Sherry Turkle's Growing Up Tethered

Sherry Turkle's article "Growing Up Tethered" exposes the change in adolescent's demeanor while growing up in a technology-fueled world. This modern world inhibits growth towards independence, causes psychological problems, and an intense amount of pressure to uphold online identities. She opens up with various experiences today's youth have gone through trying to stay connected. Some go as far as to risk their own lives and the lives of others to check their phone.

How does one reflect on what technology has become versus its intended purpose? Thinking back to times before connecting devices, how were people supposed to get ahold of each other? The answer is simple: face to face talking and writing letters. Today’s smart devices are able to connect everyone to everyone in a matter of seconds, but how exactly does this affect people’s freedom, specifically teenager autonomy? One could believe that this connectivity limits autonomy due to it creating more accountability for teens to be in touch with their parents and friends. Others believe that connectivity increases teen autonomy. These people are under the assumption that when teens have access to the smart devices parents will feel more comfortable ‘loosening the leash’, allowing their teens time away from the home to discover themselves without parents. Sherry Turkle, author of “Growing Up Tether”, questions whether either of these perspectives are advantageous for the teenager or for the parent.

Sherry Turkle’s primary argument in her essay, “Growing Up Tethered”, is the current generation of

Every American in the U.S has an addiction of being on a phone while driving. The Public Service Announcement (PSA), “The Danger of Texting & Driving” presents an American teenager texting and driving. This PSA shows and explains what can happen when a person is in a vehicle and on a mobile device. As mentioned previously this video demonstrates what consequences can happen as a result of any American simply looking at his or her phone while driving. However, this short video also can teach and demonstrate why anyone should not get on anything that will cause a distraction to the person who is operating the vehicle. In the PSA, “The Danger of Texting and Driving” filmed by Blue Lobster Productions, the video uses pathos which overshadows both ethos and logos regarding the subject of texting and driving.

The act of sending electronic messages or texting is easily accessible to anyone that owns a cell phone. Often people are seen with the cell phone in one hand and texting while walking, eating in a restaurant with friends, working or shopping. It has become a part of everyday life. The convenience and the need to stay connected has made texting a useful method of communicating, that has increased dramatically with teenagers. “Adolescents report that texting is the most common way that they stay in contact with friends, sending an average of a hundred texts per day” (Delgado para. 1). This includes texting while driving. The effects of distracted driving from texting include legal penalties, increase in insurance premiums, motor vehicle crashes, and even death. Texting while driving has become a major problem in the United State and a simple LOL can have serious consequences.

At any given moment, you can glance around the room at a public place, and see at least one teenager with a phone in their hand. Cell phone addiction is a concern, and cell phones become unsafe when drivers are using them behind the wheel. Society is in desperate need of a solution to the problem that is texting and driving. As a result of cell phone addiction, companies have made apps such

Simply putting down your phone and paying attention to the road is a decision that not only could save the life of a driver but could save a whole family and community a whole lot of hurt. At any given time during the day approximately 800,000 people across the United States are on their phone while driving, which explains why texting is the number one distraction for teens across the country (Don’t Text and Drive-Volunteer Society of America). However, we can change this. Educating teens about the true risks of texting and driving just might save a life. Any text can

Texting while driving is an issue facing today’s fast pace and connected world in particular amongst teen drivers. In fact according to https://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cause-of-accident/cell-phone/cell-phone-statistics.html, (2012) “11 teens die every day as a result of texting while driving.” While this is not only a dangerous issue it is also an ethical issue as well. In this paper I will be describing the reason why texting while driving is an ethical issue, as well as provide a solution to fixing this issue.

