ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT

Abstract

Cell phones reduce intra-family interactions and instigate introvert personalities. It reduces interaction of family members by the virtue that it waters down frequent friendly visits between breadwinners and children through over-reliance on audio-facial calls. A few decades back, parents working away from home occasionally visited their children at home in bid to enhance family social interactions. Nowadays people simply make audio-facial calls to their children. Finally, teens are addicted to internet media interactions through platforms such as Facebook and twitter thereby losing interest in social events such as camping and games.

Cell phones create barrier to social connections

With the current trend in technological inventions, lifestyles and community norms are significantly changing gradually. The manner in which people related or interacted with one another a few decades ago is very different from how people interact today. Cell phone is one of the devices facilitating the change in lifestyle and ways of interaction. With emergence of cell phone, which has reduced face to face interaction to virtual communication, emerge the question; do cell phones create barrier to social connections? Arguably, some critics may say that cell phones have only changed the manner of interaction and not barred social interaction. This is not true. Cell phones have created barrier to social connections.

Critics arguing that cell phones have only transformed how people interact or form social connections, rather than create barrier to social connections propose one major argument. They argue that interaction does not necessarily have to be facial or physical. According to these critics, cell phones have opened a whole new form of social interaction and connections. These platforms are explained in terms of enhanced distance communications. Apparently, an individual does not have to seek someone out physical to convey a particular message. Virtual interaction is seemingly enough. With emergence of cell phones, communication is simply pressing a button and the person the on the other end, wherever he/she may be, simply picks the phone and a conversation ensues of whatever interest. While this is true, these critics fail to consider the power of face-to-face communication. With cell phones, the person on the other end can easily lie to the communicator. They can pretend to be busy and demand that one be precise with whatever message they seek to convey. On the other hand, with face-to-face communication, the communicator is able to pick the nonverbal cues of the recipient. They can easily detect when they are being lied to. Loss of genuineness in a conversation is a barrier on its own.

Similarly, it can be argued that with cell phones, one can get the audience of the recipient at any time of the day or night. This too is true. However, it reduces the active activity of physically seeking the recipient of the message. Seeking out the recipient physically allows an individual an opportunity to meet with other unintended persons and form an un-speculated bonding. These unexpected bonds serve to enlarge an individual’s social network, which in turn assist in introducing them to new social circles and societies. Cell phones lack this capacity.

In addition, cell phones reduce intra-family interactions and instigate introvert personalities. It reduces interaction of family members by the virtue that it waters down frequent friendly visits between breadwinners and children, through over-reliance on audio-visual calls. A few decades back, parents working away from home frequently visited their children at home in bid to enhance family social interactions. Nowadays, people simply make audio-visual calls to their children. Finally, teens are addicted to phone media interaction platforms, such as Facebook and twitter, thereby losing interest in social events such as camping and games.

Considering these facts, cell phones have their positive effects, which include enhancing communication over long distances as well as vitally enhancing communication during emergency situations. However, over-reliance on these gadgets greatly reduces physical interactions in the society. As such, they create barriers to social interaction that are rarely thought about hence taken for granted.