Современные высоко-технологичные гаджеты: за и против

Муниципальное общеобразовательное автономное учреждение

средняя общеобразовательная школа

с углубленным изучением отдельных предметов № 1

The influence of modern Hi-tech gadgets on moral development of a teenager and his ability to self-actualization in modern society.

                                             Руководитель работы: учитель английского языка

                                                Степанова Ольга Ионасовна

                                             Выполнил: ученик 11А класса МОАУ СОШ № 1

Лавренов Тимофей

Г. Белогорск

2012 год

Introduction

The word «gadget» can be heard almost everywhere: from specialized electronic stores to discussion forums. The word "gadget" has English origin and is translated into Russian as "adjustment." In other words, the gadget – is an electronic device. The main purpose of any gadget – is to help modern people to ease their life, make it brighter, more simple and comfortable

It isn’t rocket science; it’s easy to see

Why everybody’s mad about technology

Each electronic gadget, each new machine

Can make our lives much better than they’ve ever been

We are living a time when things are fresh and new

It seems that there is nothing we can’t do

So we march into the future, every boy and girl

The computer age is here and it’s a whole new world

Computers make a difference to the world at large

With knowledge at our fingertips, we are all in charge

With one touch of a button we can access all

And find the answers to all questions, great and small.

Though we can’t imagine our life without modern gadgets we decided to find out if they are blessing or curse. So the main purpose of our work was

To bring the light on the influence of modern Hi-tech gadgets on moral development of a teenager and his ability to self-actualization in modern society.  

Tasks

1. We should  find and learn all information about the latest Hi-tech gadgets
2.  determine the frequency of using them in everyday life
3.  get the information about the influence of gadgets on people’s health
4.  understand their influence on self-education and self-determination of a teenager

Modern gadgets

  We started  our work with looking through Internet-sites.  We learnt that the top ten gadgets that changed the world are debatable. Nevertheless, popular choices would be the television, telephone, camera, movie camera, microwave oven, video cassette player and recorder, video gaming consoles, Sony's Walkman, IBM's personal computer or PC and the first cell phone released in 1996, by Motorola. The latest gadgets include superior versions of DVDs, smart phones, camcorders, laptops, iPods, iPhones, the Blackberry, PCs, computer notebooks, pedometers etc.
The Meaning of the Word

Back in the past a gadget used to mean a device, which was meant to do something extraordinary (or at least it looked not like other devices). Today there are so many devices of this kind that it's impossible to tell, where the boundary between a gadget and a device lies. For example, a digital camera is mainly called a device (or just a camera), though a new and a cool mobile phone with many modern applications and functions would be called a gadget. The line between the two terms became really unclear.

            That modern gadgets have changed the world, is a gross understatement. No one wants to go back to the days of no television, no washing machines and certainly, no cell phone. Hi-tech gadgets are proliferating by the dozen, as companies vie with each other to catch the eyes of gadget freaks or just time-pinched consumers.

            Gadgets Style Hi-Tech are the products of unusual designer’s and creator’s fantasy. Thus, they reject our ideas about things as they should be

              There are different types of gadgets : spy gadgets, USB Gadgets, iPod gadgets, gadgets designed for cell phones, etc.

Today the leading place among the gadgets take different types of communicators. They can not only make calls around the world, but also view the photos, set the programs, they allow us to watch TV and even listen to music from the player or the Internet. Space they take up is very little. Of course, the gadget is an important assistant for people who can understand the latest digital technologies

After that we got acquainted with the works  of  Dr Hemant Chandorkar consulting psychiatris and

Avinash Bartakke, founder-director, Neural Space (brain training centre) to learn about the influence of gadgets on people’s health

Gadgets are useful when they help you achieve more in less time
The effective use of hi-tech devices depends on the situation in which they are used. These gadgets are useful when they help you speed up your work. If more can be achieved in less time, there is no harm in using them. The gadgets must not become so important in our life that dependency on them becomes unavoidable. We must not give up our natural capacity of doing simple tasks of calculation and computation. Our educational system shoulden courage students to use their brains than depend on these hi-tech solutions. Due to urbanisation and commercialisation, gadgets such as cellphones are being rigorously marketed. They have penetrated into our lives so much that we are not aware about our dependency on them. They have become an important part of our life. An automation device is designed to make human task easy and to achieve more in less time, so that we can stretch our time to do other things. But, if we start applying it for our nominal tasks and become dependent on it, our natural skills are bound to get affected.
Small mental activities go a long way in enhancing memory
The use of GPS and calculators improve efficiency and make life easier but it also deprives people of the opportunity of using their brain. Small daily mental activities such as making an effort to remember telephone numbers, appointment schedules, names, places and directions go a long way in sharpening and enhancing memory, attention and concentration skills. People’s tendency is to take least efforts to complete a task and technology comes to the aid in such situations.

