"Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?" by Jean M. Twenge
For today's class, we will be discussing the article, "Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?" by Jean M. Twenge (Sept. issue of The Atlantic, here).
Writing Prompt:
Before we begin, I want you to think about the illustrations of the article and the choices the illustrator made.
1) What is happening in the article's cover image?
2) Why is it happening?
3) How does this idea/image tie into Twenge's main claim?
4) Lastly, how does this idea/image tie into your own life?
1. In the article's cover, a women is reaching out for her phone while plummeting through the sky. As she is focused on her phone, the picture depicts the how the focus on her phones has caused her to be less aware of what is around her.
ReplyDelete2. This is happening because she is so involved with her phone, she cannot notice the urgent situation she is in.
3. This ties into Twenge's main claim as he explained that teenagers of the new generation have become disconnected from the outside world as they have become more invested within their devices.
4. In my life, I see the internet as a necessity and would be anxious without access.
1: In the image, a girl is falling in a void while desperately grasping for her phone. Rectangular lights surround her, probably representing the screens of cell phones.
ReplyDelete2: It is the cover image for an article. It represents the ideas of loneliness and depression related to phones that the article talks about.
3: The girl is all alone and in a void, similar to the depression and loneliness described in the article.
4: I too often fall into large blue voids and grasp desperately for my phone while the lights of phone screens fall around me.
1. In the article's cover image, a person is falling through what seems like a sky covered in pixels. She is also reaching up for her phone.
ReplyDelete2. This is happening to show how people have become pulled into the digital world of smartphones. The person in the image is falling farther into the digital world while reaching for her cell phone.
3. This ties into Twenge's main claim that teens and the young generation in general spend too much time on their cell phones and online. It is a way to visualize this concept.
4. This ties into my own life because I am also guilty of spending too much time on my cell phone.
1.)A lone person is falling through an endless void, with what seems to be reflections of the phones screen around them. They are reaching for what is obviously a phone.
ReplyDelete2.)The reflections of the phones screen symbolize how technology surrounds us. In addition, the person in the image is alone, showing how technology isolates us from other people. The fact that the person is falling might represent the fact that technology use is unavoidable, much like how you cannot stop falling once you have started.
3.) Twenge claims that technology, smartphone in particular, isolate us and even though they cause unhappiness, we become addicted to them. Twenge is almost making the claim that technology could be our downFALL.
4.)We are currently all using computers, meaning that technology has become ingrained in our everyday life.
This is Annie and Ethan
Delete1.) The image is of a young woman, presumably a teenager because teenagers are part of the subject of the article. This young lady is falling uncontrollably into a blue abyss, with her cell phone right above her . Her arms are away from her body either to try to find balance, or to try and grasp her phone.
ReplyDelete2.) The girl is falling because she has lost her grip on reality and what is going on around her.
3.)This image ties into Twenge's claim by showing how swallowed up this girl is and how she is falling into the abyss of technology.
4.) This image reminds me of how I can get go down the "rabbit hole" technology. I get so caught up in new videos and my computer that everything fades away and I am falling into the blue abyss.
1. The article's cover image shows a young teenage girl falling. As she is falling she is reaching for a smartphone. All around her are blurred out images of what I believe to be other smartphones.
ReplyDelete2. The girl is in a unsafe and vulnerable state and what she clings to is her phone. The illustrator wanted to show that teenagers rely on their phones to do everything for them. The girl is depicted alone to show how when one is on their phone constantly, even if they are talking to others through it, they truly are alone. The blurred out phones show that the girl is so focused on her phone she cannot see the world around her.
3. The image ties into Twenge's idea that teenagers rely to heavily on technology. When they are using their phones or tablets that's all they can see. It also touches upon Twenge's idea that teens are spending more and more time by themselves.
4. I find that when I do have free time I tend to relax by going on my phone or laptop. Instead of doing that I probably should be spending time with my friends.
1) In the image, there is a girl who is seemingly falling down a hole of sorts. Following the girl, there is a phone. The girl is reaching for the phone, symbolizing the need or addiction to the phone.
ReplyDelete2) The girl is reaching for the phone because she might have a dependence on the phone. This is symbolized by the girl falling down a deep hole with only her phone on her mind.
3) Twenge claims that this generation is becoming too reliant on technology and the smartphone and it is causing negative effects on the world. The illustrator represents this by making it clear that girl's one priority is her phone and nothing else around her.
4) This image speaks to how society has been shaped over the years. Around this generation, you can clearly see a dependence on technology. This has had a major effect on the most recent generation and every person in it has been effected in some way. I am guilty of finding the internet to be necessary in my life.
1) The article's cover image depicts a girl falling through space while reaching for a glowing smartphone.
