A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology survey concluded that teenagers are more optimistic about what technology will bring in the near future, making some members of the Boston University community wonder whether young adults are ready to take future responsibilities in a world of rapid technological advancement, including what particular job force is looking to make those changes.
The Opinion Research Corporation, a research and conducting firm, released a 2006 Lemelson MIT Invention Index which found that a third of teens predict the demise of gasoline powered cars by the year 2015, one in four expect compact discs to be completely defunct within the next decade and another one in five predicts desktop computers will no longer exist.
Information Technology Consulting Services Director Jim Stone said he is not surprised that a high percentage of young adults have such expectations for the devices that will run the future.
“Young adults just don’t see the obstacles first,” he said. “To them, it’s not about if something will happen, it’s about when it’s going to happen.”
Stone said he believes the survey’s results are also an example of how young adults are part of a new generation of people surrounded by constant technological advancement.
“Technology is literally everywhere today,” he said, “even when you don’t see it. You can no longer separate life from a computer.
“There are computers involved in everything,” he continued, “if even for the simple development of a new toothbrush. But it’s these computers that will run the future.”
The study also reported that teenagers are hopeful that new inventions and innovations brought on by technology will have the ability to solve important global issues. Ninety-one percent believed more solutions will be available for unclean water, while 89 percent felt the same about world hunger. Eighty-eight percent thought there will be resolutions for diseases, 84 percent felt the same about pollution reduction and 82 percent thought technology will assist on energy conservation.
Geography and environment professor Anthony Patt said he believes the reason these numbers are so high is because teenagers may be less disillusioned about technology’s possibilities.
“Adults are a little more jaded when it comes to technology’s ability to solve,” the undergraduate studies director said. “They have seen how technology can alleviate problems, but they have also seen those alleviated problems create new unanticipated ones.”
Patt said he feels those unexpected cases are what will make or break this generation’s ability to handle the pressures of reaching technological goals they set for themselves.
“For example, things like planes and automobiles, although allowing for mobility, create climate change with their carbon dioxide releases,” he said. “Technology has certainly allowed us to live a certain lifestyle which may be destructive to the environment.”
Stone said he believes technology, in particular those associated with computers, have created an array of job opportunities in a society dependent on its expansion.
“Students have entered fields of computer engineering, computer science and mathematics for these very reasons,” he said. “It’s for those who want to concentrate on the building and designing of computers and going where the hard sciences are.”
According to online enrollment figures, schools like the School of Engineering saw a total class enrollment of 1,842 students for the 2004-2005 end of school year. And although close to 8,000 students were enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences for the same time period, some students said a side by side comparison does not make them question whether their ag e group is setting unrealistic goals.
“I think it makes sense that not a lot of students are enrolled in engineering here at BU, if only because it’s not an easy field,” CAS junior Grecia Alvarez said. “It’s really just important that the right people are getting into it.”
Some students say they feel it is crucial to stay as hopeful as the survey implied their generation is.
“In order to achieve something, we have to believe that it’s attainable,” CAS freshman Miguel Visbal said. “We may not reach our full expectations, but I think there’s no harm in guessing that our generation will have a variety of breakthroughs.”
Alvarez said she feels a realistic approach is a step in the right direction.
“Yes, technology has improved rapidly, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to take the burden of the world on our shoulders,” she continued. “We just happen to be a generation living in a time of great advancement.”