Does Your Phone Control You?
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| The Norman Rockwell painting "At the Breakfast Table" |
Classes start back in just a few weeks :( but I know I am benefiting and learning from them. For example, one of my first classes I took last year, as a freshman, was an English and writing class. For our first essay the teacher wanted us to write about how people these days are always on their phones (especially young people, and I must admit, I have been a culprit of that myself!) Anyhow, she gave us the liberty to give our own views about it, but I think she tended to agree with my essay:
How
Technology Has Impacted Society Today
Remember
the Norman Rockwell painting “At the Breakfast Table”? A couple sits on either
side of a small table, breakfast spread out before them, but something is
surely amiss. The wife poses with teacup in hand, while a sad expression
covers her otherwise beautiful face. The viewer cannot see the face of the
husband, however, for he is buried behind a newspaper - reading. This situation
is not new to us. People have always found ways to ignore one other, but now instead
of reading a newspaper, they are on their cell phones: in the classroom, at
home, and even while driving. In his essay “American Jerk: Be Civil, or I’ll
Beat You to a Pulp,” Todd Schwartz says, “We’re all talking to someone all the
time, but it’s ever more rarely to the people we are actually with” (47). We
can all agree technology has done much good, but it has also created a more
uncivil society by producing distracted young adults who are insensitive to
others, and unable to socially interact in public.
So
many young people do not sit, listen, and learn as well as they did before
advanced technology existed, because they have become accustomed to entertaining
themselves with TV, movies, video games, and social media. They cannot even put
their phone down for a moment. Take, for example, the classroom. The students
sit: some listen or take notes, others perhaps daydream, and the others? What do
they do? They look on their cell phones or computers and scan social media
sites such as Facebook and Twitter. If they always look on their phones during
class, how are they supposed to learn anything? How can they listen while surfing
the web? This constant streaming online produces young adults with small
attention-spans.
Schwartz
writes, “A large percentage of people are just clueless, distracted, and
self-absorbed” (47). This “self-absorbed” state leads many people to just be
concerned with what others over the internet think about them, and the “clueless
and distracted” state leads them to be insensitive to those in their immediate
surroundings. As Schwartz notes, “[There are] car stereos played at volumes
easily heard on Jupiter … people who won’t shut their inane traps during live
theater … [and] cell phones blare loud ringtones that no one else wants to
hear” (46-47). We can all relate to this. It happens all the time. This, now,
has become normal for our society, but it is not good. In fact, it leads people
to behave rudely towards one another. Today’s youth worry whether or not they
send the right emoji in response to their friend’s text while at the same time
they completely ignore people in the same room with them - people like their own
parents.
In
fact, real relationships with family and friends are non-existent in today’s
society. If you wait in the lobby for a doctor’s appointment or wait for a
class to start, you will find everyone else on their phones. If you try to
engage someone in conversation, they might give you a dirty look; if not a
dirty look, a strange look for sure. Not because they do not like to socialize,
for they do. However, most people’s social lives occur with those they cannot
see via social media sites. Face-to-face relationships have become awkward and
uncomfortable. Even best friends often text each other while in the same room rather
than engage in conversation with their voice. Texting, while convenient, can
also help people avoid conflict. In Ira Hyman’s article “Cell Phones are
Changing Social Interaction,” he lists some results from a survey he and his
colleagues conducted. One of the interesting results related how young adults
prefer texting as their main source of communicating with friends, whereas,
adults over the age of 50 would rather call or email. Today’s youth do not feel
comfortable calling others on the phone because it seems too real and too
personal.
The
sad reality shows that relationship break-ups via text message or email have
become a very common practice. Ira Hyman reveals that “15 percent of young
adults reported they had ended a relationship via text message and 25 percent
reported they had been dumped via text.” Texting, makes it easier to start
relationships, and leads people to text things they would otherwise not say in
person. If for some reason, they no longer enjoy a relationship, they need not
worry. They can just push a button on their phone that sends the sad message.
Many heartbreaks have been caused by text messaging that otherwise would never
have occurred. Just like every other “easy” solution in life these days,
starting and ending relationships has become easy too. You never need to look a
person in the eye to see what they really think. Perhaps they never loved you
after all. How would you know? They could scowl while sending you a charming
text. They could have another girlfriend with them as they sent a text saying
you were the only one they loved. This provides yet another example of
technology being used in a way that hurt’s others and ourselves.
The
cell phone, the computer, and all the other wonderful technology has brought us
as a society such a long way, but as a civil
society, it has pushed us backwards. Schwartz sums it up by saying “We inhabit the
most civil of times and the least” (47). We are self-centered, rude, and always
on our phones no matter where we are, or what we are doing. By trying to avoid
conflict, we cause it. By trying to socialize over the internet we become
unsocial face-to-face. By trying to concern ourselves with the world’s
problems, we avoid the ones at home. This doesn’t have to be the case. We the
people are the society. We are the
ones focusing on ourselves. We are the ones becoming socially inadequate. We
are the ones becoming addicted to our phones. But guess what? We do not have to
be this way. Think about yourself. Have you been a culprit of technology? Are
you contributing to the uncivil behavior of today’s society? We the people of
the United States of America can change, and it can start with me. It can start
with you.
Works Cited
Schwartz,
Todd. “American Jerk: Be Civil or I’ll Beat You to a Pulp.” Successful
College
Writing. Ed. Kathleen McWhorter. Bedford/St. Martins, 2015.
49-50. Print.
Hyman, Ira. “Cell Phones
are Changing Social Interaction.” Psychology Today (2014):
are-changing-social-interaction. Accessed 10 Sep. 2016.
I hope you gleaned something from my essay. I know that writing this essay helped me realize the dangers of technology. Feel free to leave me a comment if you enjoyed it, or if you have a question or suggestion. :)
Great points!
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