In Mitch Albom’s article, “Pokémon Go, Draymond Green Prove Smartphones Not So Smart,” he denounces the use of smartphones to take inappropriate photos and the younger generation who play on an app called ‘Pokémon Go’ (1). Albom scrutinizes a former Michigan State basketball player named Draymond Green, who accidentally uploaded a photo of his nether regions to a popular phone application called Snapchat, that lets users send photos to friends privately or for the public to see (1). Not only Green, but the players of the game Pokémon Go, who feel that the game is a way to explore and socialize with others prove to be an issue to Albom, stating that they shouldn’t be looking at their screens if they want to get off the couch (2). Both Green …show more content…
Using an arrogant tone and harsh claims, Albom criticizes young smartphone users as unsociable, lazy, or ridiculous, due to way they use their phones for games and taking exposing photos. Making heavy use of allusions and anecdotes, Albom appeals towards pathos and ethos in a way to gain support from his audience. Albom’s readers are described as middle aged, and are “travelers, entertainers, involved in cultural and social/civic activities and are retail purchasers,” so his claims will be heard by the same people seen driving pricey cars and have a hobby of going shopping (USA Today, 2007). Albom’s use of pathos is overloaded with his opinions and emotions spread throughout the article, but there is little use of ethos, to back up his credibility on his claims. Throughout the article his credibility is damaged by the strong use of emotion over the chance to prove his arguments with logic, which will catch the attention of readers who closely consider his points. With his choice of words, disapproving tone that ridicules the younger generation; heavy use of opinion with snarky allusions and anecdotes; and little logic to back up his evidence, the argument presented is ineffective, and does not approach the audience …show more content…
Due to his preferred word choice, he sets the mood of his debate as a “I’m better than you” tone, and shows his disapproval of the younger generation. A prime example, when Albom criticizes Pokémon Go players, stating how they can say “I wasted months of my time,” while talking about the purpose of the game (2). He states that there is “No money. No payoff. Just the pride,” basically claiming that the players end goal is worthless (2). With all of his remarks, if Albom were face to face with someone having this discussion, he would be rolling his eyes the entire time. Overall, he pins the fault on fans of the application and the accidental publicizing of peoples’ nether regions as not being able to comprehend the meaning of socializing. Albom even acknowledges his critical views when he states how people might say “his generation doesn’t get it” (3). His targeted audience of middle aged readers will get a kick off these remarks, as they are known to partake in “cultural and social/civic activities” (USA Today,
New apps on the mobile phones are taking a much more influential participation in our lives with the introduction of augmented reality. It changes the perception of our awareness of the surrounding through augmentations on our mobile phones. This comic explores the recent popular app ‘Pokémon Go’ in the ways that it affects our everyday lives, through a simple family outing portrayed by the protagonist Lucy. The comic starts with both Lucy and her mother in the setting of a beach. The contrast can already be seen where Lucy is holding and focused on her mobile, while her mother is empty handed. Lucy is so attached to her phone that she forgets her surroundings and walks into a pole. This shows the over attachment to the augmented reality that
As Twenge continues her argument she compares it back to her own experiences which ties up this argument in the successfulness of it. She uses these comparisons to help emphasize important parts of her argument. Beginning with “they think we like our phones more than we like actual people.” This state of unhappiness around teens forms her bigger argument that this is a main reason smartphones have destroyed a generation, “It was exactly the moment where the proportion of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50%”. The owning of smartphones “placed in the young people’s hands are having profound effect on their lives -- and making them seriously unhappy.” Their social interactions decrease and their screen time increases as the years go
Doctor Jean Twenge is an American psychologist who published an article for The Atlantic titled “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” in September 2017. The purpose of Twenge’s article is to highlight the growing burden of smartphones in our current society. She argues that teenagers are completely relying on smartphones in order to have a social life, which in return is crippling their generation. Twenge effectively uses rhetorical devices in order to draw attention to the impact of smartphones on a specific generation.
Thesis: Twenge affectively uses emotional appeals to persuade her readers into believing that the excessive use of smartphone has ruined a generation.
A common theme is taking place where as people feel that cell phones are starting to take over others daily lives. Many people go through their day to day lives not even relizing how often they are on their cell phones. In the article, “Our Cell Phones, Ourselves” the author Christine Rosen talks about how cell phones are starting to become a necessity in every way towards peoples lives. Rosen talks about both the good and bad effects of cell phones and how they have changed the way in which we work our daily life. Although I think cell phones can be necissary, the constant need for use could be the beginning of how cell phones will take over our every day lives.
When reading an article or journal, it can be complex and not fully understood by everyone. Because of this we would have to investigate meanings to be able to understand the full text. Sherry Turkle, a professor and current director of the MIT initiative on Technology and Self, in her 2007 Forbes article “Can You Hear Me Now?” she addresses the topic of technology and discusses society’s growing dependency and alienation as a result of it. Since Turkle wrote the article for an educated, mature and business oriented audience, some terms and ideas may need clarifying for the common reader. In her article, Turkle “offer[s] five troubles that try [her] tethered soul” (272). These are the effects that technology has on people. She discusses the Blackberry throughout the article, which is not concretely defined. In this paper, I will clarify Turkle’s references and terms for better understanding.
