Introduction
There is no doubt that all the people using the benefits that society can give should do their best to secure its successful future. Although it affects people of all ages, I believe that it is extremely important to consider this issue concerning the younger generation. The society is ruled by adult people, and they act as the presence of our society; according to this logic, younger people are our future, and this is why numerous issues related to them are so important. I strongly believe that young people’s consciousness should be discussed as often as possible; they have equal odds of saving or destroying the society in the future as it all depends upon the external influence that they experience when their personalities are shaping. Our century can be called a century of unlimited opportunities but many fruits of technological advancement are used in the wrong way. Unfortunately, many young people in Saudi Arabia and all over the world tend to use modern information technologies without thinking, and such a state of things can lead our society to serious troubles.
Young People and Modern Technologies: Misuse and Ignorance
Young people present a real power that can contribute either to the survival or to degradation of society. Nowadays, all the people who care about the future of their countries believe that a lot of attention should be paid to teaching the younger generation to discern good things from the bad ones. One of the most difficult issues connected to youth culture is their lack of consciousness when it comes to the use of modern means of communication and other things that were invented to promote knowledge among the masses of people and share the information that can help us to change our lives for better. The rise of technologies such as radio and television broadcasting, and then the Internet and social media was an important process that could take place only due to the efforts made by hardworking and talented people of the past centuries.
In the very beginning, technological development was supposed to propel the humanity to the next level, help to decrease or estrange illiteracy over the world, and become a power that would be able to unite the humanity and let different nations to share their experiences. It seemed to be a really good idea; due to these efforts humanity got many opportunities that could facilitate its development. Nevertheless, every coin has two sides; with time, new technologies and social media have become a source of money for some influential people. Nowadays, these information mediums are mostly used not to provide people with new knowledge and encourage them to grow personally but to entertain them and distract their attention from the sensitive issues to the far-fetched ones. Worse still, it is quite easy to deceive the majority of young people, offering them something that looks good but has no meaning. Unfortunately, modern mass media can have an enormous influence on our personalities and this undeniable fact makes this situation a real catastrophe.
There are a lot of ways to change the mindset of those who use the Internet. We all know that deep thinking can take a lot of energy; to some extent, willingness to decrease mental activity is one of the natural mechanisms preventing us from overworking. Bearing that in mind, different people create social network trends that can change young people’s attitudes towards their countries and parents, promote selfishness, and make them live by many pseudo-values. It often happens that the lives of those who contribute a lot of time to using social networks turn into a senseless race; what is worse, many people still do not see this problem. In their opinion, everyone should be given the right to define their own goals. Of course, freedom to act at will is extremely important but the situation is quite different when it comes to young people who are easy to manipulate.
The misuse of the Internet and media by young people remains one of the most urgent problems of our society. Although some people tend to underestimate its significance, the present situation indicates that young people are becoming less interested in gaining new knowledge and becoming many-sided people. Instead, the Internet serves as entertainment; a wide range of programs and services can be used to entertain them, and it often makes people addicted (Buckingham & Willett, 2013, p.9). I believe that all the goals of using the Internet that does not involve thinking to constitute a public danger. It may sound too categorical but it is enough to inspect the conduct of people spending a lot of their time using the Internet (not for work) to make sure that the consequences of this misuse are devastating. In modern society, we often tend to avoid discussing this problem, as its consequences are not visible at once. Many types of dangerous content can be found on the Internet.
It includes pornography, photos, and videos depicting violence against animals and people, materials encouraging smoking and drug addiction, and many others (Weber & Dixon, 2016,p. 234). What is more, the Internet can be used for wasting time and money playing online games of chance. Apart from that, many sites and social media allow users to keep their names a secret; in many cases, it encourages some of the users to start uttering threats to someone they hate. As for these purposes of using the Internet, their negative influence is quite clear. The matter becomes more questionable when it comes to the regular use of social networks. On the one hand, there is nothing bad as you can communicate with your friends or relatives who are far away. Nevertheless, there is a certain mindset promoted with the help of social media; actually, they teach young people to judge everyone by appearances, assert themselves by underestimating other people, and adhere to more materialistic values. Thus, young people should be very careful, they should analyze if there is a negative influence that they do not notice; in other cases, our society is going to experience a degradation undermining everything that was created by our ancestors.
What are the Consequences for Arabs and Other Nations?
What are the consequences of young people’s ignorance and misuse of modern media? It is possible to list plenty of spheres that will be affected in the case of our inactivity; even worse, its consequences can spell a disaster for future generations. The discussed problem is severely connected to the cultural decay that is already taking place all over the world. Frankly speaking, the society of our country is not an exception; the effects of media misuse are so devastating that they can negatively influence even those raised in cultures with strong traditions and religious beliefs. It is really hard to start addressing the issue until there are people who see no problem in modern mass media situation. In their opinion, serious harm can be inflicted only when someone menaces them with a gun. To me, it is a real problem that they cannot see that a lot of information distributed in social media every day is also a weapon. The only thing that helps this influence to stay unnoticed is that a gun can kill a person immediately whereas harmful information is a time-delay weapon. Consequently, its effects are usually seen when it is too late to change something.
I believe that the discussed problem can prevent modern children from forming a mindset based on moral values peculiar to our culture and the ones common within humanity. Its negative effects can also affect our children’s sense of national identity, making them see Arabic culture and heritage as a relic of the past. If we speak about moral values, they remain the factor preventing our society from a breakdown. To keep people together and make the nation stronger, it is extremely important to raise children who always have good intentions and want to do something that will bring benefits not only to themselves but to everyone connected to them. However, this situation severely differs from the real one when our children grow up keeping in mind that a dog eats dog. If we change nothing, we are going to face a significant decay in morals in a short period. As for our culture, it may not seem obvious but many modern Arabs using social media tend to pay too much attention to the values peculiar to the Western world. In themselves, these values cannot be called good or bad; the problem is that they make Arab youth deny the importance of preserving the culture of their nation and their traditional mindset. These long-term consequences present a strong reason to start searching for the solution.
Can this Challenge be Addressed?
It is very important to pay more attention to young people and children’s consciousness when it comes to the use of media as it can help us to keep the society healthy. Fortunately, there are a lot of young people who know how to use media and the Internet to evolve their intelligence. As for me, I know that sometimes it is hard to understand the influence produced by something found on the Internet; nevertheless, it remains critical to teach young people and children how to identify harmful ideas through the disguise. To be more precise, I believe that the most important step to take should be implementing the information on the proper use of the Internet at schools. What is more, this knowledge should be illustrated with many examples to make children and teenagers understand the risks. I suppose that it is going to increase the consciousness of the younger generation, especially if they trust their teachers.
Conclusion
To conclude, the importance of the discussed issue cannot be overestimated as the younger generation is everything for society. Although many younger people tend to use media and the Internet without thinking, the situation can be ameliorated if we involve many experienced teachers able to explain and increase the level of their consciousness.
References
Buckingham, D., & Willett, R. (2013). Digital generations: Children, young people, and the new media. New York, NY: Routledge.
Weber, S., & Dixon, S. (2016). Growing up online: Young people and digital technologies. New York, NY: Springer.