iLove Technology.

On a regular basis, I'm told by my parents that "back in [their] day, [they] didn't have all this fancy technology crap," and when I say regular basis, I mean a couple times a day. They elaborate on how often they used to go out as teenagers and how often they used to see their friends. As for me, however, I literally do not leave the house unless it's to go pick up Bryce for a date, and even then it's to go back home. I stay at home in my room and romance my computer with some YouTube-provided music, and the wonders of having a blog. I'm quite surprised at how intact my computer is because the keys of my laptop are caressed several times a day, whether it's for education, recreational use, or a mixture of the two. My iPhone never leaves my side, I do feel naked without it. It is my entertainment, my connections, my schedule. It's kind of my everything. My friends and I have text conversations as opposed to face to face conversations. Many of my friends and I don't have any classes together, and the pressure to do well in school outweighs any desire to actually go out and see sunlight.
However, on the off chance that I do go out and see my friends (which is more than a rare occasion been as we live on the opposite side of town from EVERYWHERE in Masterson Station), I can say honestly that I touch my phone 100% less than I would if we weren't together. Even if it's just two of us together, I am more wrapped up in my friend than I am my phone. Now, I could just point out that I find it incredibly rude to use your phone when you have company and say that's my reasoning, but that would make me a liar. If I'm with a friend, I don't just expect great amounts of fun to be shared between the two of us, I know it will. If you ask any of my friends about memories that we share, the first thing that they'll tell you is that I throw great sleepovers, and even though these events are few and far between, there's more significant stories in one slumber party than I can say I have in a month, maybe even two.
Having said that, I realize that if I would get up off my lazy, yet studious, butt, I would have more than excellent relationships with my friends. My parents had these same relationships with their friends. They were all eager to go out and get their permits and go to school events and do things with their friends, and I can go out and say to the world that I'm not. I've been sixteen for a while now, and I just do not have any desire to go get my permit. I have never wanted to go to school events, nor be in any extra curriculars, not just because it's more than arduous to get there and back, but also because it's more difficult to stay after school for hour minutes and wait for maybe fifteen minutes on my mother to drive me half an hour across town than to just take the dang hour long bus ride home.
The moral of the story? I stay home a lot.
Indeed, I would enjoy the feeling of having a close relationship with my friends and the adrenaline of having a good time, but I can't say that even without my technology, that I would be able to maintain that. My technology gives me an out. I can at least have SOME sort of relationship with my friends because of the use of my phone and computer. I can at least have SOME communication, and have SOME conversation.
And it based on these factors that I conclude that I wouldn't live in any other time period. If all were to be a continuity of my current life, save the technology, I might not have any friends at all. So with complete certainty, I deem myself a proud teenager of the technology era. Whoot whoot.