Have Smartphones Destroyed A Generation? By Erin Cotter

    (Introduction) “Put down the phone, turn off your the laptop, and do something-anything-that doesn’t involve a screen” (Twenge 63). It is astonishing the amount of time teens spend on phones. Jean Twenge discusses the effects smartphone usage has created among the younger and past generations in the article, “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation”. The purpose of Twenge’s article is to aware readers about the many consequences the smartphone usage has impacted generations.

In “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” , Jean Twenge presents the negative impact smartphones have had in this generation. According to her, the rise of technology has shifted the way teens live and interact with other people, ultimately leading to self-destruction. Twenge’s thesis is supported by statistics that may or may not be completely linked to the use of smartphones.

“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”.

Besides the cell phone, does technology really affect us in our society? Today’s generation of teenagers are using smartphones much of the time. Researchers also found that many teenagers are using more smartphones. This constant use of technology has had negative effects on today’s youth. Constant use of technology by teenagers is harmful because it causes depression and affects education

In her article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean M. Twenge discusses the effects on “generation i” with rising smartphone and social media usage. In the article, she provides multiple statistics to support her claims on what’s happening with the “i generation”, and generations past through social media use. She concludes that while smartphones have some positive social impact on the generation (like lower teen pregnancy rates), there has been real damage to the generation as well. I have concluded that, our generation has been more negatively impacted through smartphone usage than positively impacted. This is a strong point to make but, through my own experiences and, after reading Twenge’s article I find myself thinking about what smartphones have done to us as a growing generation. I have witnessed firsthand numerous downsides to having a smartphone that Twenge reports on.

In a world where technology is portrayed as the key ingredient of the common millennial life, I sometimes wonder what would happen if we were to quit technology for one week. For most people, it would be chaos. Even though I am technically considered Generation Z, I feel as if I have fallen into the millennial trap of consuming most of my life on my pc and phone. We live in the world where we show our dream life through social media instead of showing our real unfiltered life. Don’t get me wrong, social media is fun, but what about life? Some people would argue that social media is their life. Simon Sinek is an emphatic and humorous person who teaches people things that no one else really has the guts to say. During an interview entitled “Millennials in the Workplace” with Be Inspired he addresses the millennial trap, specifically in the workplace environment. Not only does he state that millennials are having a tough time coping with the real world, he also mentions a probable reason for why this is. The parents of the millennials glorified their child with love and compassion, giving them high self-esteem and no real chance to learn. As a cause of this, “...we’re seeing an increase in suicide rates in this generation, we’re seeing an increase in accidental deaths due to drug overdoses, we’re seeing more and more kids drop out of school or take a leave of absence due to depression…” (2017) This is true even within my school. You have no idea how many kids suffer from

“Put down the phone, turn off the laptop, and do something-anything-that doesn’t involve a screen” (Twenge 63). It is astonishing the amount of time teens spend on phones. Jean Twenge discusses the negative effects smartphone usage has created among the young and past generations in the article, “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation”. The purpose of Twenge’s article is to aware readers about the many issues the smartphone usage has created on generations. Twenge narrates different stories about young teen’s experiences with phones and social media. Twenge also provides readers with statistics and some studies of many effects caused by smartphones. Twenge gives emphasize to differences between generations. According to Twenge, today’s

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

In “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” written by, the Psychology Doctor, Jean M. Twenge, she presents the results produced after twenty-five years of research (Twenge para3). Her research was carried out to understand the new generation and explain how it differs to the previous generations (Twenge para9). Although her style is indeed formal, she utilized a heavy amount of credentials, logos, emotional appeal and a factual tone, to enforces her appeal on the parents of the kids of this new generation. Furthermore, she underlays her stand on the topic throughout her analysis, rather than having a direct approach and states actual percentages to compare previous generations to the new one, which leads to a sense of validity. It is not until the very end, that she finally states her stand in a more direct sense, since she has now gained the trust of her audience.

In the Article “Have Smartphones Destroyed A Generation”, Jean Twenge argues the dangers associated with the lack of screen time moderation; By emphasizing how excessive screen time siphons happiness, while endangering developmental psychology and physical health in the “IGen” generation— a subcategory of millennials. When analyzing the quality of Twenge’s argument I came to the realization that all her premises supported her conclusion. In other words Jean Twenge made her argument clear when she documented the relationships between the change in overall social behavior, to the uprising of social media, smartphones, and the generation that was caught in the mitst of it all. While reading this article I couldn’t help but notice the similarity

Technology is the inevitable force that is sweeping countries, and taking millennials with it. Simon Sinek states that “adolescents are becoming addicted to social media. Social media itself is not bad, but the imbalance is. Like all addictions, being addicted to social media will ruin relationships, it’ll cost time, and cost money.” Not to mention, using technology too much and not interacting with others face-to-face is depriving adolescents of important relationship skills that are essential inside and out of a job. Electronic usage itself is not bad, but using too much of it is, as with anything else. As Ray Bradbury points out in The Veldt, “Too much of anything is not good for

In “Generation Text Generation Text: The Dark Digital Ages: 13-17”, author Mark Bauerlein explains that the generation of today is generally lost within their technology, specifically cellphones. Bauerlein makes the point that teenagers hold their social lives within their hands, resulting in their separation from real world socialization and family, claiming that “So many of them consider the cell phone as an essential part of their lives” (p. 349). Furthermore, he compares today’s generation to that of past generations, and how the amount of online socialization today’s generation takes in is unhealthy. However, as Bauerlein fails to acknowledge that with the change of time come the change of people and social norms he is also quite ineffective

The article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation” by Jean M. Twinge explains some of these biases in our generation having access to smart phones is slowly destroying us. An example of this is “Unlike the teens of my generation who might have spent an evening tying up the family landline with gossip, they talk on Snapchat” This explains the basis in the article that there already stating that the phones have ripped us away from our family members and that we are more in touch with our phones than socially interacting with the family. The basis of this article has said that we’ve become more disconnected with families since we’ve had phones. When the reality is that we’ve actually kept in contact with them because say that you have a family member that lives very far away from you well you can’t always drive down there to meet them in person. Therefore, the phones offer us a form of communication for having a chat long distance. Another example is “Rates of teen depression, and suicide have spiked since 2011.” This evidence ties to my claim in that this is saying that because of us being on our phones that we are becoming depressed and killing ourselves because of it when the opposite is

In recent years, it seems like digital technology has slowly changed people mentally, while on one side it feeds them with knowledge, and on the other side it negatively affects people’s mental and emotional health. For instance, some people have become over reliant on their technological devices, to the point that it would take control of their lives, creating stressful situations and affecting their emotional health. On an emotional level, most of the younger generations want instant

In today’s modern society, technology is commonly thought of as a necessity. This thought can mainly associate with the youth of today. Youth of today can be described as children, teenagers, and young adults living in this day and age. Children and young adults alike have only lived in a world run by technology in their lifetime. Youth depends on technology because they do not know how to live without it. Modern technology includes cell phones, lap tops, television, and many other devices. Technology allows for use in many different settings and has countless uses. However, the negative attributes of technology completely outweigh its positive attributes. Technology has a negative effect on today’s youth because it weakens social skills,