ReplyDelete2) This situation is happening because the technology in this girl's life is causing her to feel depressed and lonely, which can make people feel as if they are perpetually falling downward with nobody to catch them.
3) This image and its idea tie into Twenge's main claim that the smartphone has negatively affected the lives of teenagers by depicting the girl as falling down, yet still reaching for her device, which has presumably caused her to start falling in the first place.
4) This image ties into your my own life in that I can relate to how the girl is reaching for the phone as if it might save her. I often feel guilty for always going on my phone,
1. Whats happening in the image is that a girl is falling from somewhere, but disregards how she is in danger and reaches for her phone instead.
ReplyDelete2. This is happening, because the girl on the cover is representing the teens of today, and how they are too connected to their smartphones to realize the harmful effects that result from smartphone use.
3. This idea ties into Twenge's idea that because technology connects us so much it has decreased the amount of social activity in real life, and increased the social connections on the internet. The girl reaching for the phone instead of trying to save herself is representing how our phones are as important as our lives.
4. My personal connection to this is that I have a strong connection to the internet in general, and basically require that I have some connection to the internet at anytime.
-Rudy Ye
1. The cover image depicts a person falling away from a smart-phone, surrounded by many other streaks of lights. It is notable that at the bottom of the image the background color of blue brightens to white.
ReplyDelete2. In this image, the person is reaching for their phone, maybe to show how people reach for their phones. The lights probably represent other technology, or technological presence surrounding the person as they fall. The light at the bottom of the image looks to me like it is supposed to show technology as a whole, and the person is falling into its grasp.
3. This idea ties into how throughout the essay, Twenge is discussing how the more recent generations are using technology more and more, and how it is becoming more and more like an addiction throughout all of society.
4. I guess I sort of understand how this could be meant to show a teen like me sucked into technology, but at the same time I'm forced to use it less by school and work anyways, so it doesn't seem particularly relevant.
I) In the image there is a young lady with bright hair falling with an electronic device. She ignores the fact that she is falling and reaching for the device. This may be demonstrating that the device is more important to her than which direction she is heading in life.
ReplyDeleteII) One idea as to why this is happening is that the character did not pay attention to the truly important things and as such, began falling.
III) This image is connected to Twenge's main claim simply because the idea is that technology may be the downfall of this generation.
IV) This image ties into everyone's lives as it explains the inevitable. Everyone falls at some point in time and at that point you must rely on others to catch you. If you are lonely like this particular young lady, then you continue falling until your death.
Samantha Williams
ReplyDelete1)A presumably young girl in a 50s style dress is falling through an abstract space (cyberspace?). Her phone is falling with her, and she's reaching for it.
2)The girl represents the youth, either of today or the past. The falling shows that there's change, and the phone is the catalyst.
3)This image is here to represent the general idea od the article. Youth is changing and the smartphone is responsible.
4) This relates to my life a little bit. I know my generation is different, but it's also affecting the higher generations.
1. In the article's cover image, a young girl (presumably) is falling through what can be assumed to be a representation of a digital void. She has dropped her phone while falling, and she is reaching out towards it as she falls.
ReplyDelete2: This image shows how the "iGen" is completely dependent on their phones. Even when falling into the depths of "addiction" and "obsession," they will still reach out for their phones.
3: Twenge's main claim is that the "iGen" can't live without access to the internet. This image shows this by depicting the girl, not concerned by her predicament, mindlessly reaching out for her phone as she falls.
4: Sometimes, I feel like I can't be without my phone, as I feel like I need some way to be connected.
Grace Sewell and Sadie Hartt
ReplyDelete1. The picture depicts a girl, falling into a world of technology. In the image, the girl is depicted reaching out for her phone, almost as if she views it as something to save her.
2. She appears to be using social media and her phone to escape her life and ignore the problems surrounding her.
3. Her main claim is that teens, especially females, are falling into the vicious cycle that is social media.
4. Neither of us believe that we are addicted to our phones, or that we completely ignore our family and friends, but we do tend to fall into the world of social media and technology.
Partner: Ryan
ReplyDelete1. No matter the predicament, she is always reaching for her phone. A girl is in the image because girls are on social media more often than boys. The girl is falling because it relates to the graph and how the numbers of how often teens are communicating in person are falling.
2. The latest generation is so dependent on their phones that they always crave the connection phones provide.
3. This ties into the main point because the phone has had too much of an impact on this generation's life.
4. I have friends who are constantly on their smartphones and always on social media and reaching for their phones.
Morgan and Andy:
ReplyDelete1: The girl is falling away from reality and into all the negative things that are associated with technology. She is reaching for her phone desparately as she falls, still not realizing that it is the thing that made her fall to begin with.
