Paradoxes of Technology and Internet

This is my article for Division School's Press Conference.

She is an insomniac, her mom is a tech noob and her dad is a closet porn-viewer.

“Your laptop is confiscated” – the repeating threat her parents tell her but never actually put into action. Every time, the outcome had been the same. And yet, every time she still felt threatened and depressed as if it was life itself that would be taken away from her.

For 5 years now and counting, technology and Internet slowly became a big part of her life. It became bigger than what it should’ve been. Taking away her laptop was like taking away her life.

It is technology and Internet that often sparks the bigger argument between her and her parents. She would leave dinner table as soon as she was done eating and would lock herself in her room. Family time became less with hectic schedules and now another barrier: technology and Internet.

Internet is “bad” for studies they say. What they do not know was it was the opposite. Communication through the Internet helped her make the assignments and do projects on time that she was too lazy to jot down in class. Her parents yap that she was always “chatting with friends” but what they do not know was she was asking for help on how to solve a rather hard equation.

She sees porno sites whenever she typed ‘p’ in her search bar. Her dad flirts with teenage girls in Facebook, she sees. And downloads tons of pdf files – filling her desktop.

Her mom knows Apple, thank God. She probably knows because her daughter keeps on pestering her to buy a $1500 Mac. The only other thing she knows about computers would probably be Facebook.

When her parents tell her “I am proud of you” because she can make a PowerPoint, she secretly smiles. They might not seem like it, but her parents are technology noobs.

She is now 18. She sleeps much later than 10pm. She finally owns a Mac and her face is plastered with uncountable zits. You would probably say Internet and Technology had a bad effect on her but no. It did not. She had no regrets. If she were to do it all again, she’d take the same road. This time, she would help her parents get out of the ‘technology noob’ status.

Wherever she goes, her laptop comes. It became her daily ritual. Technology and Internet shaped her parents’ lives and hers. In her parents’ eyes, technology is a distraction and Internet is evil – that is the paradox of her parents lives and her own.

Tune in for my next post! It will be about the result of DSPC!
PS. If my parents happen to read this article, I just want to clarify that this is made-up and has no bearing in real life whatsoever.