Cell Phones Argumentative Essay

Tweets, texts, and the virtual world are beginning to engulf human society one message at a time. For the past ten years, the estimated phone usage per day has become three to four hours. Those precious hours add up quickly, resulting in a total of one hundred and twelve hours per month spent staring at an animated screen. Children, teens, and even adults are beginning to use their cell phones more and more, and are putting themselves at a greater risk of developing social awkwardness, little persistence, and becoming known as digital natives; all these traits driven within your hand held partner.
Today, standing around without a phone in your hand can make a person feel uncomfortable and awkward; for many teens, striking up a conversation face to face has become difficult. This is the start of social awkwardness. One's cell phone use creates an escape from reality and disperses their attention through a limitless cyber-world. This makes person-to-person interactions less necessary and rarely practiced. Multitasking has become a normal behavior, where

people train their brains to do more than two things at once. Sixty percent of U.S. College students claim to be addicted to their phones (McAllister 2011), and agree that their cell phones have become a part of their personality and daily life (Belk 1988). The amount of dependence people have with their phones can cause stress when the device is misplaced or stolen. Many accidents are associated with texting and driving, and 1.3 million crashes occur from texting each year (National Safety Council).
People are beginning to limit their imaginations to a four sided rectangle. Children running around playing kings and queens of the sand hill and cooking meals out of grass and dandelions have slowly been replaced with virtual gardens and a few taps on a screen. Laziness and the knack for leaving things unfinished can be the result of too many hours glued to a screen. Life does not have a “reset” button, so people are more likely to simply quit their project if one thing goes wrong, rather than fight through it or find an alternative. This new generation is what people are starting to call “digital natives” because they have never known life without technology and cellular devices. Humans who are introduced to cellphones, I pads, or any other electronic device at a young age begin to develop a different way of thinking. If you think about it, older people tend to have trouble when handling or trying to learn how to handle a phone. If you give that same phone to a young child, it is more than likely to come easily to them. This is because our brains are beginning to become wired in-line with how technology works and functions, thus creating “digital natives.”
On the flip side, phones can be helpful in various situations.

They give us the freedom to contact people anywhere at any time. If there is a sudden change of plans, people can contact one another by texting a quick short sentence in a matter of seconds. Cell phones act as first responders at a scene when someone is hurt and needs help. New-aged cell phones are programed with a built in tracking device that can be used to locate a kidnapped victim, stolen car, or purse.
Although cell phones have opened our world to more opportunities to communicate and ensure safety, humans have abused the use of cell phones by not limiting their time spent looking at FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The key to the puzzle is moderation: balancing one’s cellular world with real life. The next time friends want to hang out, they should be encouraged to set their phones aside and enjoy the world around them, and not the one in their

hand.