Norah Barry

Jesse Miller

11/13/23

ENG 110

The Digital Age: The Era We All Are Living In

In our world today there is a major problem with the use of smartphones that is taking away from our lives in many different aspects. This problem is spreading like wildfire through schools, workplaces, and even at home. Day by day it’s ruining relationships, opportunities, and basic life skills in younger and older generations alike. The problem with this fire is that it can’t be put out. Professional opinions on this problem can be found in “The Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkle and “Get Phones Out of Schools Now” by Jonathan Haidt. Both authors share a similar perspective against smart phones. They both touch upon the negative aspects of smartphones, whether it be lack of conversation, mental health issues stemming from social media, or distraction in the classroom. I agree with their thoughts, as I am eighteen-year-old Gen Z who carries a smartphone wherever I go. I understand on a personal level these negative effects as I can recognize them in my own life as I am reading about them. The lives of people who are constant smartphone users are and will continue to see negative side effects that will greatly impact their present and future selves, in order to lessen this major issue, we must work at fixing it.

Holding thoughtful conversation is a main component of learning and attaining new knowledge and with the use of smartphones in classrooms it is making this very difficult. Jonathan Haidt and Sherry Turkle are both in agreement that conversation is vital, and without it students will struggle in the classroom. In Turkle’s writing she addresses what she thinks is important about conversation and how the use of phones is leading to students not being able to have knowledgeable, and interactive communication anymore. This phenomenon is greatly impacting the students learning as Turkle explains 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. A major loss that peoples take when choosing to be distracted by their phones in the classroom is the ability to attain and apply their new knowledge. To be successful in a future career it is crucial to be able to know what you are talking about and use the information you have learned and apply it to your job. In my opinion, I am scared for when Gen Z enters the workforce. Myself, being on Tik Tok, I have seen numerous videos of classrooms full of students on their laptops doing anything but schoolwork. Whether it be online shopping, some texting, and some playing games. Everything but what they are supposed to be doing. The caption on these videos is what concerns me the most. They state “these are your future nurses” or “these are your future lawyers” or whatever profession it may be. These videos are harmless and are meant to be funny but if you really think about it, it’s terrifying. Distraction is a disease in classrooms. 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, “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). It is no secret that this is a real thing that is happening right now. The best time to do something about it was yesterday and the second-best time to do something is right now. This connection between Turkle’s insight on conversation and Haidt’s information on how smartphones are distracting students ties hand in hand as it shows the realistic future and present effects of excessive smartphone usage.

The use of social media and smartphones puts strain on young kids causing them to suffer mentally. Being a part of the younger generations today is a struggle on its own but being on various social media platforms only worsens this strain. My personal experience on the unfortunate truth about what it means to be a pre-teen or teen with a smart is that it feels like you are in a constant battle with meeting unrealistic standards. This constant battle puts strain on your everyday life and gets teens caught up with trying to be like other people while ultimately losing themselves. 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). When I read this, I worry about the future and what’s to come of it. The fact that we can’t stand being alone with our thoughts for the minutes or even seconds that we stand in line at a store or the time it takes to stop at a stop sign is verry frightening. The addiction that we have to our phones is a scary thing and without even realizing it our mental health is taking a huge hit.

People who are addicted to their smartphones are already seeing negative impacts on their lives and will continue to see these negative impacts their whole lives if we sit here and do nothing about this epidemic. The topic of smartphone usage, more specifically in the classroom, is an ongoing issue that we se all over the country. Kids are not learning and attaining knowledge in the way that they used to, their mental health is suffering, and they are setting themselves up for failure in their future careers and future relationships. Although I agree that there are some positive effects of cellphone usage, I believe that in this situation the bad heavily outweighs the good. Our younger generations are suffering, and we need to start doing something about it. Although some may realize what they are getting themselves into, most will not and need to be educated and shown how bad that tiny machine they keep in their pocket is for them. Authors like Sherry Turkle and Jonathan Haidt are doing just that which I find extremely important. So, what are we going to do about this? Continue to act blind to the horrific effects of smartphones or are we going to break the cycle and do something about it?