Dear Ms Samantha Taylor,
I am writing to you as I agree that not all teenagers cannot socialize and are not enslaved social inadequate or digital natives. Further on in this letter I will be discussing that teenagers socializing on their phones has made a major positive mark and that is not making them emoticon-addled zombies.
At the start of your article Jonathan Franzen says ‘I ASK a teenage girl, how often do you text? About 250 times a day’ It is quite a small sample to make a big statement, as it is only one person and you did not think about, when she goes to school and wants to catch up with friends from outside of her school or why she actually does text 250 times a day Probably that she is not allowed to go out to see her friends on school days. Is she told, she can not see anyone until the weekend or only at school. Maybe it is quite a big number but, in my last response to an article about teenagers was about their freedom, someone said that youths should be at home not on the street. They should revising and making sure that they have a bright and better future.
I responded to that saying they should be allowed to go out and be socializing face to face because, they may not have a way to contact their friends so easily, so they go to their friend’s house and socialize there but now, I’m responding to someone about teenagers and that they are unable to have eye contact with someone… even though the adult group is saying that we should stay at home. Now is it our fault? So which one are you reports/parents more concerned about, that youths should not make eye contact with friends on the street and be at home unable to socialize, or teenagers are socializing online too much and do not make eye contact with friends.
I do not understand is that, it is not only teenagers that are bonded to their phones, it’s also adults as well as teenagers. Even though adults are aware that they spend too much time on their phones, they still use it nearly as much as teenagers. The average teenager spends up to nearly 8hrs which is mostly of the rest of the day after school finishes at 3:30, and the average adult spends up to nearly 6hrs a day. The average person checks their phone 110 times a day, which may sound surprising to most people who just mostly checking the time or seeing their notifications from messages or other apps.
Another point is that a comedian had said he would not give his daughters a mobile phone, as he fears they would not develop empathy. Firstly Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. So he is saying that giving a phone will stop the development of having or expressing feelings. I see most teen with a phone being more emotional or same with people without phones, but this should not stop them feeling and understanding how others feel. At this moment people are Texting, Snapping and getting them in an instant, whilst think of what you had to do before the first mobile phone was introduced. People would have to send emails and would have to wait 5-10 minutes to receive an email, whilst with a phone it is as quick as a blink. But what would be the benefits without mobile phones and compare it to the positive of them, it seem that it is a balance statement or just leaning either side.
Scientist Susan Greenfield says ‘We could be raising a hedonistic generation, who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment’ which refers to teens being attached to their electronic with no understanding of what is happening in the real world. From my point of view I am quite glued to my technology, but I’m still aware of what is going on around me and what is happening around us, ‘ISIS being a terrorist threat and that the US and UK army are trying their best to stop them from getting out and making a bigger threat to all. And that the new Apple watch is out the IWatch which seems to be the biggest technology news…’ See I am still aware of these events but I just do not take any notice in them.
To finish, all teenagers are still going through the stage of development seeing that technology is their life and realise that they soon have to et a job to then, get out of their parents house to the make a great family. Sometimes they may follow the crowd , doing things just to fit in as social media making them look really bad as the failing generation, even though they are the future and we rely on them to make it better. So as they grow up and are guided the right way they can make a big event just like, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who started from the internet and like a virus they names were spread everywhere and now are the most inspirational people to look up to. All teenagers are just waiting for that spark like everyone else as they are all individuals and unique from anyone else to make their mark in the world…
