good afternoon i'm cosas mansi and welcome to the edge technology has played a large role in most of our lives ever since we're little all the technology has had a lot of positives it can also have its downfalls many kids have known technology their entire lives which has caused a decrease in socialization among teens according to or orleans market marketing group about forty percent of the world's population uses the internet which is approximately three point eight billion people of those three point eight billion people about ninety five percent of those scenes between the ages of twelve to seventeen spent time online technology has been decreasing the quality real life conversations especially with teenagers conversations where a person pulls out their phone makes the other person feel less connected to the person that they are talking to and whenever one person does not feel included in the conversation the quality of that conversation starts to suffer teenagers also tend to gain confidence behind a screen or keyboard by that i mean that they will say things they would not normally say in person or fabricate a story this shows whenever someone is a lot different in person rather than their twitter profile all the sun this person is not as interesting as they make themselves out to be teenagers tend to be a lot different online than they would be in a room full of peers or adults because anything can be said online to make it seem like the truth is also cause the inability for teens to read social cues and have empathy towards others because conversations are only held through texting and they can't see the person they talking to unless speaking face to face teens usually don't practice having real conversations unless they're forced to like in school or at home most kids were not pick up on a person fidgeting their fingers or tone change in their voice and associate that with that person being anxious or stressed the decreasing inability to read social cues has been rising due to more and more conversations being held over text rather than in person teenagers have also taken the trade of being a better multitasker rather than having a longer attention span the average teenage attention span of teenagers has decreased from twelve seconds to eight seconds in the past decade they have a harder time filtering out the irrelevant irrelevant stimuli and are too distracted by their phones i learned that trying to have a conversation with someone that checks their phone every couple of seconds is one of the most frustrating tasks on the planet i get the impression that whenever they're checking that whatever they're checking for is more important than the conversation we are having now a days everyone needs to know what is going on all the time and they don't want to miss a thing teenagers are always connected whether it's through social media texting or even games on their phone or computer having all these sources at your fingertips has caused a sense of online importance and teens and always being connected rather than engaging in real life conversations classroom so i would say in my classroom the technology has made things easier for students in some ways so taking note speed organize turning assignments has really made things a lot easier with computers and with technology on the flip side though technology has also been a distraction in the classroom as well so you know students are you know cannot go full period without using their phones or checking their phones when they're checking their phones or not listening to what's going on in class they're not talking to their peers they're not collaborating with other people on projects so there's been you know benefits and drawbacks to having technology in the classroom why would you think that like you said earlier that teenagers have always they're not checking their phones why would you say that they always have that sense now of always checking them i would say it's it's more of a feeling of importance that they always want to know what's going on elsewhere that you know they're interested in what their friends are doing but chances are what their friends are doing is probably just as boring as what they're doing in class so i think it's a feeling of importance a feeling that i didn't have growing up in high school really and why do you think th younger generations seem to make that a priority i think they make it a priority because a lot of their friends are doing it and be as they have the ability to talk to their friends in their classes which is something i didn't have growing up in high school so i think because the technology is there because their friends are using it because you know society itself is on for size and technology i think we see a lot more technology use as a result and would you say that kind of fear real life conversations i was in a lot of cases they do you know people are very hesitant to pick up the phone and call someone you know even in our school for example you know i've had students come up to me you know can you order me pizza after school i've ruslan practice and i need to order pizza why can't you work a pizza you know people are very hesitant to pick up the phone and make a  call and you know converse with other people even in class like let's just say you know in class a minute or two early back when i was in high school we would talk to the person next to us we'd talk about sport what we're doing that we can what have you but today you know your generation you know two minutes  left in class or they have an extra two minutes of time they're on their phone texting they're playing a game they're not conversing with one another like i used to back in the day and when you say what the conversations are the quality of the conversations as i should say have changed  and so like you said having conversations with your friends and every year in high school do you think those type of conversations have shifted to like a new me excuse me meaning i think they've gotten shorter to a large extent it so i don't feel like our conversations are as deep  is there oh i know they're relatively short in nature and relatively quick will say like a better description but you know we would always run out of time in high school to talk to each other and we want more time but that really doesn't seem to be the case in school today that you know our conversations are pretty short to the point and there's that awkward silence where we're using technology we're doing other things you know are a little different than what i was used to growing up there and how would