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David Carr’s essay reflects very well on the title of his essay, “Keep Your Thumbs Still When I am talking to you”. Carr gives examples that relate to personal examples of how people today are constantly on their phones. By people always being on their phones it has become an act or rudeness towards other people from whom you were speaking to. Instead of keeping your elbows off of the table we will now be told to keep our thumbs still. In addition, similar to my experience at Professor Ataman’s lecture, David Carr discusses his experience at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference, at the conference he found that all the people had some sort of device with a screen that their eyes were attached too.
For the first half of our course in mediation, we have been looking how people typically make decisions and how a mediator can use certain strategies to help bring people together to make constructive decisions that is beneficial for both parties and minimizes conflict. These themes are laid out and explored deeper in Malcom Gladwell’s novel, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. This book focuses on how people make sudden judgments and decisions, while never even consciously aware of these decisions or the factors that influenced their decision-making processes. Gladwell describes this phenomena as an “automatic pilot,” where “the way we work and act and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment are a lot more susceptible to outside influence than we realize.” It is important to note that while these quick assessments come from the unconscious and cannot exactly explored in depth, the author argues that ways do exist to reasonably explain these “blink” decisions.
Undisputedly phones have quickly become indispensable objects which dominate our daily lives, leading to both addiction and dehumanized lives. However, many Americans during pressing times of the covid pandemic truly believe phones have had a positive impact on their life, as “59% of respondents agreed that their phone has been their lifeline during the pandemic, and a similar number say that it has kept them from feeling isolated and lonely” (Klaviyo). Compared to Victory Gin, phones can be a positive driving factor by connecting individuals, whereas alcohol only takes the pain away temporarily and ultimately brings the intoxicated back to their original state, if not worse. Although phones do have a constant presence in our lives does not mean that their presence is entirely harmful. Phones possess nearly endless abilities, the impact a phone has is entirely dependent on the actions of its user, not on the device.
Living in fear each and every day is not an acceptable lifestyle for anyone to have, but the truth is that many people fear the safety of their family, friends, and loved ones going to work, school, or even the grocery store each day. It's not a secret that crime rates in the United States are at its highest in large cities throughout the country. New York City has had one of the highest crime rates since the early 1900s. The pressure placed on the city’s lawmakers was immeasurable to help manage and deal with the crisis at hand. In the 1980s, New York’s crime rates skyrocketed, but following 1990, crime in the city declined immensely.
(Mangan, 1) There is an endless cycle of wanting attention but not getting it so one will turn to their phone. Once someone gets use to using technology like that it’ll ruin relationships. This happened in “The Veldt,” the family let “this house replace you and your wife in your children's affections.” (Bradbury, 7) The technology became too much and it ruined all the realness between the family.
In recent discussions of smartphones, a controversial issue has been how the excessive use of smartphones are affecting the adolescents of this generation. Jean M. Twenge argues in her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” that the redundant use of these gadgets along with social media use is in fact detrimental to the current and upcoming generations. My experience using Snapchat, Instagram, and other applications on my smartphone supports Twenge’s stance because the excessive use of these applications has caused me to feel melancholic. According to Twenge, “Psychologically, however, they (iGens) are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011.
Summary of “Cell Phones and Social Graces” Charles Fisher opines in his article “Cell Phones and Social Graces” how he mourns the demise of courtesy and civility caused by cell phones. He is not a Luddite, and he uses some technology himself. Fisher acknowledges the benefits and usefulness that cell phones possess.
The example of symbolism in this book is the cellphone that the voice gives to Michael. This is the symbol because it helps prove that the voice and Michael trust each other. The first example of trust is when Michael picks up the phone. The text says, “I looked back into her eyes. Something about her seemed trustworthy.”
Technology has the power to change lives, in both positive and negative ways. A person can become addicted to their phones too easily. In Fahrenheit
Modern Technology: Promising a Future of Doom or Life? Modern technology will affect human life in the coming future, for better or for worse. Ray Kurzweil is a futurist; a scientist who specializes in predictions about the future, in his essay “Promise and Peril”, he proposes possible advantages and disadvantages of technological improvement in the world, and mentions greatness of technology that not only benefits human life, but also the danger of its existence. After deciding between the effects, Kurzweil takes a stance for the idea that future technology will benefit humanity.
Also, a staggering eleven people die every day from phone related accidents. It only takes five seconds of looking at your phone to cause an accident on the road, and most likely kill or injure someone. If you are traveling at 55 miles per hour and look at your phone for only five seconds, you are traveling the distance of a football field blindly in that time. It only takes a split second to completely alter the course of your own life or, more horribly, someone else’s life. Your phone can be used as a weapon when pulled out in the car and it could leave both yourself and fellow drivers in anguish and
From texting while driving-resulting in more deaths than driving under the influence, to using smart phones during intercourse and everything in between. With all the social media outlets, cellphones have become almost like another appendage. Many young adults express anxiety when they do not have their cellphone and phantom vibrations (feeling your phone vibrate when it hasn’t, or it isn’t even on you, a big sign of cell phone addiction). Many young adults have lost jobs and ruined good relationships because their phones come first. Cell phones are being checked nonstop by a shocking 54 percent of young adults.
In the article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” , Jean M. Twenge compares iGen to previous generations. The smartphone and social media define “iGen”, the generation born between 1995 to 2012. Twenge accuses smartphones for sleep deprivation, anti-socialization, courtship, sexual activities, and poor mental health.
According to Nicholas Carr, "We keep the gadget within reach more or less around the clock, and we use it in countless ways, consulting its apps and checking its messages and heeding its alerts scores of times a day. The smartphone has become a repository of the self, recording and dispensing the words, sounds, and images that define what we think, what we experience and who we are. " We use our smartphones on a daily basis that we get used to them being with us at any time and place with us. We even start getting anxious when we get separated from our smartphones, even getting a mini heart attack when you feel like you don’t have your phone with you. Smartphones act like a scrapbook but for social like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well as Snapchat.
Today’s generation is all about their smartphones. These phones now do everything for people to use and the manufacturers make them so easy for anyone to use. But, smartphones are taking over people’s lives, and it may not be for the best. They actually change the way people act and think. Smartphones can save all peoples information such as passwords, usernames, credit cards, emails, and more.
