A paradigm shift is defined as a fundamental change in an approach or underlying assumption. This can be used to define cultural or philosophical changes in society.

In an article written by Jean M. Twenge, she speaks about the influence of technology on children’s social habits. In particular, this article follows a teenage girl over the summer, who stated she spent more time on her phone with her friends, then in person with them. In addition to this, the girl stated that when her and her friends went out, they were almost always on there phones and not actually talking with each other.

Furthermore, Dr. Twenge shared her experience on the subject, and stated that her younger children know how to swipe on their phones more, than have a person to person interaction.

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Dr. Twenge than recollects moments of her childhood, explaining that kids would be outside more. This was not the only statistic that was presented throughout this article. Dr. Twenge also remarked how the suicide rate has gone up, as well as teen depression. Although, most notably, the statistics that went down were teen pregnancies, teen dating, teens working less, and teens getting their drivers license later.

This increase and decrease in trends in such a short span of time, represents a paradigm shift because of how fast these social habits changed. With the introduction of the smartphone, people have been more connected to their devices than with real people. This represents a generation who has lived only on their phones, and don’t know what to do without it.

This quick change has been detrimental to childhoods, and as more people buy their kids phones, the kids don’t develop social skills because they don’t have many interactions with other kids. Therefore, cell-phones ruin children’s social skills, among other things.

Clearly, this paradigm shift has been terrible for society, because the amount of people trapped on their phones has ruined social interactions with people.

The Original Article.