"Technology." This is a word that has come to define this generation of college students, as well as the society as a whole. It has risen to heights that were never imagined just a few years ago. The problem with technology is that there are many negative effects, and those negative effects have become detrimental to the college generation, as well as today's entire society. The reason it has become such a problem is that it is so distracting and requires the students' attention all of the time, as well as the fact that it has made them more uninterested and more dependent on technology for basic tasks. Social media and online games are the major forms of distraction today. These require the students' attention so much so that they feel the need to multitask all of the time so that they will never miss anything on social media. The students multitask while they do almost everything, including studying, which takes away their ability to learn because a person cannot learn something while half of their mind is focused on it and the other half is occupied by their devices. This problem has also found its way to the University of South Carolina as it has almost every other University in the world because the students at USC are just as exposed to the new technology as every other student in the world.

Technology has become a very controversial issue in today's society because some people see it as helpful to students and helps them learn, and others see it as harmful to their learning because it distracts them so much. A lot of people see technology as a positive for students today because of the vast amount of information it gives them at their fingertips with search engines such as Google and Bing, which makes it much easier for them to learn, as well as the fact that they can find and learn what they need to in a more timely manner. The argument with this point is that while there is a large amount of information at the click of a button, the other parts of technology, such as social media and online games are such a negative that they outweigh the positive of having all of that information because of how much they distract the students from studying. The students having all of that information at their fingertips is irrelevant if they are too distracted to learn it.

Technology is getting to the point that it is hurting students more than it is helping them when it comes to learning because it makes them apathetic and dependent, as well as the fact that it makes them less intelligent because it distracts them from their task or learning material at hand causing them to multitask, taking their attention away from what is important. They are disinterested and dependent because technology does so many basic tasks for people, mainly through apps on their devices. It makes them less intelligent because it is so distracting and causes the students to multitask while they are in class and while they are studying, which makes it impossible for the student to learn because a person cannot learn while their mind is occupied by something else while they are trying to study.

Technology and whether it is a good thing or bad thing for students has been a hot topic controversy for many years, dating back to when the first computer games and social media websites were created. At first it was mostly beneficial for people because it helped them solve problems or find information that they might need, and a lot of people say that it still is and that the claims about it being negative are completely unfounded. Since then it has grown to be a big distraction, due to everything it has to offer with more and more people agreeing that it has become a problem because of how much it distracts students. It has always been somewhat of a distraction because it is so intriguing and demands so much attention, but it has never been anywhere near as distracting as it is now. Technology has grown to heights that never could have been imagined even a decade ago, which is where the problem begins. It has gotten so big and can do so much that students and everyone else is beginning to depend on it to do almost everything for them, even to remember things for them.

The problem began about a decade ago when social media and online games began to come about. Students began to be more and more distracted by these games and social media outlets such as Myspace, and instant messaging apps. It then grew to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as many others that have begun to consume this generation of college students. Another problem that grew around the same time as these social media websites are smartphones, that can do basically anything the user wants it to do for them, such as remember things so that they do not have to, find people to do their chores for them on an app, or take pictures of something to remember it rather than just memorizing it. The combination of these innovations in technology have brought up the question of whether technology is truly a good thing for students or if it is hurting them more than helping them because of how much these new websites, games, and apps distract them while they are trying to study or read.

The causes of this problem have changed a lot over the past few years as technology has evolved and expanded to be capable of doing more for the person using it. Even in 2008, when Matt Richtel wrote "Hooked on Technology and Paying a Price" he discusses how addicting technology is and how it is causing people to want to multitask so that they can do productive things and be on their devices at the same time, which is not possible. That was written eight years ago, the problem has only become greater since then and the desire to be on their devices has become even greater. The causes of the problem have changed because of how much technology has changed since the problem came about. As technology changes, it increasingly does more for people, thus causing them to do less and become uninterested due to their dependence on it. As it changes, there is also more for people to do on their devices, which makes them want to be on them all the time, including when there are more important things to do such as study, or read, or pay attention in class. As technology grows and gets stronger and gives the people more things to occupy their time with, the problem will get worse, people will become even lazier and dependent, as well as they will become more distracted and will not be able to concentrate on anything without thinking about being on their devices.