you say that you could that teenagers could get better at this what does it just take practice i would say it's practice it's putting yourself in positions to be social you know involved getting involved in extracurricular clubs you know put yourself in those positions i think it's important to practice those skills to learn those skills to hone those skills  side say just put yourself out there and put yourself in social situations as well trying new things trying to meet new people in marjah say that putting yourself out there is a lot harder now than it was back in the day with technology increasing so i feel like that's the main reason why people are starting to fall behind the phone is because they don't really they don't want to put themselves out there would you say that technology has played a factor into that as that technology is definitely played a factor into that you know that wasn't an option when i was growing up so either you the converse person to person face to face or you didn't but now with technology you have two different options you can talk to people in person face to face you can not work and communicate where you can go on your phone so i guess it's provide a different avenue basically for communication that we didn't have available to us i think that fear of rejection as well with talking to people that you're not familiar with is another factor if you are on your phone and you're talking to someone else you know it's someone that you already know someone you're going to positive response from but if it's someone that you just met in class you might not be as likely to get that positive response and how can adults help sort of strayed teenagers away from that sense of using their phones i think a lot of it comes from finding a balance between technology in  different applications for communication so you know in the classroom you know i think it involves getting kids involved in projects where they have to collaborate they have to work together it involves getting them you know into extracurricular activities where they have to practice team or crafts you know show leadership skills or things like that and i think that's a big part of getting kids to practice those skills is putting them in opportunities basically giving them opportunities to to practice their communication skills without really using technology so you'd say it's it's pretty it's pretty detrimental to there develop the balance early on i would say it definitely is you know growing up kids today have more technology in the ever have and the elementary classroom at home everywhere you go basically so i would say finding that balance early on and just striking that balance between talking face to face and work on your communication skills and you in technology i think is a challenge for everyone and how do you think that would set you set teenagers up for the future if they develop that balance earlier i think it would give them a better skill set to succeed in the real world because so much of what goes on in the real world is about communication it's about people it's about relationships being knowledgeable you know having content knowledge and things like that are important but an inability to communicate you know won't get you too far in life it's very difficult to lead people when you can't communicate when you can't converse when you aren't likable and you have to have good communication skills to really advance in the real world and how can someone gain those skills by themselves instead of having someone else do it for them so as far as getting those skills independently i guess yeah i would say it's just a matter of put yourself in a position to practice those skills and joining a future business leaders club joining photography club you know whatever it happens to be has put yourself in positions where you have to be social you have to you know step outside your boundaries and communicate with others and you think there should be consequences for people that do tend to use technology to much i think there are consequences you know  life you know people who aren't don't have communication skills are as good as their peers on advance as far in the workplace so should there be formal consequences i don't necessarily think but you know in the long run there will be consequences whether you know they realize that or not do you have any can you tell if that person is struggling to maintain the conversation does technology play a factor into that i think if they're struggling to maintain the conversation they'll go to their phone you know the sort of ran out of ideas and they'll sort of you know withdraw from the conversation basically so i would say that's you know typical or out of they're having trouble is that you know go to your phone you can still do something and rather than be in a conversation it's a different avenue today i guess and how are some ways that you can tell if a person is struggling with the  conversation i think in general they just have a lack of lack of commentary lack of things to say you see them looking elsewhere you see them thinking of other things you see them trying to get out of a conversation and other things like that possible and how would you say that social media has played a factor into decreasing socialization among teens i would say social media just gives teens another avenue basically to socialize and to talk with other people so you know it's a lot easier to text and know at least for me i could probably speak for a lot of my peers that we put a pretty hard emphasis on our twitter accounts and graham accounts why do you think that that has played such a big part in basically becoming who we are as  people play a big part it's a good question you know i think a lot of it has to do with society you know you see people that are celebrities and other things and they have a twitter present the united states has a twitter and tweets frequently yeah so i think a lot of people you know mimic what people they respect so you know your favorite athletes on twitter they have an instagram they have other social media you want to be like them you want to you want to have that as well so i think that plays a big role and not and i think it also gives you a feeling of self importance that you know have for this first segment of the edge tonight back in or my space like how it was back in the early two thousand it's a question i would say a lot of it has to do with what people on you know popular culture are doing going back to president trump going back to a number of sport sports figures public figures