Howdy! Most of you who read my articles are of the teenage generation right now. But, I'm sure you all know about the 1950s, right? Everything was easier. Women were 99% of the time housewives with children. They cooked for their husbands. Men worked. Came home at night to dinner. Sat at the table and discussed popular news with their children and wife. You'd watch TV at night with the family in black and white. Kids would go out after school or on the weekends and play baseball with their friends. Life was easy and basically handed to them for the most part. Nowadays, technology has taken over. You've got game systems galore, computers, MP3 players (Apple products), big screen TVs. You name it, the world has it. Now TVs are okay. MP3 players, such as iPods, iPod touches, I can deal with. I'm a big lover of music. It's my main passion. And I just got an iPod touch for Hanukkah and I love it so much, I even named it Baxter, for some odd reason. But computers? They're getting out of control. I do belong to Facebook (not myspace). I'm sure most of you do, as well. But ugh. It's like, computers take up most of our lives. How are you guys reading my article right now? You're on the computer. Probably sitting down, just readin' this. Maybe you have Facebook opened in another window. I do. I love Facebook. I got one when I was in 8th grade, and I thought it was amazing. I have over 600 friends. Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with so many friends that have moved or go to a different school, or that I was friends with when I was little. And it's wonderful to see how they're doing now. Facebook's really fun, in fact. I type up notes all the time, that are called surveys, or whatever. And I also upload pictures, and write on my friends' walls. It's a brilliant invention of a website. BUT - here comes my but. Are we wasting too much time on Facebook? On the computer in general? My mom constantly tells me I'm addicted. She also got a Facebook. She's reconnected with her old friends. She also has belongs to Farmville D: I don't, haha. She's obsessed with Facebook, just like most of us ARE. We could be doing so many better things with our lives than waste hours and hours on the computer. Some people have become overweight from sitting by the computer, wasting time on it, eating, gaining weight. People get headaches from staying on for too long. Some people even get Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (or however you spell it), from typing too much. Yes, the computer is a very useful thing. But maybe it's ruining our lives. Taking over our lives. Controlling us. I mentioned the 50s before, because they didn't have all these electronics and technological advances like we do now. It's going to be 2010 in less than two weeks. Our technology is only going to advance even more. Our intelligence is only going to decrease. Our headaches, Carpel Tunnel, weight will increase. We're obviously on the computer way more than we should be. I love the computer. But I know I'm wasting too much time on it. Sometimes I wish life was like the 50s. Back then, kids didn't come home from school and say, "oh, lemme just go see if so-and-so answered my wall-post on Facebook!" I mean, in school, when I'm in math class for example, I'll be taking notes, and I'll see people with their phones out on the desk, behind their bags, sweatshirts, etc. TEXTING! Sometimes in lunch, they're even calling people! It's ridiculous. I hardly ever bring my phone, cos I'm afraid I'll get in trouble or it'll go off in class. So many times, a kid's phone has gone off in class. And my teacher's do absolutely nothing usually. They'll just give them a dirty look. Or a funny teacher of mine will make a joke and laugh it off. It's ridiculous. And when people are driving? How many times have you recently heard people getting into car accidents and dying because they were texting/talking on the phone WHILE driving? Are they stupid? I tell my mom all the time, what cannot wait till after you get out of the car? Pull over! Both of your hands should be on that steering wheel when you drive. God forbid, you don't answer your friend's text right away. It's either having your friend get a little annoyed that you didn't answer them, or risk getting killed in an accident for feeling bad and texting them back while driving. When you get into the driver's seat of a car, your mission should be to DRIVE the car. Not TEXT/CALL in the car. Wait till after you're done driving. Is it really worth taking your life, just cos you HAVE to answer a call or a text? No, it really isn't. I see so many kids in my school, driving to school, texting, on the phone, etc. I get chills just looking at them, knowing that they're only 17, 18 years old. And in a split second they can be dead. That's ridiculous that I have to think like that. Technology is only going to produce more things for people to be distracted by. Yeah, they may seem cool and entertaining to use. But is it really worth wasting precious time and/or getting killed literally, by it? I don't think so.