Drew Langdon

UWRT 1104

Dr. Mitchell

30 October 2017

Rough draft- Smartphones arent as Good as it Seems

The world is going through rapid changes in how technology is used; there is a wide

variety of new advancements in technology which greatly affect the day to day life of people

around the world. Communication is becoming a lot easier to do because of all the new

technologies such as text messaging, social media, and email. Although this may seem to be a

positive movement, there are some problems arising that are causing the new generations of

people to become less inclined with their communication skills. Phone addiction is also seen in

this new generation of phones, with all of the social media and apps people can further allow

people to communicate. People become addicted to their phone by constantly being on their

phone during the day or constantly checking their phone when it vibrates. Cyberbullying is also

becoming more and more common because of these advancements in cellular communication.

These two issues create an uncivilized world. This issue that leads to the uncivilized world is the

amount of people who do use cell phones and smartphones. Through the recent years cell

phones and smartphones are rapidly growing because of the amount of people who do use cell

phones. Users have their email and social media all packed into one device. With all those types

of communication in one device may cause the user to become addicted to their phone which

creates an uncivilized world.

 Cyberbullying represents an issue that technology is bringing because now bullies can

now bully someone anywhere. Different types of communication can be used for cyberbullying

such as social media. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are known for cyberbullying because of

how easy it is to put something out there for everyone to see. I found statistics to see which

social media apps are commonly used by adolescence and I found that 68% of people in the

United States use Facebook, 28% use Instagram, and 26% use Pinterest. The statistics show that

a majority of people use social media, this means that over half of the people in the United

States are at risk for cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is different than regular bullying found at

school or in the neighborhood, with cyberbullying anyone could see someone bully another

because anyone can see what their followers post and what they tweet. Cyberbullying is linked

to suicide, depression, and other mental disorders that harms someone physically, mentally,

and emotionally. Cyberbullying is worse than regular bullying because of how hard it is to

notice because with verbal bullying, and adult could over hear it and step in to stop it but with

cyberbullying it would go unheard by adults and it may be harder to recognize by adults as well.

Cyberbullying relates to, i.e. phone usage and in the past couple of years there is a correlation

with cyberbullying and phone addiction. Kids and adolescence are taught at a young age to use

all types of social media and text messaging which causes a higher risk of cyberbullying to peers

they are associated with.

Cyberbullying takes its toll on the victim, which leads to a plethora of psychological

issues. The consequences that come from cyberbullying affect them emotionally, mentally, and

psychologically, all of the repeated taunting and online abuse leads symptoms of real

psychological disorders. The cyberbullying research center has done research with
cyberbullying to see the affects that it causes and the results were alarming. The research

center found that the effects of cyberbullying differ from male and female. A male may become

more vengeful and angry when they are the victim while females experience self-pity and

depression. Also, a sociologist, Robert Agnew created a theory called the general strain theory

which goes through possible factors on why people do cyberbully others. He claims that people

go through strains in their life that leads to delinquent behavior. Strains are negative affects to

a persons mental state such as someone that is angry, frustrated, and stressed. These types of

strains on the body are what fuels cyberbullies because it is their way to take their frustrations,

anger, and stresses away on the victim.

People are always using cell phones, to either look at social media, play games, or

communicate to others. This gives people more of a reason to be on their phone and constantly

check it which leads to phone addiction. According to the NIH phone addiction is similar to

substance addiction and people show the same symptoms as people with substance addiction.

In the DSM-IV a book dedicated to psychological disorders, it states under the disorder of

substance addiction that people get dependent on a drug and grow a tolerance for it by

wanting more and more to feel satisfied and studies have shown that people who use their

smart phone large amounts during the day show the same symptoms and brain chemistry as

those who are addicted to drugs(DSM-5). People with phone addiction can go through

withdrawal symptoms when they are away from their phone as if they need their fix of a drug.

Also, according to the NIH, a big reason there is a theme of phone addiction is because of how

young kids are introduced to cell phones. With all of the phone usage in children, they may

start to see physical changes in their body such as muscle pain, blurry vision, and ocular redness
(Gutirrez). Since people are glued to their phones they may experience insomnia because their

body got used to being on their phone at night which will not allow the person to sleep because

their psychological dependency to their phone will not allow them to sleep well. Phone

addiction is

Technology is creating an uncivilized world and affecting many different communities

worldwide. The issues that arose related to technology has been negatively affecting peoples

lives as well as the communities they are involved in. Everyone is affected by the change in

technology because of the use of cell phones; almost everyone uses cell phones to

communicate which means that everyone is affected by the uncivilized aspects of technology.

The use of cell phones are the main issue new technologies are creating an uncivilized world,

which affects everyone who uses cell phones. I have found that around 92% of Americans use

cell phones which shows that almost all Americans can access social media, and become more

at risk of phone addiction too. There also has been a common trend that the usage of cell

phones is on the rise because over the years it is shown that cell phones are used more than

previous years. In 2011, 35% of Americans used smartphones, but in 2016, 77% of Americans

use smartphones. It is seen that the growth of smartphone usage is growing at a rapid rate due

to all the competition with phone companies as well as how accessible smartphones are.

To conclude, the world we live in today is an uncivilized world due to cell phones

because of the issues that arise when people begin to attach to their phone. They could either

become a victim of cyberbullying or become addicted to their phone to the extent of it being

similar to substance addiction. Cyberbullying affects 87% witness cyberbullying each year

directly or indirectly because they may be involved in the cyberbullying or they might be a
bystander seeing cyberbullying happen. The new trend in smartphones brings users closer to

each person life through social media which plays a big role in cyberbullying. Also the same

factors such as social media, email, and text messaging could also cause the user to become

addicted to cell phones which causes physical harm to the user as well. The current trends in

cell phone usage are leading toward an uncivilized world because of cyberbullying as well as

phone addiction.
 Works Cited

Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders : DSM-5. Arlington, VA :American

Psychiatric Publishing, 2013. Print.

What Is Cyberbullying. StopBullying.gov, www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-

it/index.html.

Gutirrez, Jos De-Sola, et al. Cell-Phone Addiction: A Review. Frontiers in Psychiatry,

Frontiers Media S.A., 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5076301/.

Social Media Fact Sheet. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 12 Jan. 2017,
www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/.

Cyberbullying Facts and Statistics. TeenSafe, 8 May 2017, www.teensafe.com/blog/cyber-

bullying-facts-and-statistics/.