Blog Post #2

Cellular Phones have slowly been ruining face to face interaction since their introduction in 1973. Since then they have evolved so rapidly and so incredibly, that we no longer have to meet with one another face to face. We can simply press a button and video chat with anyone around the world. This is outrageous, kids today will not know what it is like to have to remember their friends' home phone numbers just so they can hang out. Instead their friends' numbers are programmed into their phones ready to contact them at any given moment.

Approximately 11 years ago, one man got on stage in front of a crowd of people to deliver the upmost technologically advanced product on the market. The iPhone. Before Steve Jobs would step on that stage, on January 9^th, 2007, He said one thing to his team. Steve Jobs told his apple team to remember the day, remember the day the iPhone was released because nothing would be the same. Frankly, Steve Jobs was right. From that point on face to face interactions were becoming less and less obligatory, and let me tell you, it is a slippery slope.  

It is not just kids that are affected by this new wave of technology, though many seem to think it is. Adults are affected just as much. As a waiter at a local pizzeria I have noticed that middle aged adults and younger are just as likely to pay attention to their phone. There is nothing worse than watching a kid try and talk to the adult they are with just to be shut down by the adult paying attention to their phone. The adults tell us we are ruining face to face interactions, but they are doing the same.

Cell Phone addiction is a real and prevalent factor in the decline of today’s social interactions. Younger kids, and teenagers more often than not are addicted to social media. In a study done to college students in Italy and France, students were forced to get rid of their phones for one day as a requirement in a course. Many students became aware of how much people use their phones during their time without a phone. One student Noted that his friend checked his phone 4 times in a 10 minute period. Whereas teenagers are addicted to social media, adults and parents are addicted to games and work. In my family, when my father is bored or does not have work to do, he sits on his phone and plays one of many games he has downloaded to his phone. The same goes for my mother. I also tend to notice this in my friends’ parents as well. Cell phones are an addiction that is slowly taking over generations past, present, and soon to be future. There is no slowing down this epidemic, it must simply run its course.