Anika Goff Podcast

Young Central, hosted by Anika Goss, discusses the impact of technology on education and well-being. Issues include missing assignments due to technology, excessive social media use, and AI writing reports for students. The education system faces challenges like grade inflation and academic fraud, leading to decreased motivation. Despite bleak outlooks on the future, the podcast emphasizes the importance of resisting societal flaws and striving for a brighter future through hard work and real-world connections. Hi y'all this is Young Central and I'm your host Anika Goss. Today we will be talking about the world that our generation and future ones will inherit along with just the general state of the world right now. One issue that kids are facing in the modern world is the rise of new technology and how it affects education and general well-being of this generation and future generations to come. I would like to preface this by saying that I think one thing that we take for granted is that we have an amazing education and go to a great school. How other kids might not have the same opportunities even in New York City. But what really matters is how hard we try and put that education to good use which not everyone has been taking advantage of. When I interviewed Ms. Hufflow about the amount of students that have missing assignments she replied that 10 to 12 students consistently have missing assignments and technology might be to blame. This problem isn't just unique to students here according to the US Health and Human Services up to 95% of young people aged 13 to 17 report using a social media platform. Nearly two thirds of teenagers report using social media every day and one-third report using social media almost constantly. Almost constantly. A third of teenagers use social media almost constantly. Isn't this upsetting? Kids could be using this time to do more productive things like maybe doing their homework or learning new skills. Heck even video games might be a better use of time considering they at least have some strategy to them even though they might be even though they might be addictive. Also from my interview with Ms. Hufflow I found out that half of the kids in our grade use AI for their book reports and that in their book reviews where students got to freely enter their own opinion she had to talk to six students whose essays were majority written by AI. Do you see the problem with this? We've gotten to the point where kids are giving up their freedom of speech and freedom of the press for the sake of getting out of school work. This is honestly starting to sound a bit dystopian if I do say so myself which I do considering this is my podcast and I'm not about to give up my ability to think for myself. Jokes aside having the ability to freely express opinions on topics that may be controversial legally can mean the difference between the intelligent population able to make changes in their society and a society of not quite humans that walk around with not a word to say besides I want food I'm tired we're in paradise. Because after getting used to a lifetime of silence you forget how to speak coherently. After conforming to a new identity you forget who you were in the first place. Even though social media and AI are hurting this generation's critical thinking skills their attention span and their curiosity I don't believe technology is the only problem with society currently but there are also some flaws in the current education system. One such issue is grade inflation where more students are earning higher grades such as A's which makes earning these grades less important. At colleges across the United States GPAs have been increasing by on average 0.1 points per decade since the 1980s according to a Duke College professor. If kids are receiving A grades for subpar work then why would students even try to succeed? The system is also part of the problem if it's letting students get away with this to put it lightly academic fraud. And somehow the worst part is that kids are aware of the reality of their situation. Even the future looks gloomy for some kids our age because out of the students I surveyed for how they felt about the future the majority said they weren't very hopeful. One student responded that the future had good stability not the best but in its peak in its technology in the past was much worse. Even though the student tried to look on the bright side they were unable to honestly say that they were hopeful about the future. Climate change, AI use, fragmented society, falling birth rates, wealth inequality, all of these issues weigh heavily on young minds completely erase all hope for a brighter future and the least in my opinion deprive us of a real childhood. So what do we do now? We've already established that humanity is going downhill that it looks like nothing can stop it however this isn't the case. Even though the system may be flawed even though we would maybe rather do anything but our schoolwork even though we would rather talk to our friends on snapchat rather than see them in person we shouldn't take the easy way out. We should do our schoolwork we should spend quality time with people in the real world and we should not let the system hold us back. The probability of a dark future isn't an excuse it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to resist. The only way to fight the darkness is to fill the world with light. Thank you.