The world before mobile phones and whatsapp

Do you remember how we used to contact each other to hang out when we were young? We didn’t have mobile phones, let alone WhatsApp, so we would create a chain: you had to call one friend, and that friend had to call another one, and so on. Moreover, we used to ring the bell of our friends’ houses to invite them out. Nowadays, it seems impossible to arrange a meeting without mobile phones, doesn’t it? Do you consider that we might be too addicted to them?

If you think about it, it was a blessing that we didn’t have WhatsApp twenty years ago, otherwise, in my case, my breakup with my first serious boyfriend would have been much, much worse than the nightmare it was. Indeed, when we were teenagers, we would text each other by SMS and chat on Facebook Messenger for a while after school, particularly from 6 PM onwards, since connecting to the internet before that time was utterly expensive. Having said that, we have to admit that what we take for granted these days (mobile internet) has marvelous advantages, however, we have to be very careful with it.

The overuse of the internet raises the question of whether we are creating a generation that is not capable of dealing with frustration. The problem is that teens and young adults in their early twenties aren’t able to be patient. In particular, whenever I ask them to do an exercise, if they don’t have the answer within twenty seconds, they get upset. "I don’t know, I can’t do it." I usually tell them that they need to give themselves more time since they are not robots. Nevertheless, for them, it’s really difficult to spend five minutes thinking on their own, and that’s quite concerning.

To make things worse, some parents aren’t helping. Some of them put too much pressure on their children and require them to answer WhatsApps straight away, even if they are in class. What’s going on? Are we aware that these kids in the future are going to suffer from depression at work if they go on like this and that they are going to be somewhat toxic boyfriends and girlfriends? Why on earth are we bringing them up in this manner? If we continue in this way, what is going to happen in twenty years? Something has to change, and maybe that change has to begin with us. Maybe we should take life a little bit easier, don’t you agree? What are your thoughts? I am sure that, deep down, there is hope for everyone.