Clavey 1

Patrick Clavey

English 101-011T

Paula Boyd

18 February, 2017

Get Off Your Phone!

Sitting at the table armed with a spoon and cellphone, my father walks into the room,No

phones at the table! he says. Didnt older generations talk to their friends on the phone? Why is

it so common that young people these days get hounded for talking to friends? Texting and social

media has allowed them to become even more connected to the cyber world. There are

individuals of all ages who struggle with a lot of digital use. However, many conclude that young

people tend to be more distracted than other generations. This may be a result of having instant

access to the internet. Communication through cell phones blurs the distinction between the

here and now versus everything happening out there in the world. Dangers arise for those of

all ages who lose sight of these differences. One problem being a resistance to constructive

criticism. This may stem from constant contact with a steady stream of polarized opinions on

social media.

A strong case can be made that this generation has the most access to information in

comparison to previous ones. Therefore, on some levels they also have more distractions pulling

them away from the here and now. Mr. Tom Barnard, an English professor at Parkland

College, talked about his experience with many students being sidetracked by their cell phones

during class. Mr. Tom noted,What Ill see in class often is this... he pretends to be looking

down to text on a phone, theyre [students] playing on their phone but what they can do is

sometimes join the class conversation to talk with this ability to go back and forth. I can multi-
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task but its not the same way they can. During this discussion, Mr. Tom and I also talked about

how his generation didnt have the laptops and cellphones used by the students to split time

during class. He described having only a dial phone in his familys kitchen during his childhood.

With this he didnt spend hours on it, but only used the phone for when it was required. This

difference may be part of the reason for the hounding young people get since the older

generation didnt have phones to play games or text on. To sympathize with the flak the younger

generation gets, Mr. Tom admitted he thought his generation of baby-boomers were accused of

being spoiled or self-centered. This reminded me of a section in an article named Causes of

Students Emotional Fragility: Five Perspectives by Peter Gray, Ph.D. The section covering the

students perspectives argued that if fingers were being pointed, they should be pointed at the

established adult generation and their greed for the current issues at hand. When considering

both sides of arguments between generations, one can conclude that both ages of generations

have their flaws. But, since young people are usually expected to look up to their elders, quite

often they are at a loss of having to take more criticism for their actions.

Some adults feel that it is rude for young people to constantly be on their phones. This is

the case brought up by my grandmother, Theresa, whom I also interviewed. According to her,

times were much different between children and their relatives during her youth. She explains

how she feels about her grandchildren visiting and constantly being on their phones, Im not

used to people putting their phone down next to them on the table, reading their messages while

theyre at my house eating dinner, she says. Her expectations were for relatives to talk to her

while at the dinner table as she did with her family as a child. She also described the feeling of

losing the attention of the young ones to their cellphones, Its like theyre saying to me youre

not important enough to take my time. As Theresa talks about her grandchildren messaging their
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friends online, this brings in the reasons for why young people tend to be so distracted. Social

media and the constant digital connection to others has enabled young people to disconnect from

the physical world, the people around them, and their own lives. Instead they are free to connect

to the lives of anyone else in the digital world.

Social media has ushered in an age where there not only more distractions but there is

also a buffer between an individual and other people through the internet. The connection

between this and reality often becomes skewed. This leads to some individuals making bad

habits of using social media to act in a way that they wouldnt normally act in real life. An

example of this is how young people dealt with their problems in the past and how they do now.

Back then, a student might get into a fight with another at school. Once they get home they

would usually have some time to think about their problems and would be limited to a telephone

call in the kitchen. Today a student with the same issue would be able to bring a lot more people

into their business through texting along with reaching onto platforms such as Facebook or

Twitter. This topic came up with my grandmother and I as we discussed young people and how

they deal with drama. As a secretary for a court in Chicago, she expressed how important it was

for adults to keep their problems to themselves and for it not to be spread around to the rest of

the world. This leads one to wonder how many people these days automatically think that they

must transmit all of their information about whats happening in lives onto the internet. In an

interview with my friend Ana Cruz, she admitted that she sees this type of behavior often. Both

of us agreed that this type of information sharing can become an issue when it takes up so much

of an individuals time.

The information an individual chooses to express online leads to the case that they have

the ability to filter out any opposing opinions or criticism. Being absorbed in social media
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distracts some not only from school work or family but also causes many to lose sight of reality

outside of their filters on the internet. Those used to choosing what they hear has caused them to

become reliant on it. Currently there is many examples of people being blind from the reality of

events such as the 2016 U.S. Election. People of all ages have been influenced into being unable

to accept certain parts of reality. This stems from their belief that truth only comes from their

bubbles of information online. Mainstream media along with social media platforms have

enabled individuals to choose what information they see. This type of choice has caused some to

not realize that opposition still exists outside of their realms of belief. In turn this is what makes

social media and its distractions dangerous since they can be used to ignore reality completely.

When considering the differences in technology between the older and younger

generations. Many young people are hounded for using cellphones and social media to

communicate with their friends. This is because the older generation did not have such advanced

tools during their youth as those of today. Some adults argue that young people, more

specifically millennials, are the most distracted because they are constantly directing their

attention towards the outside world instead of the here and now. Some adults find these habits

to be rude since they were held to different expectations in the past. Social media as a whole has

brought on an age of more connectivity between friends and family however it has also caused

some to be less connected to others in person. Since young people are at a stage in life where

they are developing who they are, this tool can have an even greater influence their results. This

causes problems with how they will act in their adult lives which is another reason for why they

get criticized. Most of the older adults who see the majority of millennials being distracted have

the intention of trying to help young people be ready for adulthood. Many times their comments

are taken as judgement which stirs anger between sides. Many argue that young people are the
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most distracted of recent generations as well as being less able to tolerate criticism. This is

because they are constantly distracted from parts of reality by social media and technology. More

problems rise for those individuals who are unable to distinguish the differences once they come

back from their online worlds.

I honor Parkland's core values by affirming that I have followed all academic integrity guidelines

for this work.