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Have Smartphones Destroying A Generation Analysis

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Jean M. Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of Generation Me and iGen wrote the article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, published by The Atlantic in September 2017, arguing that the influence of smartphones negatively impact the generation we now call iGen. Born between 1995 and 2012, the iGen are continuously exposed, influenced, and shaped by smartphones and the rise of social media. Twenge pointed out the positive and negative effects on the use of smartphones “from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health”(Paragraph 8). Twenge has been researching generational differences for 25 years and she found that smartphones has radically changed every aspect of teenager’s lives …show more content…

Twenge uses her personal narrative of a conversation she had with Athena to start the whole article with. This can be effective which is shown through Twenge’s writing because it opens endless possibilities of how she will tie and support this to her argument. Storytelling implants the given story into the readers’ head which Twenge intends to later bring back to lighten up the mood for the effectiveness of persuasion. It seems more memorable the way her first and last few paragraphs tie to each other. I see a distinct connection in change as to when Athena first admit that she spent most of her summer hanging out alone in her room with her phone as to how Twenge ended the article that Athena threw her friend’s phone at the wall for texting her boyfriend and not listening. The readers can find this humorous yet there’s a deeper context as to why Twenge incorporated this into her writing. Through her structure and organization of the article, the readers can assume that Twenge’s attitude towards the iGen is positive even after all the negative effects she has seen through her 25 years of study. Humor used in the end of the article helped Twenge express her final thoughts towards this depressing topic of what’s happening towards the …show more content…

Twenge stated, “If you were going to give advice for a happy adolescence based on this survey, it would be straightforward: Put down the phone, turn off the laptop, and do something--anything--that does not involve a screen”. Twenge follows up her opinionated advice with a qualifier saying, “Of course, these analyses don’t unequivocally prove that screen time causes unhappiness: it’s possible that unhappy teens spend more time online. But recent research suggests that screen time, in particular social-media use, does indeed cause unhappiness” (Paragraph 28). This qualifier supported her claim where her advice is more reasonable and worth paying attention to than to immediately shut out her ideas. Qualifiers are in arguments to make the statements less extreme and not too intense for the readers to be offended. Twenge used the qualifier effectively where she can stand her ground successfully convinving her readers to find her argument more accepting and

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