This problem has existed at the University of South Carolina for over a decade, and it has developed along with the other universities in the world because technology has developed so much that it makes its way around the world in quick fashion. It has grown to such a problem that if someone goes into a class, they are sure to find at least half of the class on their laptops or phones looking at things that will not help them in their class, such as social media, or news, or playing games.

It is very clear that technology has begun to run amuck in today's college generation, and is beginning to hurt them much more than it helps them because it is making them become more indifferent and dependent because technology can do almost anything for them, it is making people less intelligent because it is hurting their ability to think and memorize because it causes there to be so much going on in their heads and causes them to multitask, rather than focus on what they are trying to read and learn, and it is causing people to not know how to interact with people in person because they rely so heavily on technology to make conversation for them.

It is evident that technology has begun to have a negative impact on students because it is making them listless and dependent on their technology to do everything for them. In Michael Oliveira's "Is the Internet making us Lazy?" he points out that people are losing basic skills as simple as writing because it is so often done for them that they are forgetting how to do it. He interviewed one man who even said when it came time to sign a birthday card he became scared because he was not sure that he would be able to write and it be legible as well as the fact that he did not know if he had spelled everything correctly because he did not have spell check. Hermann Maurer's "Does the Internet make us Stupid?" also points to technology making people dependent because it is beginning to replace things that people have always done for themselves such as writing, chores, and sometimes even thinking. Technology is causing people to lose basic skills which they were taught as children because it has begun to do them for them, and even if they are capable of doing those things, they are not comfortable because it has been such a long time since they have done them.

Technology has also begun to negatively affect students in the fact that it is causing them to become less intelligent because it hurts their thinking because it makes them not fully focus on what they are doing, causing them to not be able to memorize things when they need to. Nick Drew's article, "Are Smartphones Making us Dumber?" is a study about how technology affects memorization, and they found that when people try to use technology to help them memorize something rather than them actually paying attention and trying to learn it, has a serious effect on whether or not people can memorize. People who took pictures of something on their phones to help them memorize it could not recall what they had just heard immediately after when their phones were taken away and they could not see the pictures, while the people who actually paid attention and did not try to use technology, were able to memorize what they had heard much better. This study is perfect proof that technology is hurting students because if someone were to walk into a lecture in which the professor used slides with their information on them, half of the class would be taking pictures of them rather than engaging in what he is saying. 

Technology has also come to hurt people's intelligence because it causes them to not be able to read as well as they once could when technology was less of a factor in their lives. Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making us Stupid?" talks about how technology is causing people to not be able to read long pieces of prose and fully process what they are reading because technology is causing people to just "skim" what they are reading because technology distracts them so much that they cannot concentrate long enough to process it. Another source in which Carr is the main voice is the video, "What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" talks about how technology is such a flood of information that people cannot differentiate the valuable information from the invaluable, which makes it impossible for them to learn anything because the mind cannot learn when it is being distracted by everything technology has to offer.

Technology also causes people to multitask and not focus on their reading or studying because they want to do other things on their devices. Dianne Middleton's "Technology and Academic Performance" is about students attempting to multitask while they are studying or reading, which makes it impossible for them to learn because this article states that one cannot learn unless their mind is fully focused on what they are attempting to study. It says that technology has so much for students to do that technology consumes their time and makes them feel as though they must always be on their devices doing something. This is one of the biggest problems technology has caused for students, because the overwhelming desire for them to be on their devices at all times takes away from their studies, and they know this so they try to multitask and do both at the same time, this causes them to not effectively study because they are not fully focused on what they are trying to study.

