Response to Kinsley by Daniel Sapiro

I agree with Kinsley’s claim that technology has “expanded human freedom”, but this statement does not apply to every human being. The examples given by Kinsley in his short essay are all valid, and there is no doubt that technology has opened many doors while breaking down old walls. It has connected the entire globe, but if we step back from the global perspective and view technology through a smaller lens, we see that it can sometimes be oppressive rather than liberating. The smaller lens that I am talking about focuses in on the youth of the world. Kinsley gives a brief acknowledgment to the negative impacts of the Internet on children, but his argument is brief, and I believe there are much larger consequences for children who are over exposed to technology. It seems that the Internet, video games, and the other various screens that demand a child’s attention, have now become the main hobbies for many youths. Don’t get me wrong, it is important for kids to learn how to utilize technology, it is impossible to get through life without it. But when xbox and the Internet dominate a child’s development, it seems that technology can truly be oppressive. In my opinion, a child’s exposure to the surrounding world is just as important as learning how to use a computer. Both technology and the outdoors should be cornerstones to a child’s development, not one or the other. Technology has “expanded human freedom”, but the “trade-offs” for the youths of the world are larger than Kinsley alludes to.