Villegas

Eva Villegas

Ben Jorgensen

Writing 1010

July 22,2019

The use of smartphones leads to less live communication

Nowadays smartphones threaten the social interaction. At first, the smartphones

were introduced to humans with the purpose of having better ways to communicate

because it allows you to connect person to person around the world. At this moment

smartphones is impacting every single aspect of our everyday life. In addition this is an

issue in our society because we are losing the credibility of developing our skill to

communicate face to face with people.

Back then phones were introduced with the objective for fast communication.

These technology devices have the ability to transfer information freely and quickly from

device to device. Through time, development in technology rapidly grew from large

wireless cell phones to smart phones and from regular desktop computer to laptops

computers not to mention now we even have tablets. At this present time, society is

becoming more and more obsessed with digital in the means of entertainment. Today

everyone wants to have the newest, best and the last version of those devices because

of it we putting aside our relationship with humans.

According to an article by Simon Hill “Are Smartphone Killing the art of face-to-

face conversation? We ask the experts” Due to the existence of the smartphones we are

losing the ability to talk face to face and convey our feelings from one person to another.

The smartphones and social media have been changing the way we communicate between
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us. Today is easer to contact another person by using media such emails, twitter, Facebook

or text messages. In the Bank of America survey they found 38 percent of all ages use

texting to converse with their family and friends and the other 33 percent did not use text

messages. Now is really common to use this type of method to communicate for every

situation we have.

The survey further discussed how phones slowly are taking part in our life

conversations. The survey also shows some examples of different studies in where they

based their study. First they group people from all different ages just to see how the use of

the social media has a lot influence in our communication from everyday. “In a good

conversation, the words we say are only one small part of the meaning that we convey,

there’s also body language, tone of voice, facial expression,” said Dr. James Roberts,

Professor of Marketing at Baylor University and author of too Much of a Good thing: Are

you Addicted to your Smartphone? Told Digital Trends. This states that we relied so much

on our devices that sometimes when we need to talk about important things; we lack the

courage to talk in-person and we prefer to use the devices to past our massage. (Roberts 3).

In another article publish on 2015 Suttie Jull talks about the tittle of the book

from Sherry Turkle post reclaiming conversation. Turkle has 20 years studying how

technology is been having a lot influence in our daily conversation. She argues digital

conversation cannot be replace by our social interaction. In one of her previous book

Turkle wrote, “Alone Together” she writes about “her fears that technology was

making us feel more and more isolated, even as it promised to make us more

connected”. Turkle want us to advise to be more considering of the issue “social

effects of the cell phone.”

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In the research “How are cell phones and the technologies hurting us “ Turkle

studies shows that 82 percent of Americans are felling to have a good conversation

because they are more focused on what is on their phone, then what the person in

front of them has to say. The study also pointed to two good points “First, it decreases

equality in of what you talk about” second “it decreases the empathic connection that

people feel toward each other.” (JS) the issue we are facing is a serious matter where

we are losing in-person social interaction and is becoming more noticeable. Just like

the research indicated we are losing more empathic connections because when we

use electronic devices we are not able to see others people reactions, expression or

body language or make eye contact.

In this era where one’s knowledge and access to knowledge on devices a

survey was recur to find how devices affect the interaction of our development on our

social skills. In this two groups of Canadians participated in a research survey study,

they where group in to small groups of 3 to 5. The first part of the survey had 300.

Searchers assigned them to have a meal in a restaurant to study their behavior during

mealtime some groups where allow having their phones and the others didn’t.

“Searchers found that the people rated the meal as less enjoyable and said they were

more distracted when phones were present.”

The other part of the group of 123 Canadians they were study for one week.

Researchers observe them 5 times at day to see how they do on social interact.

Studies found out that the people was not satisfied when they were talking face to

face and also more distracted trying to pay attention on they phone instead of the

person who was in front of them. We tent to communicated with each other with new
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social network for everything. We use our devices everything from to text, email, and

search to entertainment to make our own payments on line. It’s hard not to live the house

without any of your devises, especially if we are talking about smartphones.

My friend Michelle sat on the table to have their meals with her family. All her

family’s members were all looking at the phone too much. They were either on Facebook,

twittering, emailing or texting with their friends. Except her mother who wanted to have a

social interaction/family time. Every time her mother tried to make conversation with them

they were too busy focusing on what was in their phone. Her mother started to miss those

days when they were kids they sat together and they have a good time without the

interference of the phone. This issue of using phones while eating on the table got to the

point where she got tired that. None of them would make eye contact with one another

because they had their eyes either on the phone or other devices. Michelle’s mother found

this behavior really disrespectful and decided to change it.

She began by making some rules like they were not allowed to bring their phones

or any device to the table unless it was an emergency. However, that didn’t really work

they kept on using their smartphones. So, she came up with the idea that for every time

they use their phones or any device while eating they would have to pay one dollar. This

was now a rule in their house. Now when they took out their phones to use it while eating

they would pay a dollar to their mom. Little by little their behavior and family dynamic

started to change. They have more communication between them and they even play

games what makes it so much fun and healthier. Now they thank their mom for those

moments they have together as a family.

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When my friend Michelle told me about her story, it reminded me of how much

time I used spend on my smartphone. I use to search for recipes and other things such as

Japanese graphic novels or in other words manga. Manga was really interesting to me that

I would binge read them and wouldn’t sleep much. I was enjoying myself I didn’t wanted

to stop reading or spend time with my family because I always wanted to know what was

in the next chapter. Then thing got a bit complicated.

My health was good at the beginning but the with the time passing my body started

to break do to the luck of sleep, I started to have blurred vision, a lot of headaches and

stared to get dizzy not feeling well from my stomach but that wasn’t it I was losing

precious moment with my family moments that will never come back. So I decided to

change my routine. I started to spent time with my family, communicated more with them

and build good memories that smartphone will never give me. Now I know smartphones

can put in danger your social interactions. I learned the importance of being healthy and

always best to consider keep was precious to you.

In conclusion smartphones and other devices can help a lot with the social network

communication but we must not forget how to interact with people face to face. We

mustn’t depend on replacing our verbal communication with devices it’s really beautiful to

spent time with the people around knowing that the life is short and we can regret not

being able to make good memories with our friends and family. Abusing too much of the

devices also can cause health problems we must be considerate of the situation and not

putting our heath and social interaction with our family and friend at risk.
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Works Cited

Candice Sathiraboot in Education, wellness: Is Too Much Electronic Use Bad for Your

Health http://www.healthpointchc.org/news-calendar/blog/is-too-much-electronic-

use-bad-for-your-health

Hill Simon posted March 5 2017 Smartphone Killing the art of face-to-face conversation?

We ask the experts https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/are-smartphones-really-

killing-the-art-of-conversation/

W. Dolan Eric (November, 20 2017) Study finds Smartphone use enjoyment of face-to-

face social interactions https://www.psypost.org/2017/11/study-finds-smartphone-

use-undermines-enjoyment-face-face-social-interactions-50239

Turkle Sherry of MIT sociologist professor and A Q&A Reclaiming conversation How

Smartphones Are Killing Conversation.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_smartphones_are_killing_conver

sation

James A. Roberts’s http://smartphoneloveaffair.com/