Sensory motor development which is an important part of a child’s growth will be affected if children spend their time watching television and playing video games. The problem of dependence is compounding with children using cellphones and calculators. Children are in the developing stage and if their mental skills are not used to their full potential, they will never realise their aptitude. The use of mental abilities is important for adults because after the age of 35the decline of the cognitive skills begins.

The study done by Carnegie Mellon University found that spending one hour a week on the Net led to an average increase of 1 percent on depression scale, a loss of 2.7 members of the Net users social circle and increase of 0.4% on the loneliness scale.
Almost all modern gadgets produce electromagnetic fields or EMFs, be they powered by electric, electronic or battery sources.
According to scientists, EMR (electromagnetic radiation) from EMFs, can be disruptive to the human body's own natural energy fields. Like x-rays, these waves are not blocked or weakened by objects in their way. They pass into our bodies upsetting normal cellular function and biological processes. EMR can cause headaches, tiredness and even immune system disorders. Scientists believe that appliances such as electric hair dryers, shavers and bedside digital alarms are more dangerous due to their proximity to the human head.

For those who believe in the perils of the mobile phone, the fact that graver side-effects like cancer take years to show up after exposure to cell phone radiation, is solely responsible for the free run of these gadgets.

A recent study by Finnish scientists found a 40 percent increase in the risks of brain tumor for those who use these phones for more than 10 years. The brain tumor was most likely to be located on the side of the head where the phone was held. In addition, a Swedish study has found that brain cells could be destroyed by mobile phone radiation, which means that the present generation of teenagers run the risk of going senile before their middle-age!

 There is no question about the ill-effects of EMF and especially the radiation released by cell phones and their effects on the brain of children. The scientists are to some extent underplaying its ill-effects. At present most scientists are agreeable that children under eight should not be permitted to use mobile phones; a warning sidestepped by most lawmakers.

Stress at home, at work

Hi-tech gadgets created to supposedly reduce stress, often result in the opposite. Jarring ring tones, high-decibel tunes on iPods and headsets, as well as blaring music from the television's pricey sound systems account for noise pollution, which in turn cause headaches and hearing loss.

Like the ear, the eye too gets hit badly by modern gadgets. Hours of computer work, or computer play such as games have created a boom time for optometrists and eye ware stores.

Modern gadgets can also compromise road safety. Hi-tech gadgets or gizmos like iPods, iPhones and cell phones etc come with multimedia facilities. This means that users can jive to their favorite tunes, watch movies or even browse the Internet all while answering a call or even, driving. Unfortunately the human body may not always be that efficient. This multitasking can translate into car accidents or even distracted pedestrians walking right into oncoming traffic.

Health Gadgets
Finally one class of gadget that has been made for a good purpose and this is a class of health gadgets. Health gadgets are just as weird, funny and high tech as other types of gadget but that have something to do with your health.

Their goal is to make people healthier if they want to but have no time or forget to take pills. There are many different health gadgets from taking pills schedulers to automatic injection ones. From head massagers to gadget that can normalize your blood pressure.

There are very many health gadgets and they become more and more popular. You can find a lot of them on the internet. Even some hospitals advise using them because they really help.

This class of gadget has been created not to entertain but to help people. So this is what they do and you can not really call them gadgets because they are more like new ways of treatment. However, everything new you can call a gadget.

Some examples of health gadgets:

1. Home thermometers, infrared thermometers that can tell your temperature in seconds and other diagnostic gadgets.

2. Portable defibrillators that can actually save your life

Numerous gadget for those who have diabetes

Gadgets for monitoring your state: blood pressure, sugar level, temperature etc.

Gadgets normalizing your blood pressure, lower pain, reduce head ache etc.

                     All these gadgets have been created by people for people. In some situations they can even save your life. It does not mean that you have to run and get one in the closest store but they really help and might be useful in some cases.

