Negative Effects Of Smartphones

In the article “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” the author Nicholas Carr uses rhetorical devices to convey his views of smartphones. The author uses evidence, description, and statistics to prove that smartphones hijack our minds. In the article “How Smartphones hijack Our Minds” Carr uses evidence to provide support to him clam. Carr says “Study found that when people phones beep or buzz while they’re in the middle of a challenging task, their focus waver.”

Our cellphones are instruments or symbols of communication. Our dependence in our phones increases overtime. We can’t get out in the house without it, it’s like everything revolves around it. People use it to contact their friends or family, explore games, do social media, send important emails and the list goes on. Every year, companies improve on making phones more useful and likewise, offers cheap alternatives, so that every person can have access to the device. Looking at a couple years back, phones are generally use for messaging and seen as an unnecessary accessories but now, people can’t live without. Based on the website called Tame Yourself, study shows that “...58% of smartphone users don’t go without checking their phones.” this explains how addicted we are on our devices.

Do you think that you could go a whole day with your phone in your back pocket without touching it? The author of ‘How smartphones hijack our minds” doesn’t think so. Nicholas Carr uses rhetorical devices such as cited authorities, examples, and uses statistical facts and figures to convey his view that smartphones hijacked our minds. These rhetorical devices are used to reshape your thinking about how much your phones take over your minds and how much they truly affect you without you even knowing. He shares many studies and experiments of students that have taken tests with different controlled variables to see if his statement is factual and that there is evidence that backs it up.

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.

“More than three billion people worldwide now use the internet (Time), and 80 percent of them access if from their smartphones” (Smart Insights). A smartphone is a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, and much more. There is an abundant amount of smartphone brands out there in the world and while they all cost different prices, they all perform the same job. Each person uses their smartphone for various reasons, whether it’s for work or to make calls or texts. Smartphones have changed society in various ways, both good and bad. Although countless individuals think that smartphones have ruined American society, smartphones have actually benefited society because of more safety precautions, information on hand, and entertainment.

Also stated in the essay to strengthen his argument is “ If you’re like the typical owner, you’ll be pulling your phone out and using it some 80 times a day, according to data Apple collects” to enlighten that even Apple agrees smartphones can be addictive. Another statistic stated by Carr to strengthen his position on how smartphones affect our minds is as stated “A second experiment conducted by the researchers produced similar results, while also revealing that the more heavily students relied on their phones in their everyday lives, the greater the cognitive penalty they suffered.” Carr also constructs evidence by incorporating

Even though smart phones are supposed to make working easier, studies have shown that they actually hurt our performance. In 2015, a Journal of Experimental Psychology study had 166 people to test. The experiment was to have the participants work on a challenging task while their phones start beeping and buzzing. The results showed that the worker became messier and had their attention elsewhere, whether or not they checked their phone. Dr. Adrian Ward is a psychologist and marketing professor at the University of Texas at Austin, he has been working with the effects of smart phones on our thoughts and decision making. Dr. Ward believes that we have grown so attached to our phones that they reduce our intelligence with their presence. To test this theory, Dr. Ward and three colleagues began a clever experiment to test his idea. They decided to enlist 520 undergraduate students at UCSD and make them perform two standard tests of intellectual acuity. The first test evaluated “available cognitive capacity”, it’s a test to measure how fully a person’s mind can focus on a single task. The second test gauged “fluid intelligence”, a person’s ability to understand and answer an unfamiliar problem. The only difference was the location of the student’s smart phone. Some students had their phone on the desk, while others had it in their bag or pocket. Others were even asked to leave their phone in a different room. The results of this test showed that “As the phone’s proximity increased, brainpower decreased” (pg.3).

Whether or not society recognizes it, there is a gravitational pull amongst all, towards technology. Within that pull, lies the loss of an ability to focus and to connect with one another. People of all generations have become accustomed to reaching towards our phones over enjoying face to face communication. And it’s all coming at a cost. In Focus, by Daniel Goleman, Goleman examines the correlation—and causation— of technology and the effects it has on the human brain. Those effects ranging from losing certain traits and abilities: focus, relationships, learning, and communication.

It is said that smartphones are a substantial distraction and cause us to make poor judgements (Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception & Performance).

Across the world, approximately four billion people own a mobile phone. Only about three and a half billion people use a toothbrush (Spinfold). Not only will this interesting fact leave you disgusted, but also completely shocked by the absurd amount of cell phones being used all over the world. More than half of the total world population owns a mobile phone, and more than likely several other internet devices. With all of your enticing devices pulling at your focus and consuming your time, it’s not a surprise that several minutes can turn into several hours on your phone, iPad, or laptop. Our culture is slowly beginning to fit the technological future with improved computers, T.V.’s, etc. With the help of internet access everywhere, technology continues to have a dominant force of manipulating and negatively impacting our lives on a daily basis.

Smartphones have become a big part of our lives. People are always using their smartphones for various reasons and the result is a generation that is connected to their phones. The over use of smartphones affects people’s mental health which is described as “A person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.” resulting in depression, anxiety, addiction, lack of sleep, and less motivation. Smartphones are helpful but they have more problems than the help they offer. For these reasons smartphones are becoming a necessary evil that is damaging our lives.

The smartphone market is one of today’s most rapid growing industries. A smartphone is a technologically advanced communication device that not only performs the actions of a basic mobile phone, but it also allows the consumer to personalize the device with installable applications from an Internet based store for maximum functionality (Smartphone, 2015). A recent annual report from Mary Meeker on Internet trends reported that 87 % of young adults, those between the ages of 18 and 34, who own smartphones are never separated from them. Her report also showed that 4 out of 5 young adults say that they reach for their smartphones as soon as they awaken each day (Hackett, 2015).

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” (Albert Einstein). In recent times, with the proliferation of cell phones and intelligent devices, there is a general concern for the impact the use of these devices causes with users. The excessive use of cell-phones, iPhone and iPod devices is becoming one of the major sociological problems people face, which has many effects on the physiology, psychology, and safety of people.

There is increasing evidence that handheld electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets can become so compelling that many people find themselves checking them or staring at them so often that it causes relationship strain, poor judgement behind the wheel, lost productivity at work and school, and lost sleep. All of these issues can and will increase stress for individuals and families. However, there appears to be more to it.

The huge impact of technology is seen most in this era that we live in. A form of technology that has influenced every gesture, words, and action is the mobile phone. The 21st century is the era of cellphones, with this form of technology communication with friends and families has never been easier with the addition of social media, but for every advantage there is always a disadvantage. Among those disadvantages of mobile phones are stress, anxiety, and motor accidents.