As a member of 8 years of the gaming community, I am proud to say I play Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is a game in where you walk around and capture these creatures with Pokeballs. Some members of the Game Center don 't agree with the new augmented reality, and real world locations applications because they find it dangerous. Lately, the news has been broadcasting players getting hurt, jumped, and even arrested. Very few players found themselves in car accidents, being lured into gunpoint robberies, or making irresponsible mistakes like leaving children unattended, bumping into people, and wandering into private property. However, any of these incidents can occur by using other gaming, social media application, and/or just by simply using your
In “ How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds,” Nicholas Carr is persuading his audience to refrain from and shorten their amount of smartphone usage, and he reveals his perspective on how he believes that smartphones are hijacking our minds, and causing issues in our society. Carr cleverly uses several devices to persuade his audience and to drive his point home. Among these devices are statistics, comprehensive language, and reasoning. Nicholas Carr uses statistics to involve the data he has found to support his claim that numbers don’t lie. “In both tests, the students whose phones were in view posted the worst scores.
Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.
Technology has always been at the forefront of the world’s mind, for as long as anyone can remember. The idea of “advancing” has been a consistent goal among developers. However, recently the invention of smartphones broke out into the world of technology, causing millions of people to become encapsulated in a world of knowledge at their fingertips. Jean Twenge elaborates on the impacts of the smartphone on the younger generation in her article “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” Twenge’s article is just a sliver of the analysis that she presents in her book “IGen.” Twenge, a professor of psychology at San
Amy Gahran, a media consultant exploring communication in the technology era, writes about how cell phones are significant. She feels that cell phones have changed our lives by providing “…vital services and human connections…offer new hope, even through simple broadcast text messages” (Gahran). Gahran is insisting that cell phones allow us to learn news quickly, connect with safety, and can even fight crime through video recordings (Gahran). In addition, she feels that the overall benefits of owning a cell phone outweigh any negatives. This somewhat challenges the ideas presented by Rosen because it points out more benefits of cell phones. In “Our Cell Phones, Ourselves” Rosen mentions that although cell phones indeed connect us with safety, they can often lead to a sense of paranoia. To expand, she writes that parents who give children a cell phone for security purposes, develop a paranoid sense of their community and lose trust in “social institutions” (Rosen). In making this comment, Rosen argues that although cell phones may be beneficial, they can change the way we view our world. Without a cell phone, many individuals feel vulnerable, as if their phone protects them from all possible dangers that they may encounter. In fact, a Rutgers University professor challenged his students to power off their phones for 48 hours and report back with their experience (Rosen). Many felt almost lost without it and one young women described the feeling “…like I was going to get raped if I didn’t have my cell phone in my hand” (Rosen). In reality, having a cell phone will not save a person’s life in all situations. Although many, including Gahran, feel a phone is a vital tool, it has changed how we feel about the world around us and how vulnerable we feel without a phone in
The article “Society is dead, we have retreated into the iWorld” by Andrew Sullivan is a persuasive and explanatory piece in which he expresses his observations and concerns about the use of technology, especially iPods, as a mechanism of isolation from the rest of the world. Sullivan argues that people are constantly allowing their lives to become narrowed by the excessive use of their iPods while shutting out everyone and everything else. He uses evidence and several examples, including ones from his personal experience, in an attempt to support his claims. Sullivan is quite clever in his organization of the piece, and his style impressively encompasses descriptive language, figurative language and strong diction, but he still makes a few
Technology is one of life’s most impressive and incredible phenomena’s. The main reason being the shockingly high degree to which our society uses technology in our everyday lives. It occupies every single realm, affecting people both positively and negatively. There are so many different forms of technology but the two most often used are cell phones, and the internet/computers in general. Today’s younger generation was raised alongside technological development. Kids now a days learn how to operate computers and cell phones at a very early age, whether it be through their own technological possessions, a friend’s, or their parents. They grow up knowing how easily accessible technology is, and the endless amount of ways in which it can be used. This paper will be largely focused on the effects of technology on the younger generation because your childhood is when these effects have the largest impact. I am very aware of the subject because I am the younger generation. Aside from major effects on study and communication skills, there also exist the media’s effects on teen’s self-esteem and mental health. Maybe more importantly, there is our world’s growing problem of over priced and unnecessary consumerism. Over time, our society has created a very unhealthy form of reliance and dependency on technology as a whole. People essentially live through their devices. Cell phones are always with people making it nearly impossible to not be able to reach someone at anytime, day or night. In 2011, there were 2.4 trillion text messages sent, and 28,641 cell phone towers were added across the US. 1 We use our phones and Internet for directions, communication, information, self-diagnosis, games, movies, music, schoolwork, work, photos, shoppi...
Every day of our lives, we watch as technology advances in leaps and bounds, so it was only logical when the cell phone came into existence, it would also be necessary to develop ways for a phone to be more than just a phone. With the explosion of the internet age people needed a way to bring their computers on the go, one that could fit in the palm of their hand. Whether it be checking emails, updating social networks or even playing games, smartphones seem to do it all. There is, however, a dark side to every technological advance that is made, to everything that makes our lives more convenient. Smartphones are not only an enormous distraction in our lives but are also known to cause health problems in those
Using computer, internet, cellphone, television, etc. make peoples’ lives easier and more comfortable. Young people are the most users of it. They cannot think of a single day without using a technical device. Tara Parker-Pope is an author of books on health topics and a columnist for the New York Times. In her article, she expressed that, “The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to refrain from using electronic media for a day.