I love using technology in my daily life. I love being able to text my friends when I think of something that would make them laugh, and I love being able to check Twitter to see what’s going on around the world – without having to wait for it to be on the headlines of a newspaper the next day. I watch parts of my favorite songs at concerts through the screen of my cell phone, and I am so thankful I do so when I want to relive that moment the next day. I have a life outside of technology, but enjoying my life with it doesn’t make me a bad person.

Unfortunately, our generation is constantly bombarded by messages criticizing how we use technology. For example, in advisory a few weeks ago, we watched a spoken word film titled “Look Up,” a reflection on how technology has taken over normal human relationships and an over-exaggeration of all the things we will miss out on if we use it. It was well put together, but I couldn’t ignore the superiority this man felt over technology users. Preferring traditional ways of doing things is fine, but it isn’t necessary to trash the digital ways of the future since we’re only growing more in that direction.  The video made it seem like using the GPS on your phone could prevent you from meeting people that could change your life. Apps like the GPS are invented to make useful tools more accessible for daily life and it is a privilege to have these resources two taps away. Some people may prefer the old fashioned way of carrying around multiple appliances, but keeping a map in your back pocket doesn’t make you any better than the guy that keeps a digital one in his.

A majority of us may have heard, or even made, the joke about two people in the same room on their phones texting each other. The beauty of technology is that very ability to text people in the same room as you or people in a different country. Older generations tend to mock younger ones for the way they use technology and social media, claiming tweets and posts are vain or not important. However, according to a report by the American Psychological Association, Psychologist Larry D. Rosen states that kids who are less social are able to work on their social skills through social media. The National Information Technology Center claims status updates can even help produce traits like entrepreneurship that will help the users later in life.

Even in our academic lives, we use technology to check our grades, quickly search up definitions and even access our textbooks. School was once a place where technology was not allowed to even leave our backpacks, and now we have evolved it to enhance our education. According to a May 2013 Harris Poll which surveyed teachers across the United States, 86 percent of teachers believe using technology in the classroom is important, and 89 percent of teachers surveyed believe technology increases student engagement. With the advances in technology we’ve made since 2013, there are even more resources available to help students learn, making technology that much more crucial to our society.

We can read, watch videos, play card games and do so much more with our devices that it isn’t a mystery why people spend so much time on them. Technology is such a new concept that it is easy to be skeptical, but the same things we do without technology can be accomplished and in a quicker and well-organized manner when we take advantage of it. Sometimes it’s just easier to look things up online than to read a book to find the answers. Relying on technology isn’t this generation’s fatal flaw, or even a flaw at all. It is unnecessary to shame or feel ashamed for enjoying things the digital way.