Finally, technology also has negatively affected this generation of college students because it causes them to not know how to interact with other people in person because they are so used to having technology do it for them. In a section of Charles Dunlop's book, Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices, he talks about how technology has substituted emailing and talking on the telephone for actually talking face to face, which makes them not know how to act around people when they are actually face to face. "Our texting is fine. It's what texting does to our conversation does when we are together that's the problem," (Turkle) is a perfect summary of the way technology has affected the way students interact with one another. Caitlyn Dewey's "Even in Real Life, There Were Screens Between Us," the author tells a story about a time when she met someone online and they had a perfect relationship when they did not have to talk in person, but that when they met in person, it was extremely awkward and they did not know how to act around one another because they had relied on technology so much to communicate for them. People have begun to lose their ability to communicate with others because technology can communicate for them and they can be in contact with people without ever having to meet them face to face, so they lose their soft skills, which are a necessity in this world.

Even though technology has gotten way out of hand and has begun to negatively affect students more than it helps them, it has not gone too far that it cannot be fixed by a few changes in lifestyle, as well as the policies of schools. There are a wide range of things that schools could do to stop the negative use of technology that is distracting their students both during class and in times that they are attempting to study. When it comes to the students changing their lifestyles to get away from technology and begin to better themselves and become less dependent on it, they are basically on their own and must have the initiative to stop using it as much and to stop letting it control their lives and the way they use their time.

Universities, such as the University of South Carolin,  are beginning to have problems with students being on their devices during classes, not to take notes, but to be on social media, or playing games, or looking at other things that do not relate to the content of the class. This part of the problem is relatively easy to take care of with just a few changes in the university's technology in the classroom policy. The university could switch to a no-device policy when it comes to classrooms and that would completely eliminate the problem of students being on their devices during class. Samuel Freedman's "New Class(room) War: Teacher vs. Technology" is about students always being on their devices in class and them not being engaged because they are distracted by what is on their device, and he goes as far to say that banning the devices from the classrooms would be a large step but an effective one because they would have nothing else to do but listen to and engage in the lecture. Another option would be for the university to craft it's Wi-Fi in a way that in can block certain websites from being accessed from devices which are connected to it, which would allow the students to take notes on their devices, but would limit what they can access while in the classroom and keep them from being distracted by any of the many distractions on the internet. Many high schools across the country have begun to limit what can be accessed on their Wi-Fi in order to keep the students focused while also letting their devices assist them in the classroom and have seen positive results, and there is a great possibility that this would also be successful in the college classroom. This approach would work at the University of South Carolina because most of the classes are small enough to enforce it and the professors would be able to punish students for being on their devices in class. There are only a few exceptions where the classes are too big for the professors to enforce this rule and these classes would have to allow students to be on their devices because if they tried to enforce it, then they would spend no time actually teaching the class.

A lot of the problems with technology in the college generation lie outside of the classroom, in their everyday lives where they depend on their devices to do a lot of things for them, even basic, everyday tasks, and where they are distracted from their studies by their devices. This part of the negative effects technology has on students is not as easy of a fix as the classroom, because the devices cannot simply be banned from their lives and their Wi-Fi at home will not be adjusted to manipulate what they can and cannot access. This problem can only be fixed by the student changing his/her lifestyle and cutting the negative parts of technology out of them. The students could make themselves go outside and be active for a certain amount of the day so that they do not become apathetic. They could also actually do the basic tasks that technology can do for them so that they do not become as dependent on their devices as a lot of people have become. Finally, when they are studying, the students could turn all of their devices off and put them away so that they are not tempted to look at other things that might distract them from their studies. There is no easy fix for technology taking over students' home lives, there is no policy that can be enacted; the only way that these problems can be fixed in the students' everyday lives is if they want them to change and if they try to make a change for themselves to make themselves better students, and better people.

In closing, it is safe to say that technology has become a powerful force in today's society, and even more so in this generation of college students. While some of the things technology provide are good for these students and help them, a lot of it is negative because it has made them uninterested and dependent; as well as the fact that it has hurt their ability to think and process things that they are reading because they are being distracted by their devices and trying to multitask instead of giving their attention to the task they are trying to complete. This problem can be solved by banning devices in the classroom and getting students to minimize their use of technology in their home lives and becoming more active so that they are not as disinterested and dependent on their devices.

