World Today: Drastic Differences from Our Parents' Upbringing

Categories: Generation

When thinking about todays society there is a lot to take in with all of the different races, family cultures, and all of the sources of education. While thinking about all of these options and reading about them in the book, there are four people that do a great job telling us about all of the themes. One of the authors is Gunther Kress, Kress discusses how books now are not getting read from an actual book, we are reading them off screen.

Another author is Andrew Lam. He tells us how all of the "new" generations are being raised by the use of technology. Min-Zhan Lu also is a relatable source when talking about this topic. The last reading that relates to the topic is Barack Obama's speech that summed up his views on. When kids are growing up they should not be introduced to technology because it is not good for their brain at such a young age. They do not have full development of their brain and they still have a lot of growing to do.

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Another important reason that these children should not be this tethered to technology yet is because some of do not know how to use it to it's best potential.

An example of this is how technology creates countless distractions in during school. While reading Gunther Kress article Literacy in the Media Age, it becomes evident that today's world drastically differs from the way our parents grew up. When researching or reading it has become very rare that we actually go to the library or the book store.

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Instead, it is now common for us to read articles on the internet or from e-books. This new way of reading is now primarily done using screens compared to old-fashioned paperback. There are still some people in our society who prefer reading paper back books. However, it has become a rare occasion to find someone not looking at their screens. Kress has a great point in his article regarding the differences between the books published today and books from decades ago:

To the first objection I say: the books that are published now are in very many cases books which are already influenced by the new logic of the screen, and in many cases they are not “books” as that word would be understood thirty or forty years ago” (Kress 13).

Kress's article gives us insight to how Americans are actually learning and progressing. We have all of these great sources that do not require us to go grab a book and read. The internet enables us to search a topic and within seconds it can find an article or website that pertains to our topic. By using the internet, we can get a detailed summary so that we do not need to read massive amounts of text to find the topic we are looking for. Just because we have these new sources does people writing anymore because that is not true at all. The articles that are posted online do not come out of nowhere. Experts and authors are still and just posting their new work online for us, the users, to sift through. Only a few decades ago people were still reliant on books to obtain the information they needed for research. They would have to go to their local or school library and read pages and pages of information to finally find out what they were looking for. Past generations may have had to read through many books just to get a basic understanding of a topic instead.

Nowadays, the same information is available to us but has become a lot easier for us to pinpoint articles and information. This all can be done with a click of a button People in what we call the "third generation” would have a very hard time functioning if we were assigned to read an entire book just to find out one thing that wanted to be found. We have very little experience with going to the library and getting an actual book not to mention reading it in it's entirety. With all of this technology being easily accessible to us we have become extremely lazy with the way we read. If a professor asked us to locate a reading or learn something, we would instantly reach for our technologies and "Google" the topic. We might not have as much insight on the issues at hand, compared to as if we read the actual book, but we would get enough information to comprehend the topic. This way of conducting research has become a common practice as billions of people use internet to help them with their education or work. We never think twice when we are asked to find information. We instantly go right to the technology, read off of the screen, and that is the issue Kress addresses. He knows that there are a limited amount of so called "books” nowadays and all we do is go read off of a screen. He believes that this way of research is not doing any good for us.

However, the innovative ways to obtain information has enables internet access a lot more information. Everyone knows that technology is taking us over. It is only going to improve as the time passes and our way of life will never go back to the primitive ways past generations researched topics. Our education involves an enormous amount of technology use. When reading Andrew Lam, I Tweet, Therefore I am, you get a look into how we have been raised through the use of technology during the years of growing up. Technology plays an incredibly important role while getting educated. Teachers will give us assignments and it will involve us going on the internet and researching information instead of using traditional books. Education is a huge thing in every child's lives so that when the time comes to be on our own, we will have the knowledge and abilities to do so successfully. With getting taught with technology that is relatable because with the amount of technology we use, at least we can know how to use it. We need to keep up with all of the technology changes and improvements because without it we will no be able to really do anything because we were taught this way. When parents are sending the children to school they do not except there kids coming home with homework that involves technology.