In the article “Growing up Tethered”, by Sherry Turkle, she argues that technology today plays a major role in everyday life. Youths do not have the ability to branch off and have their own independence because of their reliance and attachment to technology. They also use technology to develop who they are as people and create an online personal identity of what they think is a perfect life. In comparison, their own life seems boring, pale and unwanted. Turkle also talks about how teenagers think of their phone as a “friend’s” and cannot live without it. When feeling a strong emotion, teens want to share their feelings with their friends and phone. I agree with Turkle’s opinion that technology is changing and will never be the same, which will be hard to improve this attachment to technology because too many teens are tethered.

In this age of multitasking, the use of cell phones is combined with assignments like cooking, driving, babysitting, walking, doing college assignments and even eating. Whereas the use of cell phones while doing some chores might be simply annoying, the consequence of using cell phone with driving can be fatal. Recent polls by the Pew Research Center and other researchers show that about fifty to ninety percent young Americans admit using their cell phone while driving. This includes about thirty six percent who said they texted or typed something whiles driving. (Lopresti-Goodman, Rivera, & Dressel, 2012). The practice of using phone particularly texting while driving has increased the number of distracted driving accidents. When the cell phone records of people involved

There are few places on this Earth, if any, where the possibilities are truly endless. However, if you detach yourself from the physical world and emerge into the “online” world, you find that this just might actually be accurate in this realm. The World Wide Web has had so much to offer to us since the early 1990s, but with this comes controversy. Unleashed onto a plane of seemingly immeasurable freedom of anonymity, was the world ready for such responsibility? Since those early days when new emerging technology changed our lives immensely, have we at all become a better place, or have we bitten off more than we can chew, and doomed our human relations forever? Exploring these concepts are three in-depth articles, including: “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife, and “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny. Although it is thought that the Internet brings the world together, it actually does not help us politically, culturally, and economically like one would believe, as it makes us unable to be independent, isolates us from different points of view, and encourages real-world violence against women and other minority groups.

In her article “Growing Up Tethered” Sherry Turkle explores how the constant connection to the Internet is negatively affecting the development of adolescents, and postulates that growing up “tethered” to their cell phones, is interfering with their normal psychological progression into adulthood. Referring to the idea that the ubiquitous cell phone allows teenagers to contact their parents’ at any time, she states that “adolescents don’t face the same pressure to develop the independence we have associated with moving forward into young adulthood” (Turkle 431). Additionally, the author touches on aspects of the lack of privacy and time adolescents have for themselves, asking “When is downtime, when is stillness?” (Turkle 430). While the

A large problem in today’s society is texting and driving. Recent studies show just reaching for your device makes a collision 1.4 times more likely, while texting makes a collision 23 times more likely; although we know this is an issue, nothing is being done about the 34 percent of teens still committing the act (“Texting and Driving Statistics”). Because of this, teens should have limited access to technology and social media. Constantly being connected to the internet and other social sources can lead to many personal problems like cyberbullying, sexting and social isolation.

As technology advances, people become notorious for using their electronics in inappropriate situations. Teenagers in present day commonly text at the dinner table, while crossing a street, and even while driving. Not only do teenagers text, their parents do, as well. Texting is a frequent fad among the young adults, it also a convenient method for parents to keep in contact with their children. People nowadays have to be in contact with friends and family at every moment of the day especially while driving it is the equivalent of driving under the influence, using hand-held devices (like Bluetooth) will decrease the number of accidents caused by phones, and studies show texting reduces a persons reaction time.

Does it seem like everywhere you go people are preoccupied with texting? Often people are seen with the cell phone in one hand and texting while walking, in a restaurant eating with friends, working or shopping. It has become a part of everyday life. The convenience and the need to stay connected has made texting a useful method of communicating, that has increased dramatically with teenagers. According to Dr. Delgado, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Perelman School of Medicine, “Adolescents report that texting is the most common way that they stay in contact with friends, sending an average of a hundred texts per day” (para. 1). This includes texting while driving. The effects of distracted driving from texting include legal penalties, increase in insurance premiums, motor vehicle crashes, and even death. Texting while driving has become a major problem in the United State and a simple LOL can have serious consequences.