Close your eyes, and let’s go back in time to the year 2003. It was, in my opinion, a much simpler time. I was in eighth grade gearing up for high school, and the summer was mine! I had a brand new cell phone, but that cell phone only made phone calls, no texting, no internet. My friends and I would wander around our town all day, and then go home on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and chat all night. Although we were connected to one another it was not the same as it is today.
Now, students are connected to each other 100% of the time. Which, I think, makes being a teenager far more difficult than it ever was before. Bullying is not a new concept, but when students are doing it virtually it is much harder to monitor and much easier to be done in a covert manner. According to Pew Research Center, 69% of parents and 44% of teens agree.
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That being said, there are definitely aspects of being a teenager that are easier now, and in this case 15% of parents and 12% of teens feel that way. Students have access to so much more information at their fingertips than ever before. Artificial intelligence (AI) was not even on most people’s RADAR three or four years ago, but today it is something that a large percentage of our population is very familiar with.
In another article that I read, Common Sense Media reported people’s perception of AI. At this point slightly more than half of people ages 14-22 have used AI, but only 4% of those people use it everyday (Teen and young adult perspectives on generative AI). I myself, while I do not fall into that age range, would definitely fall into the category of someone who uses AI occasionally. I think it can be a great tool to advance learning, but it should not replace learning. In the same article, 53% of people use AI to gain information, which is essentially the same as Googling a question (which is what I have always done). I think that is a great way to implement AI, because students are learning using AI as a tool rather than a replacement for learning. The same article also reported that 51% of people use AI to brainstorm! Once again, I think this is a great use of the technology! Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with multiple ideas for a project, and having the help of Artificial Intelligence makes the beginning process so much easier. I used AI this summer when I had to create a lesson plan that featured stop-motion animation. Since that is a strategy that is new to me it was wonderful to have AI available to help me come up with new and interesting ideas. In the end, it is my belief that technology has definitely made some aspects of life far more difficult than it needs to be. I am very grateful that I was a teenager in the 2000s! That being said, professionally, technology (like AI) has given me the ability to take my students places that would have been impossible just a few years ago. References Faverio, M. (2024, August 27). Why many parents and teens think it’s harder being a teen today. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/feature/why-many-parents-and-teens-think-its-harder-being-a-teen-today/ Teen and young adult perspectives on generative AI. (n.d.). https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/teen-and-young-adult-perspectives-on-generative-ai.pdf |
