By Ana Billotti
Round Table reporter

Click, click, click. Do you hear that? The sound of hundreds of keys being pressed on the keyboards and cell phones of students all over Middletown High School is a typical noise to hear each day, but have we now become dependent upon the technology that is literally “right at our fingertips”?

Computers, iPods, and cell phones- one can pretty much assume that each teenager has at least one of three and that they use it daily. Even the school day does not stop most students from using their current pieces of technology.

Students covertly send texts to friends while supposedly paying attention in class, while in the computer lab teens quickly sign onto their emails or instant messenger to send a fast message to a friend or family member.

Students have easy access to the internet and their friends at all times nowadays yet, I feel like this causes them to become dependent upon it. Technology should aid a person who is in search of an answer, whether it is figuring out if your favorite sports team won their last game or if you’re allowed to stay after school to finish a project.

Face-to-face communication is better, but I do understand that it isn’t always possible to speak directly to a person in order to get an answer.

Texting and chats over the computer make it so much easier for people to communicate while they are not together but what about all those times where two people are sitting right next to each other and sending texts to one another? Sometimes it makes sense for them to do that, they might be surrounded by a bunch of people and they want to tell one friend in particular a private story. But can’t it wait?

Technology has made people impatient and not willing to wait to talk to someone that isn’t right next to them, at the very moment that they are needed. If a friend is running late to meet you, it’s not a big deal, just send them a quick text and ask them where they are.

Newer, faster, and easier ways to use technology is great, but what we all need to remember is that we cannot solely rely upon that technology for conversations with people. As a friendly suggestion: take a few hours, turn your cell phone off, go hang out with friends or family and just sit and talk without be interrupted by anybody that isn’t right around you.