Todays class we discussed the usage of technology within the classroom with Jesse Miller. Perhaps it’s my own cynicism, however when I sit listening to an individual preach about what a classroom should be, or a teacher should do without being a teacher themselves, a certain shadow of doubt enters my brain.

As Jesse meandered his way through a broad spectrum of technology and its different applications within the classroom I thought he really hit the mark when he mentioned that technology is required/ imminent in students lives. Thus as a teacher it is important to utilize it as a tool in order to teach students proper ways to use technology and not turn away or condone technology.

When I attempted to pin Jesse down over the subject of social media and its impacts on the adolescent brain it felt as though a representative from Marlboro was presenting to me. Jesse argued that no empirical data has been published that would indicate that social media has any relation to increased cases of depression, anxiety, and mental illness within youth. Jesse brought forward the rational for these cases was simply due to an increase in awareness and openness to discuss said issues not that technology has any implications. I think that this is the same sort of blank argument that has been tried over and over in the court system, when people attempt to point to cigarettes consumption leading to cancer. Any rational human can point to the correlation between cigarette consumption and cancer, yet proving it in court has proven arduous. I believe that Jesse and his standpoint on social media bolster the same sort of arduous battle. Looking a few years into the future I think that people will look at these unregulated times with social media with distain. The correlation between mental illness and social media in youths will be scientifically known and restrictions/ education will be in place in order to mitigate this. I then fear that Jesse’s opinion on the matter is detrimental in the fact that it encourages the unregulated use of social media in our youth thus causing damage to their mental health.