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Impacts Of Smartphones On Young Generation
One of the fast-growing sectors in terms of technology is communication. Uses of smartphones make communication easy and sharing of picture and videos can be done regardless of the locations. The use of the smartphones has impacted the young generation both in a positive and negative way. Almost every corner of the world the young people are being affected by smartphones. Positively, smartphones enable young people to keep connected to relatives and friends who are far away. This will make them have a strong bond because they talk and share memories through social networking platforms. On the contrary, people are more willing to communicate in the virtual network world due to the convenience brought by mobile phones; thus they have fewer opportunities to meet and party. The main purpose of the paper is to understand the impacts of smartphones to the young generation and whether they are destroying or building young people. In my opinion, It brings more positive effects and helps our generation develop better if we can control how to use smartphones.
In Twenge’s view, smartphones have destroyed generation most of the young people are spending much of their time in the phones chatting and sending pictures to friends. Most of the chats or conversation is not based on what they are supposed to be doing. They concentrated on fashion and love affair which end up affecting their entire lives. They use the pictures which they have saved in their more so screenshot so that they can blackmail their friends. Before smartphones were introduced, young people were spending time together playing or in social functions which helped them to grow and understand what goes in the social structure of the people (Twenge, 2017). Nowadays, they prefer staying at home with their phones chatting and sharing pictures because that is what they value most. As long they can connect with friends and other people through social media, they do not value meeting the real people and spending time together. They do not value social activities or any outdoor activity as they are busy with their phones. The young generation can opt not to attend classes so that he or she can spend time in the room with a smartphone chatting with friends. The time they spend on their phones could be used to do something productive and which can have a positive impact in the future.
In Turkle’s view, some of the young generations give more attention to their phones more than the actual people. They have no time to spend with their family as they are always in the smartphones having a conversation with other people. Some of them even lack social interaction skills because they are used to chatting and having a conversation with people online rather than actual people. It becomes hard for that generation to express itself because they are not used face to face conversation. Cases have happened where some students who have completed their studies cannot express themselves simply because they are used to having a discussion on the internet. In the article “Stop Googling. Let’s talk,” the author says “ A few years ago, a private middle school asked me to consult with its faculty: Students were not developing friendships the way they used to ” (Turkle, 2015). They do not know how to interact with real people because students with cell phones are becoming dependent on them. It is easier to talk to friends on the phone because they do not need to know what their mood is while they are communicating. Therefore, when interacting with other people in real life, they are not familiar with how to look at faces to see different emotions while talking with others.
In Twenge's view, smartphones play a crucial part in causing depression among young people. This is because smartphones are creating non-social behavior among young people. Twenge states in her article, “ But at the generational level, when teens spend more time on smartphones and less time on in-person social interactions, loneliness is more common” (2017). They do not know how to interact with the real people, and at a time when they do not have smartphones they end up feeling lonely which can consequently lead to depression. The young generation also uses smartphones to access internets and share information in social media. The teenagers feel lonely and they are less sociable in the current world. The time young people used to spend on leisure time is now spending it on their phones having snapchats, sharing videos and pictures. This makes them lonely because they usually interact with people who they cannot see. Even the friends might be together physically; everyone keeps concentrating on his or her phone. They have no time to talk to one another or share information because all the concentration is on the phones. It causes depression and stress because they have no time to listen to their friends and the one communicating end up feeling ignored. The connection to the smartphones is even there when they are with other people. Recent studies and graphs show in Twenge’s article has shown that teens who keep connected to their phone have high chances of being unhappy while those who attend social functions are usually excited.
Will smartphone destroy our generation? On the Contrary, the positive influence of smartphone in the article “Don’t Take Away Your Teen’s phone,” by Guernsey; smartphones have not destroyed the young generation because they help them share information with their relatives and parents. The author states that “Sometimes the young people could be far from their parents or relatives and can have pressing needs which need their addresses” (Guernsey, 2017). We can use smartphones to communicate with our family and friends whenever we have internet around the world. The author claim that although she could not deny the changes influenced by smartphones which her daughter hold her phone every day, teens are still sharing good moments with their loved one, and they end up being happy that help them to avoid stresses. The conversation made with their friends and family members make them leave stress free life, and they will not be affected by depression.
On the other hand, smartphones make the young generation to be enlightened about the contemporary issues which might be affecting society. In the article, while Guernsey talked to her daughter: “ But, she added, “ it is also through the internet, on sites such as Tumblr, where teens often find comfort and can engage in discussions of how they are feeling”(Guernsey 20). Teens get to read some of the issues in the internets and become conversant with new trends in the society. By interpreting news with their friends enables them to take appropriate action when faced with a life challenge. Therefore, in the opinion by Guernsey, she found that although it is true that teens tend to depend on their smartphone; but overall they can release some stress by expressing their feelings on the internet with their friends; also, they have more opportunities to learn new things every day.
In conclusion, smartphones in our society now still have positive and negative effects. My opinion is we can not live without the convenience of our phones, but we are free to choose what we look upon our phone. We should use our phones efficiently to check some positive energy news or useful knowledge instead of wasting a lot of time playing unimportant things on our phones. As long as we have a reasonable grasp of the time of day, smartphones have a more positive impact on us. On the contrary, if we indulge in mobile games every day, or pay too much attention to the gossip news also immerse ourselves in real life to not communicate with our friends, then the mobile phone will undoubtedly bring us more negative effects. Overall, whether smartphones will bring us a positive or a negative impact depends on our choices on how to spend our time wisely on our phones.
References
JEAN M. TWENGE. (2017). Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?. More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.
Lin, T. T., Chiang, Y. H., & Jiang, Q. (2015). Sociable people beware? Investigating smartphone versus nonsmartphone dependency symptoms among young Singaporeans. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 43(7), 1209-1216.
LISA GUERNSEY. (2017). Don’t Take Away Your Teen’s Phone. Smartphones are linked to problems, but they haven’t “destroyed a generation.”