and you know a instagram as opposed to facebook and my space and i think a lot of that has to do to do with you know what other people do what do you think so would you say that i do i probably think so because it's it's just something new i know that teenagers now are always looking for the new thing we're always looking to stay involved and it does have to deal with whatever your friends are doing so i know if all my friends are getting this new account on a new app or whatever i want to do it too i want to be involved so  i think that does have a big part of it is that like we always just want to be involved in everything and no matter what no matter even if it is a pretty stupid idea like some of the social media have saw it now but for some reason it just sucks us in you know and then once it sucks you  you just have to stay within it with a lot of people i mean now that's also it's also a good way for people to get jobs like you have instagram models people get paid for twitter i don't know if you knew that or not so now it's just like it create not i mean that's not the main reason but like i just think that once you get in so far you have to stay there yeah so why would would you say a big part of it has to do with just your parents being on it because i know that's a big part of it and if my mom has a face book i don't want to be like oh i don't i don't want to facebook either like my mom has that's for old people yeah so would you say that like it has to deal with like the older generation in sort of going towards the i guess you could say new technology to a new social media to the people straight away from it i guess younger generations like yours and mine are more attracted to will say newer media you know if our mom and dad or our grandparents are on facebook facebook doesn't sound too cool anymore like you don't want to you know have your grandma checking your facebook or your social media accounts want to be somewhere else you want to sort of have your own thing so you know if you look at companies like twitter and instagram for example that are will say newer than facebook yes i think you see popularity there increasing just because younger people younger generations are more attracted to that in order generations are attracted to older types of social media that have been around for a longer period of time and i do think that popularity so important in what regard and what we're good in because i feel like i feel like like we were just talking about with like parents and stuff and anyone no one wants to be associated with their parents because i guess grandparents or family because i feel like they want to be better in a way than them i should say ok so do you feel like that plays any part into it i think it plays a small role that we want to have something in you know the younger generation something newer better more modern i guess as opposed to what our parents and grandparents for that matter are doing with technology so i think that's a big draw to it and how do you think social media can later affect your i guess i say post college post high school life with like getting a job or regards to that so i think social media has a big impact on that you know you look in the popular media today and you look at you know a number of public figures you know once you put something out there on social media on the internet it's there forever whether it was five years ago ten years ago twenty years ago if it was on there someone's going to find out about i don't know if you saw but like with that just plays a big part into it is like anything that's out there is permanently out there yeah so i think it's something to be mindful of that especially for your generation like you know what you're putting out there because what might be cool today or what you might think is funny today might not be funny ten years from now so i think you always need to be mindful of god and you take a look at accountability you're accountable for everything yeah you know what you did when you were a kid in high school still matters ten fifteen twenty years later so i think it's you know social media can be great but you have to be very very careful how you use it do you think social media can affect your social skills with communicating with actual people i think in some cases yeah i think a lot of people that spend too much time on social media and technology on their phones are no social they don't have as good of communicate in schools if people who spend more time conversing like you and i today and so i think that plays a big role you go into a job interview you know on paper you're qualified big can you converse with other people can you build a positive report communicate can you clearly articulate your ideas if that's a huge part of it and if you can't do that it's not going to matter how good your resume is it's not a matter how good your grades are is not going matter what type of content knowledge you have so you would say how the way teenagers text does end up affecting your social skills instead of sending are you up with just using the are you and then you'd say that would you say to practice texting because i guess there's not really any way to get teens to stop texting practice practice texting the way you should be speaking i don't know if i'd go that far i mean you know how people text each other as i guess up to them but i see in the classroom that sometimes people mistakenly used to actually language in the ass assignments so rather than you know right out wyo you for you people sometimes mistakenly just put the letter you what it is you know not the best thing to see in an assignment because it's a much more formal atmosphere it's a much more formal assignment that shouldn't you know include that type of climate but sometimes people are doing it so often they make mistakes like that so how grades been affected since the rise of technology like were grades before all the rise of social media and technology better than how they are today it would be a little difficult for me to say since i've been around for you know the social media generation i guess so i've been teaching since two thousand and eight so i've been teaching for a little over ten years now so technology social media has always been around in that time we have to you know go further back you really see the big difference between before social media and after social media has you know basically come on the scene to see where things have i think for certain instances yes i feel and accomplish a lot more to call it than i can via text message so my flip