Applying Virtual Communities Raised By Jane Mcgonigal And Sherry Turkle

“The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health” (Twenge). In her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean Twenge discusses how the new generation of teenagers is becoming highly dependent on their smartphones. Twenge calls this new generation born between the late 1990s and early teens “iGen” after a recent survey found that the majority of teenagers owned an iPhone. She argues that with every new generation, new habits form, both good and bad. The technological developments that have occurred throughout the last ten years, Twenge argues, is not a bad thing; it is how the “iGen” teenagers are becoming reliant on their phones and use them to avoid social interactions. According to her article, teenagers choose to stay home alone in their rooms and talk to their friends virtually on social media versus actually leaving the house and doing something face-to-face with their friends. Twenge argues that if teenagers decide to leave the house, phones still have a strong presence, often not leaving the hands of its owner for longer than a couple minutes with social media like Snapchat and Instagram tagging along. Twenge worries that the strong dependency on smartphones and increasing rates of obsession with social media are a couple of the largest contributors to the rise of depression and suicide among the teenagers of “iGen”.

In her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean Twenge discusses how the new generation of teenagers are becoming highly dependent on their smartphones and need them alongside them at any given point in time. Twenge calls this new generation born between the late 1990s and early teens “iGen” after a recent survey found that majority of teenagers owned an iPhone. She argues that with every new generation, new habits form, both good and bad. The technological developments that have occurred in the last ten years Twenge argues are not a bad thing, it is how the “iGen” teenagers are becoming reliant on their phones and using them to avoid social interactions. They would choose to stay home alone in their rooms and talk to their friends virtually on social media versus actually leaving the house and doing something face-to-face with their friends. Twenge argues that if teenagers decide to leave the house, phones still have a strong presence, often not leaving the hands of its owner for longer than a couple minutes with social media like Snapchat and Instagram tagging along. Twenge worries that the strong dependency on smartphones and increasing rates of obsession with social media are a couple of the largest contributors to the rise of depression and suicide among the teenagers of “iGen”.

clinical psychologist, and author of many books, is concerned about our altered identities, lack of

In her article “Growing Up Tethered” Sherry Turkle explores how the constant connection to the Internet is negatively affecting the development of adolescents, and postulates that growing up “tethered” to their cell phones, is interfering with their normal psychological progression into adulthood. Referring to the idea that the ubiquitous cell phone allows teenagers to contact their parents’ at any time, she states that “adolescents don’t face the same pressure to develop the independence we have associated with moving forward into young adulthood” (Turkle 431). Additionally, the author touches on aspects of the lack of privacy and time adolescents have for themselves, asking “When is downtime, when is stillness?” (Turkle 430). While the

Not only could the operation of cell phones be used for transportation and direction aid, but it could also be used for communication. Beginning with this, a new form of communication could bring to us a new fear, the fear of the non present. In my opinion, non present characters, such as the Babadook from the movie Babadook, bring aggrandized fear than present characters such as Leatherface considering the fact that the character doesn’t know when they are there or not. Having to worry about a creature twenty-four seven would eventually catch up with a stable mind and ruin their life. Although, this movie doesn’t portray a policeman to call, the cell phone could still be used for communication and in a possibility, stalking. In other words, the five kids could have used a cell phone after the first sign of danger or fear to call for help. Another specific example of this would be when Kirk and Pam run off to find a swimming hole and become missing (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre). Instead of Jerry running to try and find them, he could have used his cell phone to communicate with them. How can this bring us an uneasy conscious? As an illustration, if Jerry would call Kirk’s phone but, leather face answers screaming obscene words and in the background, having Pam screaming, it would leave us disturbed and in wonder of what is progressing and what is happening to the two poor children. This would act

With the recent increase in the use of technology, adolescents are unable to become self-sufficient. Always having their phone in hand invades the right for children and teens to discover themselves. Parents expect their children to always

* Cell phones create a convenience that was previously unavailable. With cell phones, you can easily reach your kids for any reason: to ask them questions, change plans, or to simply say hello.

In the past few years cell phones have become an object of need rather than want. Everywhere you look people are on their cell phone either texting, calling, ‘facebooking,’ or emailing. The cell phone is the smallest most convenient connection that nearly everyone has. The idea, of course, is fantastic.The ability to communicate wire-free from anywhere is perfect. Cell phones have their advantages, like most digital devices. Parents have the luxury of calling up their children to know that they are safe, but, what are the consequences of that cell phone?

“Growing Up Tethered” is a piece written by Sherry Turkle that examines technology and its impact on our way of life. In her essay, Turkle’s focus is primarily on the cell phone. She focuses on how the cell phone works against separation. In today’s society, we are always a tap away from connecting with friends and loved ones. Turkle, herself, is a firm believer in escaping the need to be connected through technology. She argues that adolescents need to disconnect from friends, family, and parents in order to find out about their inner, true-self, and that adolescents need to

Sherry Turkle, a professor who studies “the social studies of science” at M.I.T, has changed her outlook on the internet completely from 1995 to now. Turkle use to think that the internet was a place that people where experimenting with to get away from the real world, though now believes that “we expect more from technology and less then each other.”(Lehrer p 836). Kids spent a few minutes playing with a tamagotchi – a wildly popular “digital pet”- that the kids started to

Everywhere you go teens seem to be glued to their phones, tablets, or computers. Technology is an addiction that does not seem to be going away any time soon. According to the Washington Post, teens can spend up to seven or more hours on their digital devices a day and the usage is still increasing. Not surprisingly enough, more than a third of all teenagers own a cellphone, ranging from a smart phone or just a plain old-school flip phone. But can spending all that time on their computers and smart devices be such a bad thing? Today’s easy access, always on world presents a wealth of opportunity for teens as students, but also challenges them to retain them essential humanity and unique personalities.

People have cell phones everywhere, especially teenagers. Teenagers are glued to their cell phones; they need cell phones almost everywhere they go. Today teens are depending on their phones for everything. The number of cell phones users has increased and as of 2010, there were more than 303 million subscribers in the U.S., according to the cellular companies (Hanna). As a result of teenagers over using cell phones, teens are being impacted emotionally, socially, and physically.

Children who are responsible for making their own way home after the school day or have medical issues greatly benefit from the use of cell phones. Children who walk home from school are immediately able to contact their parents and inform them of their current location. Children with medical issues can use their phone to request medical

The scariest thing to parents this day of age is losing a child or kidnapping. First, cell phones are the only way to content any emergency service. Without a cell phone it leaves a child helpless when there is a dangerous situation. Furthermore, “we want our kids to be independent, to be able to walk home from school and playgrounds

A world where every action, feeling, and thought originates from what people interpret on a screen is the result of society’s obsession with the Internet. Turkle starts exposing how severely attached, or “tethered,” teenagers are to their cell phones and the digital world. This leads into a discussion on privacy, or the lack thereof. Expanding on that idea, Turkle writes about how teenagers are not able to claim independence due to the tie to their cell phones and thus those who pay for them, their parents (Turkle, 238). This lack of growth stunts their identity-forming process and further agitates their obsession with the world online. The accessibility of instant validation from peers, or strangers for that matter, on the Web entices people away from the real world around them. Turkle