. For men, it’s giving into the latest car accessory and in some cases giving into purchasing the latest car.
Resolution (n): a decision to do something or to behave in a certain manner. The act of making up your mind about something.
New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain
Every year starts and ambitiously we make lists and jot down what all we want to achieve, to realize aspirations, to make the present year count more. Humans have the distinct ability to plan, to comprehend the situations and to act accordingly. This particular trait drives all of us to make goals, to- do lists and to make constructive plans. But, wait the year is ending and the decade too. We all started out this year with ambitious goals which we wanted to achieve and conquer. The lofty sights we had set our eyes on are all attainable and near if we follow a simple methodology.Unfortunately, we get so caught up in life that in the hustle –bustle they get chucked into the background and we defer it for another day. Does that extra day ever come? Is it created for us especially by God, squeezing in the magical day via the time turner which Hermoine has? Life would be so simple and easy if we all could control the ticking of time. Father Time has never waited for anyone.
The countdown has already started, with barely 10 days to go for the year to start and the new decade to begin….. It’s time to finish those goals and it’s not exactly rocket science which one needs to learn. It’s simple, doable, at first dig out the list which you had made in the beginning of the year, if not made well put it down in clear words in actual sentences what all you wanted to do this year. Let the writing stare back at you, not out of sight out of mind. Let the resolutions be like the feel of actual crisp green money in one’s hands!!
Well, after you’ve ticked off what all you have achieved till the nth month decide what things will help you to keep the resolutions which you had made. The important thing here is to actually start doing things maybe in baby steps to realize them. If you expect a meteor shower or magic, well that’s all corny. It just doesn’t happen .Put your resolutions in to action, if you wanted the six-abs or a size zero dreaming about is not going to help. However, long you salivate over the supermodel’s figure or keep on wishing, it’s just not going to happen till you stop picking up the next piece of cake! Start now so you can achieve the resolutions because it’s worth it and so are you.Gurbinder Singh Anand realized his resolution by simply picking up the cash bowl/box in front of the holy book –Sri Guru Granth Sahibji.He says,” I would like everyone to remove the golak that lies in front of our holy books and our godly idols- why make HIM like a beggar, we can keep such donation boxes in separate rooms.
It is also important that at the end of the year, when the New Year is going to start we also do some emotional wellbeing. Celebrate the new you by putting behind all that has been stopping you from spreading out your wings and has been acting as a mill stone dragging you down. Usher in the new decade by letting go and liberating so that we are happier and in turn healthier. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is what Yogeet Brar says is her resolution. Often we judge or live our lives in accordance with the society and external factors forgetting ourselves, and making us dysfunctional. Nothing is worth warping the mind, body and soul.
Along with, realizing the goals at the fag-end of the year try taking control of the society and environment around you. Jasjit Sihota , an NRI farmer form the US says How about trying to be a better person ? and quotes, Yesterday is gone, Tomorrow has not yet come. WE have only today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa. Not trying to be sanctimonious here, but until unless we all collectively start taking steps to resolve the problems facing us , there wouldn’t be a next person to blame it on!
Women of the city also swear to spend more time with their children but it is so difficult in the rounds of parties and weddings and girl- time/ kitty parties. As the New Year approaches they are making up by taking them out to the local bowling alley or organizing them in after-s school classes to occupy them! Duneep is finally fulfilling her desire to get herself a tattoo proclaiming her to be a pure desi jatti.
The rush of the days, the heady feeling that the year is ending is giving vent to all suppressed desires and feelings. Be it a new hair color or the newest laser treatment. For men, it’s giving into the latest car accessory and in some cases giving into purchasing the latest car.
Resolution (n): a decision to do something or to behave in a certain manner. The act of making up your mind about something.
New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain
Every year starts and ambitiously we make lists and jot down what all we want to achieve, to realize aspirations, to make the present year count more. Humans have the distinct ability to plan, to comprehend the situations and to act accordingly. This particular trait drives all of us to make goals, to- do lists and to make constructive plans. But, wait the year is ending and the decade too. We all started out this year with ambitious goals which we wanted to achieve and conquer. The lofty sights we had set our eyes on are all attainable and near if we follow a simple methodology.Unfortunately, we get so caught up in life that in the hustle –bustle they get chucked into the background and we defer it for another day. Does that extra day ever come? Is it created for us especially by God, squeezing in the magical day via the time turner which Hermoine has? Life would be so simple and easy if we all could control the ticking of time. Father Time has never waited for anyone.
The countdown has already started, with barely 10 days to go for the year to start and the new decade to begin….. It’s time to finish those goals and it’s not exactly rocket science which one needs to learn. It’s simple, doable, at first dig out the list which you had made in the beginning of the year, if not made well put it down in clear words in actual sentences what all you wanted to do this year. Let the writing stare back at you, not out of sight out of mind. Let the resolutions be like the feel of actual crisp green money in one’s hands!!
Well, after you’ve ticked off what all you have achieved till the nth month decide what things will help you to keep the resolutions which you had made. The important thing here is to actually start doing things maybe in baby steps to realize them. If you expect a meteor shower or magic, well that’s all corny. It just doesn’t happen .Put your resolutions in to action, if you wanted the six-abs or a size zero dreaming about is not going to help. However, long you salivate over the supermodel’s figure or keep on wishing, it’s just not going to happen till you stop picking up the next piece of cake! Start now so you can achieve the resolutions because it’s worth it and so are you.Gurbinder Singh Anand realized his resolution by simply picking up the cash bowl/box in front of the holy book –Sri Guru Granth Sahibji.He says,” I would like everyone to remove the golak that lies in front of our holy books and our godly idols- why make HIM like a beggar, we can keep such donation boxes in separate rooms.
It is also important that at the end of the year, when the New Year is going to start we also do some emotional wellbeing. Celebrate the new you by putting behind all that has been stopping you from spreading out your wings and has been acting as a mill stone dragging you down. Usher in the new decade by letting go and liberating so that we are happier and in turn healthier. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is what Yogeet Brar says is her resolution. Often we judge or live our lives in accordance with the society and external factors forgetting ourselves, and making us dysfunctional. Nothing is worth warping the mind, body and soul.
Along with, realizing the goals at the fag-end of the year try taking control of the society and environment around you. Jasjit Sihota , an NRI farmer form the US says How about trying to be a better person ? and quotes, Yesterday is gone, Tomorrow has not yet come. WE have only today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa. Not trying to be sanctimonious here, but until unless we all collectively start taking steps to resolve the problems facing us , there wouldn’t be a next person to blame it on!
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