2: The girl has become addicted to her technology and has dropped her real life interactions for synthetic ones, causing this fall into negative emotions and bad behaviours.
3: The artist is saying how this addiction to phones and social media is affecting the youth of today, which is the main message of the article.
4: Because we are this generation that
is primarily talked about in the article, it is relevant to us, as we are the ones mostly responsible for correcting this hole we've fallen into.
Zack and Toben
ReplyDelete1. A girl is falling down into the internet and it is consuming her life. The message this communicates is that the internet is so overwhelming you can fall out of consciousness and not absorb information bu instead just see it.
2. This is happening because the female character has enveloped herself in too much of modern technology/smartphones.
3. It shows that people are falling into a new world (like alice in wonderland).
4. We are part of the "IGen" and are the main ones being called to action toward the end of the article.
Jordan Theriault and James Hawkes
ReplyDeleteI) In the cover image, a girl with long, pink hair is falling through a void surrounded by rectangular lights, whilst she is reaching for her phone.
II) It seems like the rectangular lights are supposed to symbolize other people's electronic devices, and how they connect with that girl. The fall symbolizes how she is simultaneously falling out of favour with her friends, as well as falling deeper into the pit of depression as she is isolated. Alternatively, it could also mean that when people fall or struggle in life, they reach for their phone to stabilize themselves. Her reaching for her phone won't help her survive her fall, similar to real life.
III) Twenge is trying to argue that smartphones make us struggle and fall. It also ties in with the data in that the charts almost all having falling statistics that show how happiness is decreasing.
IV) Neither of us use our phone for social media, and Jordan barely even uses it at all, so this doesn't image doesn't tie into our life as much as some other people. However, we have both seen in our sending schools that social media can really make them fall.
Madi and Christian
ReplyDelete1)A girl is falling into what seems to be a bottomless place. There are lights that look like they might be from a cell phone screen all around her. As she falls, she is glimpsing the lives of her "friends" also on social media through the screens around her. She is so focused on her phone that she does not notice that she is falling. It is a girl, because in the article, it is proven that girls experience the depression from technology.
2)It is happening because she is "falling" into the malicious effects of technology. A while back, she went past the point of no return.
3)This ties into her article because her main purpose is to make people aware of how technology is causing teenagers to be more depressed.
4)Christian: technology doesn't affect his self esteem because he doesn't have many social media platforms. Madi: Although I do have snapchat and instagram, I don't find it that it makes me unhappier because I am generally a positive person.
Emerson: 1. I think it may be suicide, or a representation of how the internet, or online, makes you fall into its clutches? Or since she's by herself, how the internet makes us feel lonely? She's reaching to technology because it's the only thing she has or knows how to have? Falling or struggling against technology.
ReplyDeleteMaddy: I think she may be falling into the rabbit hole of technology, how her phone is the only thing keeping her tethered, and it's just out of reach; her lifeline.
Emerson: 2. This question is a little vague, but maybe it's because she is spending more time online that she's falling alone, with nothing but her phone?
Maddy: This is pretty hard to put into words, but maybe it's because she is dependent on her phone? Like I said, a rabbit hole that she can't get out of because her phone is always with her.
Emerson: 3. Twenge's main claim is that teenagers are regressing, being less independent, and have higher rates of mental illness. I think this is well illustrated; though regressing isn't exactly there, the 'being less independent' is illustrated; the only thing she has is her phone, and the 'higher rates of mental illness' is also being illustrated because she is falling (suicide?) alone, and the only thing she has is her phone; loneliness, yet her phone is the only thing that may save her, but it's also causing her to fall.
Maddy: It claims that iGen is losing itself to technology, and this illustrates this; she is falling, and losing herself in the process.
Maddy: 4. It reminds me of how I can lose myself in technology without any idea of time; I've lost entire days to technology (on Youtube). I can lose myself and barely realize it.
Emerson: I agree. You never realize what you could have done with that time until it's gone.
1. A woman is falling into a technological themed void with a smartphone.
ReplyDelete2. Based on the articles content, we would say that it is representing her descent into the hellish realm of that great demon, the smartphone and it's evil brood of social media apps.
3. It is a visual representation of the fall into a life full of technology and mental issues.
4. Firstly, I fell while holding my phone once. Also, we all use technology and are walking the edge a deep abyss. One day we may share the fate of this poor dame.
Tucker Fournier and Shea Sewall
1) What is happening in the article's cover image?
ReplyDeleteThe girl is completely focused on her phone, completely ingnoring the fact that she's falling. She is alone, has no shoes. stereotypical tech backround. red hair. comitting suicide?
2) Why is it happening?