At such a young age no parent would ever expect their kids to need to know how all of this technology especially at the age that they are. As said in Andrew Lams essay “generations have been raised on video games, spent bulk of their lives in chatrooms and on YouTube, on cell phones and iPods”. (25) This statement really says a whole lot about how our generation works. People in todays society can not go an hour without looking at there phones or using technology. For the past generations they had none of this. For them to see all of these kids around all of this technology it is disappointing to see their next generations using it. However, due to the time change with our generation these kids need to know how to use all of the technology because it will only improve over the years. There will no be going back to the "books” that will be unheard of sooner than everyone thinks. Technology is improving rapidly and everyone needs to keep up with it because it is involved with our society. Without the use of technology no one would be able to go on with there lives because they were grow up with the use of it.

While reading Lams essay it really makes you think on how true it is. With the study that was done everyone in todays society needs to use technology in their life or they will not be able to get through. Further more into the topics Min-Zhan Lu's essay is a great one that also relates to the generations and how they are changing. While growing up and knowing about the American culture but living in her country she had a hard time choosing. When growing up she did not know what do when questions were asked. She did not want to upset anyone and she was stuck in between the two of her cultures. Her parents wanted to do different than what was going on in America. When cultures are brought over not knowing anything about living in America it is hard for them to change from there culture to ours.

Lu said a great line in her essay and that is "A few nights before she fell silent, she told me she regretted the way she had raised me and my sister." (148) by reading that one line you can comprehend that she was brought to another “world” and had to deal with the two different ways of living. Even though she was still in her country she had the knowledge of two countries and that is what made her have a hard time when questions were asked. When getting brought into a new would you need to really be sure that you are going to be committed into accepting the changes from your old way of living to the new style. I am sure that at the age they were it was an extremely hard thing for the two to do. When knowing the two countries style, it is not only changed in your living style, they need to change pretty much everything. With them knowing little English and getting pushed to learn it is not the easiest thing to do.

Even though they will get help learning it in school throughout the years it is not easy. People here in America are in all world language classes and they know how tricky they are and can be throughout the years of taking the course. With education being a huge thing while growing up they had an extremely hard time with this because when questions were asked they did not know how to answer them. When questions were being asked she did not want to upset their mother nor the American society and had a really stressful time answering the questions that were being asked. She did not want to upset anyone by saying the wrong thing when answering the questions and this is where she had the problems coming in. Just think about it, if you were in another country and a question was asked and you didn't want to upset your country or your parents. This is where kids are getting very stressed and do not know what to say. Not only is this a problem but learning a new language is super hard! With them knowing little English they have a hard time letting people know how they feel with not being able to speak the language everyone else speaks.

In school they do not know how to speak fluent English and this is making is even harder for them. This is where the mother is coming from and she wished that she helped the kids from the start so that they can become familure with both cultures. It would make the children have better and easier lives while growing up in America. They would know how this are being looked at but not only for America they can still go back to there country and be able to enjoy it there. The parents could have still taught them about china even when they were in America. They would still be able to get a good look on the Chinese culture because the parents lived there and all the relatives knew how it was. However, by them not knowing really anything about America they couldn't teach them anything without being here. With the mother passing away it made the kids probably have a harder time here because they had no one to go to when they had problems.

Usually when children have problems they go to there mothers and they can solve it because they know everything. With having no one to go to and the mother passed away this is where the kids were having a difficult time. Before the mother passed she told the kids how she felt and what she wanted and this is why they were having a hard time answering the questions in school. The teachers and classmates where expecting an answer that goes with the American society but with little knowledge and she didn't want to get anyone upset she did not know how to answer. She was stuck in between answering for her parent's thoughts or for the American society. When relating this to the American dream, this is why the kids were brought over here. The parents thought and probably knew that bringing them over to American would allow them the live a better life and eventually achieve what we call the American dream. They could of stayed in china and lived there life but the parents knew that moving over here would be a lot better for there kids. Not only that but the two girl's children will be a lot better living in America and get a lot better education out of being here.

Finally, the last person to connect to these writers would be Barack Obama and his speech. He talks about all the slavery what had happened over the years and how none of it should have happened. People where getting picked out from there races and that is a cruel thing to do. Just because how they looked does not mean anything about a person and as we all know now a day that still happens today and should not be. For the people that were here way before us Barack want them to be free and have all equal rights. Just because they went through all the tough times and got picked on and maybe things had happened that should not have he wants to free them. He wants them to live how everyone should in American and that is free with equal rights no matter what. With people no agreeing and not getting along be will not be able to solve the problems that need to get solved. The only way that he feels these problems will get solved is if we are going to all come together and solve them involving everyone.

