"How SmartPhones Hijack Our Minds" Response Assignment:

"How SmartPhones Hijack Our Minds" by Nicholas Carr in 2017 covering different studies about how increased smartphone use decreases a person intellect. The article opens up with a statement about smartphones being the equivalent of a person but I think the phone has become more than just a person; it's become your best friend. And like any best friend our phones are a distraction, influence our behavior and also provide us with a seemingly unlimited supply of anxiety. As the dependency on our phone increase, we start to lose their intellectual ability and the phones will affect you even when you don't use it. A study from 2015 Journal of Experimental Psychology found that "when people's phones beep or buzz while they're in the middle of a challenging task, their focus wavers and their work gets sloppier." This happens whether the phone is picked up or not. This may seem very self-explanatory like, "duh they'd get distracted" and it is, but the implications of the distraction are what really matters. Implications for testing, for example, you fail the test. Lets now think about your phone keeping you from reacting to a situation.The situation could be someone simply asking for directions or it could be more serious. Reduced reaction times could affect a lot more than a grade on a test or if someone gets directions, it may put you in a situation of harm or danger but this is an extreme case. I've also noticed that my generation seems to get blamed a lot for how much phones are used; personally I just laugh at this because our parents are as involved if not more involved with their phones and other screened devices as we are. The fact that we as teens are told to get off our phones is extremely annoying when the ones who tell us this then grab their phone for one task or another. Phones also reduce your social skills and make your everyday life less satisfying or so says one study. First off I can see the truth in the statement in that phones take away from face to face communication, and that they may be used as a means of avoiding social interaction but it completely ignores the positive effects of using your phone like connecting with other people on social media or even games that allow you to connect to people all over the world. This onesided argument that only highlights the negatives of using our phones, in my opinion, is extremely biased. I prefer to see both sides of an argument to form an opinion for myself, in this case, I come to a conclusion that people are to distracted on phones and that we spend to much time on them but I feel that the benefits that come from using our phones