She is falling because she is falling towards technology and away from social circles.
3) How does this idea/image tie into Twenge's main claim?
Technology is killing us all. This is what the picture symbiolizes. Technology is detaching us from everything, she is even falling away from her smartphone.
4) Lastly, how does this idea/image tie into your own life?
No matter what is happening, you are still reaching for your phone.
By Alana, Marc, and Sam
1. A girl appears to to be falling into notheningness while grasping upwards for a phone as other screens blur in he background.
ReplyDelete2. Maybe it is because she has lost touch and is falling out of control in this scene of screens and technology.
3. This ties in to her main claim that the current adolescent generation is differing from previous generations in ways that BAD. She is falling away from the "normal" trends into an unknown future of phones, social media, and other technology all while she is out of control.
4. We both use technology and one of us feels that they cannot relate with the image and only agrees with the authors claim that use is on the rise.
1. The girl is surrounded by technology (the outside world), yet as she falls to her immediate, painful death, all she cares about is her phone above her. This image symbolizes the role of how technology acts as a god over this generation.
ReplyDelete2. The girl in the image is a victim of technology, which has caused her to fall to her immediate, painful death.
3. Twenge's main claim is that the smart phone has destroyed a generation. This image plays into that claim by showing the rain (and reign) of technology causing the girl in the image to focus on her phone while not paying attention to the world around her.
4. This image is dumb and does not hold any relevance in either of our lives.
-Stefan and Margaret
DeleteStephan*
DeleteAmanda Chen and Sophia Smith
ReplyDelete1. The girl is falling but still reaching upwards for her phone. The other lights might represent other screens showing that she's surrounded by a world of technology.
2. The technology is causing negative effects in her life (she's falling) but even though she must know she is falling, she is continuing to reach for the technology to save her (wether or not she knows that it is what is causing her to fall)
3. The image connects to Twenge's main claim that technology is negatively effecting us but we either don't realize it and still reach for technology or we do realize it and reach for the technology anyways.
4. This image relates to our own lives because we are the iGen and we are so absorbed in our technology that we don't notice that we are "falling" (being negatively effected"
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ReplyDeleteIan was here too, I promise.
ReplyDelete1) Woman falling and reaching desperately for her phone. It is illustrating that when you are attached to a device when it dissipates you can be overwhelmed. The colors that were chosen are mostly dull or dark colors with the only light colors being used to emphasize the darkness. This speaks of sadness and a flat mood. The seemingly choppy image is similar to that of when an older computer monitor loses its signal, or the signal becomes weak. This symbolizes how losing connection with her phone causes a loss of connection to her safety and comfort.
2) She has been separated from her phone and she is seeking comfort for the anxiety and fear that is appearing. But she has nothing to fall back on almost as if the phone was supporting everything, and losing touch with her phone has caused her to lose touch with reality.
3)It demonstrates that people are overly reliant on their devices. And once they lose them they do not know what to do. Almost like losing their sense of security, almost as if the phone is a lifeline.
4)I agree that I am way to attached to my phone and that I use it too much in daily life.
1. A woman is falling and as she falls she is just focused on her phone. She does not care that she is falling because she is more worried about her phone. Maybe her not falling is representative of how the younger generation does not realize how they are affected by technology.
ReplyDelete2. She's falling into the trap of technology and selfishness. There is no one around her, so she falls alone consumed by her problems. What she does not realize is that she is also falling into anxiety and depression.
3. The girl is representative of the whole iGen generation who is falling towards their own self-destruction. The blue color around her ties into the idea that this generation is surrounded by loneliness and depression.
4. We are the younger generation so this picture depicts the threat that we all face of becoming addicted to our phone.
Rothery and Hailey:
ReplyDelete1. In this article's cover, it shows a girl falling while reaching for her phone. This represents how important phones are to teens because even though she is in a dangerous situation, the only thing she seems to care about is her phone. The lights surrounding her could represent other phones and other people falling. This could also represent her drowning in technology. It is important to notice that the girl is completely alone, and reaching for her phone for support instead of the other people in her life.
2. This is happening because iGens are being enveloped by their technology. They are more dependent on it and value it more social connection. The person shown is a girl because girls are typically affected more by technology than boys.
3. This image ties in with Twenge's claim by depicting how teens are in trouble with technology. The girl is falling but does not seem to care. She is also alone, which represents Twenge's claim that smartphones are forming rifts between teen relationships, and are causing teens today to feel more lonely than ever.
4a. This ties into my own life because when I'm in distress, the first thing I think to do is to call or someone for help. (Rothery)
4b. I can relate to this article in that whenever I am distressed (both emotionally and physically) I typically reach out for my phone rather than those who are actually there and willing to help.