phone for example i have to type letter by letter i can't it takes me a while to type out a text message sometimes it's so much easier just to pick up the phone and call and to that for instance like it does make it a lot easier i do admit that because if i forget something i've tried text a friend and it's like they're not answering when i supposed to do so i'd send them a d m on instagram and it would be d m them on twitter too and it's like hey like i need this  guess it does give a sense of urgency in a way but also it just kind of affects because i just kind of effects like an all around environment because i personally i would probably rather be texting someone i know on my phone walking down the hallway instead of trying to meet someone new i guess and trying to put myself out there i guess that i guess is just a sense of comfort in me so i guess i mean i don't know i don't think that's just with me i feel like that's just a generational issue in general right that was really weird weird but anyway how would how would you say social media or not socially about technology has affected you and your friends because you are a little bit older than me so just a bit yeah just about ten years you know changing relationships that you know for a lot of us that work that have jobs that have you know a wife and kids and things like that it's just another way just for us to stand contact with each other which has you know benefits and drawbacks as well and how are some ways that those relationships have changed like have you become closer with more of those friends or have you become more distant from some of them i would say in some ways we become more distant yeah because a lot of people think that you know if you communicate via social media that you're still in contact but you don't feel that same connection is if you meet the person face to face and talk with them and go to a party with them or you know do something along those lines go play hockey with the boys something like that you know that to me is where the real relationships are you know the people that i'm the closest with  people that i spend the most time with in person you know so some of my friends that i play hockey with we go to the gym you know we got to eat you know we play that we play hockey together at least once a week sometimes twice a week but those are the people have the best relationships with the people that i stand contact with  technology through texting other types of technology that i don't feel we're nearly as close as we once were and why is that face to face connections so important i think just and life in general and the business world or for that matter even in teaching th you know building those relationships talking with someone face to face communicating is absolutely critical and you know being the smartest teacher is good but if you can't communicate if you can't build relationships with students if you can't be likable you're not going to get too far to be quite honest so i think that face to face communication is really really important you know the best teachers are some of the best communicators as well i think and now to turn that kind of change the subject a little bit do you think that there is an age too young to try to for kids to start using technology that's difficult to put a specific age number on it because i feel like whether you know parents expose their kids to it or not kids are going to be exposed in some way shape or form to technology but i think it's just a matter of finding it's you know funny moderation and whatever you're doing and would you would you put all that responsibility on the parents as the kids growing up or would the child have to take some responsibility for their own i would put on both the parent and and the child as well you know obviously if the child gets older and becomes more mature and more aware of what's going on here she has to take some responsibility for their use of technology it's also up to the parents to set limits and to help help their son or daughter you know find that balance between technology and you know face to face communication and why do you think that parents usually aren't really fans because i know like they didn't really grow up within their generation but sometimes they're just as bad as teenagers so why do you think that they tend to have a shorter temper with the teenagers usually or with one another that's a good question i don't know wh honestly i think that i just think it's because it's so new because the relationships they had with their parents were very very face to face there wasn't really very little phone calling it was the only way to communicate with someone w actually talk to them one of the only ways alone they could write letters or something and i doubt it i said a page in but i doubt it was that but i just feel like they just had that face to face connection with their parents that they w it with them and whenever it's not there they don't they don't like that so much because i mean they kind of stinks forever you're trying to talk to your son or daughter and all they're doing is just texting or taking a selfie for snap chat so i mean i guess it just no i guess it just kind of hurts them to see their kids not really associate or communicate with them yeah i think the change is tough and difficult and you know you go they go from growing up a certain way and then seeing you guys grow up a little differently that you know that change and that shift has been difficult for some of them to accept and multiple any you know except you know if i guess all right well i think that's all the time we have for for today technology however is not all bad it does have positives and it is a great way to communicate with friends or family how to help make learning easier and more accessible and share information in a matter of seconds but it starts to become a problem when it's overused and relied upon for many things my generation has grown up with major advances in technology and it's how did always acceptable for us maybe even to acceptable technology a straight humanity away from having quality conversations being able to read people and empathize with what they're saying and ultimately shortened our average attention span during conversations if you have a problem with technology and want to know how to improve your social skills please visit the center for internet and technology addiction virtual dash addiction dot com i would like to thank mr good for joining me on this episode of the edge make sure to tune in to the next episode of the edge have a great day