In our world today there is a major problem with the use of cellphones and other technologies that it is taking away from our day to day lives in many different aspects. Sherry Turkle, author of “The Empathy Diaries and Jonathan Haidt, author of “Get Phones Out of Schools Now” both share the same negative perspective against smart phones and technology. Although they do not talk about the exact same things in their writing, the two authors both have similar ideas that bounce off one another leaving room for me to expand their thoughts and tie in my own opinion.

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Jonathan Haidt and Sherry Turkle are both in agreement that there is a major problem with the overuse of smartphones that is negatively impacting students in their ability to learn and attain new information. Turkle addresses the importance of communication and how the use of technologies is leading to students not being able to have thoughtful, knowledgeable, and interactive conversations which is degrading their learning. She explains this importance by saying, “In the classroom, conversations carry more than the details of a subject; teachers are there to help students learn to ask questions and be dissatisfied with the easy answers. More than this, conversations with a good teacher communicate that learning isn’t all about the answers. It’s about what the answers mean. Conversations help students build narratives – whether about gun control or the Civil War – that will allow them to learn and remember in a way that has meaning for them. Without these narratives, you can learn a new fact but not know what to do with it, how makes sense of it” (Turkle 347). For Turkle, the ability to have conversations is a major factor in the learning process. The problem here is that to have these thoughtful conversations you need to be present and not distracted. On the note of distraction, Haidt shares some facts that show that students who have their phone and use it during class will not be able to engage in conversation well enough to learn anything. He writes, “The problem is not just transient distraction, though any distraction in the classroom will impede learning. Heavy phone or social media use may also have a cumulative, enduring, and deleterious effect on the adolescents’ abilities to focus and apply themselves. Nearly half of American teens say that they are online “almost constantly,” and such continuous administration of small pleasures can produce sustained changed in the brains reward system, including a reduction of dopamine receptors. This shifts users’ general mood toward irritability and anxiety when separated from their phones, and it reduces their ability to focus. That may be one reason why heavy phone users have lower GPAs” (Haidt 2). These two authors share similar views which is shown in what they preach in their writing. The connection between Turkle’s insight on conversation and Haidt’s information on how smartphones are distracting students connects the two authors perspectives. My own view on this topic is that I agree with what both authors have to say. I believe that excessive smartphone usage inside and outside of the classroom are negatively affecting students’ performance.

Being a part of younger generations today is a struggle on its own. The use of social media and smartphones only puts more strain on these generations causing them to suffer mentally. Haidt shares some personal experience on the unfortunate truth about what it means to be a pre-teen or teen with a smart phone this day in age. He explains to readers how he was invited to give a lecture at his old high school due to the major concerns that administration had about the wellbeing of students, and how their phone usage was negatively impacting them personally and academically. According to what Haidt was told about the students, he shares, “I heard that the school, like most high schools in America, was struggling with a large and recent increase in mental illness among its students. The primary diagnoses were depression and anxiety orders, with increasing rates of self-harm; girls were particularly vulnerable. I was told that the mental health problems were baked in when students arrived from ninth grade: Coming out of middle school, many students were already anxious and depressed. Many were also already addicted to their phone” (Haidt. 1). In Haidt’s eyes this Is such a major problem that he refers to these students as “addicted”. Addiction is a very serious thing, so using this language puts an emphasis on how important of a situation this is and how it needs to be addressed. According to the thoughts of Turkle I am moved to think that this problem may be stemmed from out fear of being alone which is caused by our overuse of technology. Turkle shares, “These days, we see that when people are alone at a stop sign or in a checkout line at the supermarket, they see, almost panicked and they reach for their phones. We are so accustomed to being always connected that being alone seems like a problem technology should solve. And this is where the virtuous circle breaks down: Afraid of being alone, we struggle to pay attention to ourselves. And what suffers is our ability to pay attention to each other. If we can’t find our own center, we lose confidence in what we have to offer others. Or you can work the circle the other way: We struggle to pay attention to each other; and what suffers is our ability to know ourselves” (Turkle 348).