With todays society they way it is it is not likely that we will all come together because people believe in different things and set there minds so that they will not do anything unless it is in doing it the way that they want. With him being a black president but getting raised by a white mother and white grandfather, he is relatable to all of these people. His grandmother was a worker for an assembly line for the bombers. With everyone knowing how he was raise and with him being black people will look at those little things and think terrible of him. When running for president this made things a lot harder for him and he needed to prove that he can do it for this country and keep us under control and safe at the same time. Race is a huge thing when in the campaign and he needed everyone to over come the fact he was a different race, then most and not only that he was a black guy running. The fact that people still worry about peoples race and still feel the need to judge by that should not be acceptable. You would think that how far we all have came that this would not be a thing to take into consideration but it is.

People were judging Obama by his race and color of his skin and people were not accepting him because of that. During his run he really needed to prove how good he actually would be and that he would better us also the things he would do. When reading his story, it is that a really important line that was said "Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those whom my statements of condemnation are not enough" (478). This says a whole lot because, when running people knew all his background information and his races that people would see those and say no way. This is a terrible thing that people review his information and by knowing his race that they would judge him already.

No one knew how intelligent he was or anything because before he got up a spoke he was getting judged that hard. You would think in todays society after everything that had happened good and bad over the years that people would just come together. People care only about themselves and this is why things like this are happening. They had no idea anything else about Barak and were treating him like this. They saw how he got raised and what kind of family he was from and thought right away that would not be good for him to run the United States of America. With him trying to do such a big thing for us and have the guts to run for presidency people think its ok to judge him like this and just say who cares. Looking back to when he was running and listening to people talk in public on how we can not have a black president is a terrible thing to hear. Just because the color of his skin people though it was ok to say things like that.

People in todays society are so judgmental that it is terrible. No one needs to be looked at differently because of how they look and what they believe in. also with him associating with the black churched before running was another thing people were judging him about and saying why not just go work in a church. With him getting all the comments about his race he still feels as though it cannot get ignored. Race is a huge thing in America right now with everything going on and cannot be forgotten. Barak had to deal with it when running for presidency. As he dealt with is he realized how important race is in America. With the past black history being not too good that is why they are getting judged and they don't want the black community going back to them old selves. People do not have faith that they will be good to America and that is why our country is being judged and Barak was.

People need to accept the fact that those times have past and everyone has overcome the previous and we are all moving forward as a whole to make our country better for not only who lives here but for the ones that was to be sent over to live a better life. After reading and learning about all of these writers the last one that can be related to this topic is a story that Chaves Fernando wrote. After reading the article you really get a look look on how true everything it with technology in our generation. With technology evolving around us there is a lot to consider and all different options to choose from. Many people in the past generations are looking down upon all the new technology that is coming out but in reality that is how the world is ending up. Even though people are getting mad about how much technology is taking over there is nothing at all that we can do to help it. Everything we use in todays culture is involving the use of it. In Chaves article there was a great thing said and that is "Peer-reviewed articles published in laboratory medicine litera- ture have conñrmed the positive impact that these technological advances bring to laboratories”.

This shows that not only do we use technology for things that are not important. It is getting used for things that are important and huge in the world. They are trying to better everything that they can with the use of technology. Its in the use everywhere you go. It is becoming so involved in out nation that something's that are so important to us like doctors and surgeons are even using it. Without technology they would not be able to preform the surgeries that they do in their everyday lives. This all really comes together when reading all the articles and essays throughout the time, and how important technology had come in our society. While relating all these writers you really see everything come together. People always say how technology is taking over the world, some may not believe it and some may. After reading all the writers you can really see how true it is. With all the generations coming over to America they all are involved with technology. Gunther Kress, Andrew Lam, Min-Zhan Lu, Barack Obama, and Chaves Fernando all relate to how generations and technology had over come our world and you cannot live without technology.

Bibliography

  1. George, Diana, and John Trimbur. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. New York: Longman, 2001. Print
  2. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ursus-proxy-1.ursus.maine.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=5&sid=58f217b6-5c56-4f6d-9547-d3d4861c4614%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4204 11
Updated: May 03, 2023
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World Today: Drastic Differences from Our Parents' Upbringing. (2021, Oct 11). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/an-analysis-of-today-s-world-that-drastically-differs-from-the-way-our-parents-grew-up-essay

World Today: Drastic Differences from Our Parents' Upbringing essay
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