Digital Zombies

In the narrative The Flight from Conversation by Sherry Turkle, she says in this age of mobile devices and Facebook people have sacrificed conversation with connection. People are always on their phones and struggle to maintain eye contact when their texting in classrooms and even in dates when you are supposed to connect to someone physically and emotionally and instead people act like robots and text even on dates and probably other social occasions. All this meant to show how people have become less social due to their phones always sending texts or emails and shopping online when they should be focused on where they are who they’re speaking to and what time it is. And this is a reasonable conclusion in our modern society people, especially teenage girls; seem to be on their phones texting almost 24/7.

In these days, people get addicted to the technology around that we are not even realize. Although technology is very useful to us, it has more disadvantages than we think. Almost everybody in this world think that technology make life more convenient. It is true!!! But very few realize how technology is going to affect our lives. Technology affects us negatively by decreasing the ability of our brain, consuming more time, and decreasing the life skill ability.

People spend a lot of time on technology each day. Right now, according to cnn.com, “Adults in the United States devoted about 10 hours and 39 minutes each day.” From spending so much time on technology we are becoming addicted. It is becoming a big problem.

In the same article that supports technology, Richtel states, “Humans can process only a single stream of information at a time.” Americans rarely stay on task when they are on their phone, swayed by the desire to check social media or play a game. Cell phone users oftentimes claim that they can multitask. However, research shows that this is impossible and that those individuals are delusional. In reality, they switch back and forth between their phones and work, causing them to waste time.

Cellphone and social media usage has been climbing in recent years. It is not uncommon to see people’s noses buried in their phone screens. According to Lulu Chang from Digital Trends, the average American spends 4.7 hours a day doing things on his or her phone. The average American also checks social media 17 times that same day.

According to the article “How often do you check your phone?” in the modern world today the average time a person will look at their phone’s screen is around 110 times a day; continuing on with the article it is said that people will check their phones “23 times a day for messaging, 22 times for voice calls and 18 times to get the time.” With all the time focused on the phones it distracts people of what is happening in our world and with their local

Text. Email. Instagram. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. All made to make life easier and to avoid having to face the social awkwardness of an actual conversation, but is that a good thing? Modern technological advances in the world of communication have robbed society of its ability to conversate normally. The real question is this: Will the people notice before it’s too late?

Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” believed that as technology improves, we lose a little bit of ourselves in the process. I think that he is right, as I look around I see people not even able to hold a conversation without looking at their phone or tablets. Practices that used to be a normal thing people learned before technology improves, now people rely on their phone to do those things now. The days where people had to remember phone number and birthdays are over, those things are now programed into cell phone and electronic calendars. Only a few years ago people had to go to the library to get information and we would remember that information for some time, for these reasons I believe that technology is making people dumber and dumber.

The message from this section sticks out to me because I am surprised about the average smartphone user checks his or her phone around 150 times a day (Huffington, 2015). The statistic shows that how often smartphone users check or use their phones per day. Moreover, it also tells us how our brain is forced to distract attention continually, and it becomes difficult for us to focus on certain things when we use the smartphone too often. Technology products are like the serpent in the digital garden of Eden, which gives us what we want, but not necessarily what we need. Technology devices will not be helpful for people when we either overuse it or become addicted to it. My

“…are symptoms of how technology captures our attention and disrupts our connections” (Goleman 5). The more people are on their phones, the smaller the opportunity is to look someone in the eyes and have a human moment—to talk, to share, to comfort. Living in Seattle, I’ve used public transportation plenty of times and in all those times, I’ve noticed no one is looking at one another or outside—everyone is glued to their own phones. Go into a crowded room full of people—regardless of age—and the majority will be on their phones instead of communicating with one another. “You know it’s not right to check your phone when you’re with someone, but it’s addictive” (Goleman 8). While some may see nothing wrong in constantly checking your phone, the majority recognize it is an issue, but decide to overlook it. The ability people have in quickly overlooking a major issue, despite age or gender, proves the level of addiction towards our technological

SD2: They go outside but do not allow themselves to be disconnected from the online world.

Over the past few decades, technology has greatly improved. Computers have advanced from being the size of a room to a portable item we can carry in our pockets. The vast majority of Americans carry a cell phone at all times, or at least have one within arm’s reach. In today’s technology oriented world, people can be easily susceptible to an overuse of their cell phone; this susceptibility causes multiple distractions in the key settings of our daily lives.

To start off, students that participate in “shut down your screen week” are able to focus on school and family. Scientist broadcast the following: “scientist say juggling emails phones calls, and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by burst of information” (Richtel 8). To demonstrate, scientist formulate that cell phones emails as well as text messages distract students and is not beneficial for a student by not letting them focus whether it's at school or

ii. However, for many of us, face-to-face communication seems to be a dying art – replaced by text messaging, e-mails, and social media. Human communication and interactions are shaped by available technologies

As asked by the English alternative rock band Muse in their famous song “Screenager,” “Who’s so phoney and always surrounded?” This song perfectly depicts the effects of technology on America. People are engulfed by different types of technology everywhere they go and even carry around technology such as phones, laptops, and iPods. These items may seem like a blessing, but they are potentially dividing America. Every day, eight to eighteen-year-olds watch four and a half hours of TV, listen to two and a half hours of music, use the computer for an hour and a half, and spend two and a half hours on their cell phones, two hours for texting and one half hour for talking. This adds up to eleven hours dedicated on the media per day (Crawford).