The Smartphone as an Example of Convergence of Culture

Jean M. Twenge despises smartphones! That is the initial reaction to the title of her article “Have Smartphones Destroyed A generation?” . This will be an analysis of the effectiveness of the article written by Jean M. Twenge about the effects of smartphone usage on younger generations. With modern reliance growing more heavily on smartphones and younger generations being born with these devices around them, Twenge has gathered information pertaining to this new generational adaption that began to show signs around 2012. “Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states. The gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial

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”.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the Macworld convention in January of 2007, a tidal change in the way users communicate with one another was unleashed. The phone, which combined the already popular attributes of an iPod with the traditional cell phone, was an instant success, selling millions of units even at the initially haughty price of $599 each (Vogelstein, 2008). The theory behind the creation of the phone was deceptively simple: combine an MP3 player with a Blackberry, camera, and regular cell phone operating on a sleek touch-screen controlled software system. Consumers were finally freed from carrying separate devices to perform all they tasks they now wanted to away from home. In one simple hand-held device they could take pictures, listen to music, play games, communicate with friends and family, and even surf the Internet. This one device changed the way that people began sharing information, allowing them to instantly access information anywhere in the world while also transmitting it just as quickly. The iPhone is now universally recognized and has become a cultural artifact in our times.

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.

This relates to what Jenkins was describing as the process of convergence, where consumers demand more advanced phones. Although there may be the odd few that prefer single function phones, they are cheap yet harder to find now a days due to the high demand for advanced technology. This shows how the growth of convergence culture increases by relying heavily of the consumer’s active participation in order to succeed.

Technology has advanced at a rapid rate over the past decade. We can now do things on the go, including social networking, shop, check email, not to mention, make a call. As technology develops, electronics get smaller and smaller. Over 10 years ago, cell phones were the size of (if not larger than) cordless house phones. We would only see them being carried by business men or lawyers. Now there are 8 year olds with blackberry’s. Cell phones are a huge part of most of our lives, But what effects have they had on American culture?

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, by Jean M. Twenge, was published in the September 2017 Issue of The Atlantic. Twenge discusses the impacts of smartphones in teens (also referred to as “iGen’s”) today and attempts to determine if smartphones have caused a generation to falter in their mental and physical health. The author interviews a 13 year old girl about issues teens are developing due to these devices. She examines the spike in teen suicide rates since the invention of the smartphone, how teens no longer go out and socialize with others, and the lack of sleep teens may be getting due to smartphone activity.

The Social Construction of Technology (or SCOT) is a new research tradition rooted in the sociology of technology. SCOT provides a multi-directional model based on the property of interpretative flexibility, and emphasizes on social influences on the technology design and development. This paper will apply SCOT principles to explore the development of cell phone, define the development of cell phone into three different stages historically, and analyze the interpretative flexibility of the cell phone accordingly in the three different stages. Based on SCOT theory, this paper will discuss how the original huge cell phones are shaped and developed by social influences to the smartphones in today’s life.

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.

Information technology has advanced in multiple ways in society, where organizations has implement the structure into their work environment. Industries have outsource their manufacturing to other places in the world and rely on telecommunication to keep the marketing. The geographic distribution has changed significantly by reducing the distance it takes to complete an operation, due to information technology. These are just a couple of examples of how this advanced technology has reshape our society and continuing.

At first, I was going to analyze and write about smartphones, however I found it more efficient to write also about a particular smartphone to narrow it down from such a broad technological artifact, such as answering who designed it, what for, what their position and the impact they want to have on society was, and their future visions. Therefore, I chose the iPhone as the centerpiece of smartphones I will be analyzing and an emphasis on applications. However, some of this information is relevant and interchangeable to all other smartphones. IPhones and smartphones allow us to access constant information and offer it the way we want it, as it is completely customizable now to fit our learning style. They keep us organized, send information to us in different ways, even shape and offer solutions such as for politics, economies, problems whether individual ones or globally. Smartphones capitalize on shared knowledge and has opened the door to inventors and those who have the knowledge to make our world a more connected place and lives easier by sharing it with us to use. We are able to communicate with other people far off, through space-time compression or shrinking-space to gather news and information.

groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver’s skid row, In the Realm of Hungry

Technology has, since the primitive years, always been used to invent tools in order to solve problems. This would, in turn, simplify and make man’s life easier. Through advancements in the field, man has become more efficient on both the macro- and microscopic level. Anything nowadays can be attained with either the flip of a switch or a click of a mouse. One particular technology that came about in this time was the smartphone. Since 2008, the smartphone, a device that combines a normal cell phone with a computer, typically offering Internet access, data storage, e-mail capability, etc. all in your hand was deemed as ground-breaking technology and created one of the largest and most competitive market in terms of

First of what is Digital media convergence? It can be simplified as several processes, these are technological, social, industrial and cultural convergence. It also means the digitizing of old media so it can be incorporated into new media.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world has become a smaller place. The time used to travel to far distances has diminished; with the growth of new technologies, traveling and communicating have become simple daily tasks for many people. Through the growth of global communication, people have become closer to others across the globe, and business has gone world wide. One invention that came along with the technological revolution is the cell phone. Cell phones allow us to be reachable anywhere at anytime, letting us communicate even during travel. As time becomes more valuable for people, the importance of accessibility to communication also increases. With cell phones, the communication and