This is what health gadgets do and they are generally very small and very sophisticated so it is very comfortable to use them as opposed to other devices. For example a infrared thermometer can tell you the temperature of your body in a second however if you use an ordinary one it will take you  10 minutes to tell the temperature.

Sometimes time plays a very big role in cases like heart attack and you can use the portable defibrillator to get somebody back to life. Helping yourself to overcome some problems with hearing or seeing things will also be easier if you use a health gadget for that.

Health gadget are some of the few gadgets that are very useful and that can actually save somebody's life.

Practical research

When we asked the pupils of  10-11 th forms of our school to name the most important gadgets for them, we got the following result:

Among 72   teenagers  38%  put on the first place a computer,  27% – named iPad, 21% consider laptop the most important one, 14% – smartphone.  

But among the most frequently used are named  smartpnone, laptop,and a computer as they are more affordable. Only nearly 20%of teens  have the opportunity to use iPad.

             Smartphone, laptop and iPad  are considered by them to be the most portable, usable, convenient, competent and productive.

             On the other hand  they  heard that all of them produce electromagnetic fields and radiation.

We turned to scientific explorations and found all necessary information

According to scientists, EMR (electromagnetic radiation) from EMFs, can be disruptive to the human body's own natural energy fields. Like x-rays, these waves are not blocked or weakened by objects in their way. They pass into our bodies upsetting normal cellular function and biological processes.

 They can cause headaches, tiredness and even immune system disorders. Everybody understands the harmful effect of these gadgets but can’t help using them

The next question was:

5. How much time do they spend on education,  entertainment  and communication using different gadgets?

They were asked to give answers in per cents.

 32 teenagers  use  50% of their spent time on education

  22 teenagers            25%

  14 teenagers             10%

  4 pupils   spend only 1% on education

22 young people use gadgets as the main source of entertainment. They spend there from 40 till

80% of their time

51 teenagers named these gadgets as the source of communication. They use them in 50% to communicate with each other. On the question if they think that gadgets unite their families and make them closer they gave the affirmative answers. They said that communicate on the phone with their parents several times a day  as every member of the family has his own phone and often visit the same sites in the Internet and then discus them all together.

No doubt, we were interested to know what their favourite sites were

The largest  part (50%)  formed communicative sites such as odnoklassniki.ru , mail.ru, v kontakte.ru, twitter.com, facebook

30% -entertainment sites (YouTube.ru, drom.ru, myspace, soccer.ru, zaicev.net  and str. )

15 % include educational sites ( edu.ru, wikipedia, 5 ballov,  KM.ru) and 5% under 18+

(we won’t name them)

               As we see from our research the students like to communicate and enjoy free time playing different games, watching video films, listening to the music.

We can’t say that it is too bad. Some scientists say that playing games on cellphones sharpens our concentration and computational skills.  More over engaging the brain in challenging tasks will help you think faster, improve your concentration and attention spam.

But unfortunately, it’s difficult to say that all these sites  (except educational) broaden their horizon  or give the true picture of the real world. And the worse thing is that our teenagers can look through sites under 18+.

            Gadgets like the Internet-enabled PC, satellite TV and mobile phone have created a unified international audience. Though the benefits are many, technology has grabbed its pound of flesh too.

               For one, it is now easier for anti-social elements and crime to spread its tentacles. Anti-social lyrics in popular songs, which spill out of ear phones and headsets can subtly bring about a rise in racial differences and hate-crimes. The young, impressionable mind can get influenced by the lyrics and this can lead to alteration in their outlook and lifestyle. The hard rock and metal music is often criticized for this very reason.
               

Summary

To sum up, we can say that it is practically impossible to live without modern gadgets nowadays. They make our life more interesting, more convenient. More over, we can get a lot of information and deep our knowledge in different spheres of our life.

              But, unfortunately the majority of young people don’t understand the  real value of modern hi-tech technologies and seldom use them for  self-education and self-determination. Gadgets are only toys in their hands.

Besides they must remember that For in his attempt to create a more convenient world, man is unwittingly paying the highest price - his health.

Conclusion

We came to the conclusion that it’s important to give  teenagers the necessary information about useful educational sites and programs. As well as about the bad influence of them on people’s health.  It would be much better if teachers were the guides for their pupils in the world of hi-tech technologies.