The Smartphone and Generational Differences
The controversy surrounding the effects of technology and media advancement have long intrigued the generational differences that exist in the 21st-century. While objectively serving for a better means of communication and connectedness, Smartphones and social media have contributed to the corruption of society through the addictiveness people inhibit. The article, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, by Jean M. Twenge, excellently portrays a paradigm shift and it’s conveyance of both statistical data and logical interpretation.
Noting differences mainly between the millennial generation, and today’s “iGen” teens, Twenge emphasizes on multiple factors of teen life that have changed over time due to widespread smartphone availability and usage. Although Twenge remarks on the increased physical safety of teens, as today’s teens are “ more comfortable in their bedrooms then in a car or at a party, [they] are physically safer than teens have ever been,” the author makes the argument that teens spend greatly more time cooped up indoors on their phones, then going out and engaging in other activities.
Further, the author highlights the fact that less teens are dating, as social interactions are increasingly being taken over by technological screen-based platforms. The rather old-fashioned approach to dating is slowly fading, as “only about 56% of high school seniors in 2015 went out on dates; for Boomers and GenXers, the number was about 85%.” Coupled with this are the increased reportings of teen isolation. Feelings of being left out are growing with the advent of the smartphone, as teens “ document their hangouts relentlessly on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook.” This is made abundantly clear with the author’s provision of suicide and depression statistics. While objective, the author claims those in the previous generation were “happier”as a result of spending less time on the screen.
These changes in teen behavior and emotional states can be attributed to the changes in the economy and cultural shifts of the new millenia. In a time where higher education is rewarded with greater benefits in life, the author remarks on the parental shift from urging children to get a job, to spending more time with the books.The article conveys a monumental paradigm shift, not only with the information and arguments provided, but also through its identification of the key culprit for teen generational differences–the smartphone.
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