INTRODUCTION – in progress

I think that technology is a tool that can influence human behavior in ways that are both positive and negative. When it comes to my overall opinion of technology, it’s not something that I can easily pin down. My connection with technology is something that I have found good and bad in, depending on how it’s used. There have been many times where I have really appreciated technology, and others where I wonder if I should regulate how much I use it. While attempting to gather a solid opinion on technology, I read pieces of writing from two excellent writers, Sherry Turkle and Jonathan Haidt, and both had very strong and profound views about technology, and the ways it is affecting today’s youth. I found things that I both agree with and disagree with within these works, and came to accept that my relationship with technology is far too complex for me to label with one word, and I think there’s a lot of other people who have come to the same conclusion I did.

BODY PARAGRAPH 1 – complete thought

The lack of communication that younger generations are receiving is concerning, and I often find myself worrying for kids much younger than me. In “The Empathy Diaries,” Turkle explains how she was contacted by the dean of Holbrooke School, a middle school in New York. The faculty and staff of Holbrooke were concerned with the behavior that they saw among students. The faculty was worried that students were making acquaintances and superficial connections with their peers, rather than true friendships. Kids were excluding each other from group activities and seemed to lack empathy. When the Dean called a student to her office for excluding another student from a group activity, she claimed that she noticed a lack of empathy within the student. Turkle blames this lack of empathy on the increased use of phones among students. Turkle claims that rather than talking to each other in person, there is a “new form of conversation” through social media. However, this new form of conversation “is not doing the work of the old conversation” because “the old conversation taught empathy” and now “students seem to understand each other less” (Turkle 345). Face to face communication is extremely important to the mental health and wellbeing of all people but is particularly important to children. Childhood years are where people are most impressionable, and the experiences we have during this time shape the people we become. If we don’t receive proper communication and contact with others, it can have detrimental impacts on mental health and social ability, like the lack of empathy that Turkle is observing. This is why I find the lack of communication among young kids so concerning, because so many of them are bound to grow up with anxious and depressive tendencies, without the people-skills they would have learned so young. Similarly, in “Get Phones out of Schools Now,” Haidt also found negative impacts on children in the new age of social media and smartphones. Specifically, Haidt found a “global increase in loneliness” in schools, as kids became “less likely to agree with survey items such as ‘I feel like I belong at school’ and more likely to agree with items such as ‘I feel lonely at school’” (Haidt 2). This discovery began in 2012, when kids began using smartphones, and when social media apps like Instagram appeared. As smartphones became common among kids, they began to feel lonely in school, lacking personal connections because everyone was so distracted with their phones. I found the connection between Haidt and Turkle particularly interesting, because they seem to have very similar opinions. As a teen who grew up in the age of smartphones, I have experienced what both authors are describing first-hand. Just like Haidt’s study, I spent my middle school years feeling lonely, as everyone was on social media, except for me. I was the odd one out, and as everyone was constantly using their phones and sharing pictures and videos, I was left out. I felt an extreme disconnect from others, as it felt like I had no real relationships with my peers, just as Turkle describes. Once I reached high school, I began to dabble in social media, and I quickly became engulfed by it, just like most of my peers, but it didn’t make me feel any less lonely. The only thing that made me feel truly connected to others was the genuine, face-to-face conversations I had, which in turn helped me to create meaningful friendships. I had a hard enough time connecting to people in my middle-school years without the added distraction of my phone. With kids younger than me receiving smart phones at ages 8 or 9 and being on social media as early as 10 or 11, I can’t help but worry for them.

BODY PARAGRAPH 2 – not started

BODY PARAGRAPH 3 – complete thought

              Distraction due to technology in schools is undoubtedly a problem. There are many options to keep kids off their phones and focused on class, but I don’t think all of them are reasonable. In his writing, Haidt describes different “levels” of phone control in school, in which they increase in severity as the levels go from one to five. I find myself being drawn mostly to levels one through three, because they have potential to work well. Level one begins simply with students being able to have their phones out in class, but only for classroom purposes. Level two describes students being allowed to have their phones in their bags or pocket, but they are not allowed to use or touch them. Level three involves students placing their phones in a caddy during class, where they cannot reach them. I had many teachers with this rule in high school, and while students weren’t too fond of the idea, it worked very well for keeping kids off their phones. Haidt argues that “the first two [levels] are nearly useless” and I can see where he is coming from (Haidt 3). The first two levels do little to prevent kids from being on their phones, and I would also argue that level one is useless. However, I think with added rules, level two could work. If teachers give incentives to students for not using their phones, or punish them for using them, it encourages kids to keep them away. I had a teacher in high school that would give us a detention for using our phones in class. However, if we had no “cell phone violations” by then end of the semester, our lowest test grade would be completely dropped. He paired this with the phone caddy trick, however, most people would just keep their phones in their bags by the halfway point in the year. Even with their phones in their bags, I never saw anyone take their phones out in the two years I had this teacher, so I would argue that his incentives and punishments were extremely effective. When it comes to levels four and five, I think they are a little extreme. Both levels involve kids locking away their phones in a lock box or magnetic pouch for the entire day. This feels extreme to me, because if there was ever an emergency at school, kids wouldn’t be able to contact their parents.  Kids would also have a hard time meeting up with friends from other classes in between passing periods or lunch, because they have no way to get in contact with them unless they are in the same room. I believe that the right way to really get kids to stop abusing their phone privileges in school, work needs to be done both inside and outside of schools. While policies are a large part of fixing the issue, more can be done. For example, parents can start by setting a proper example for their kids, because as Turkle describes, “it is not enough to ask your children to put away their phones… model this behavior and put away your phone” (Turkle 350). Children learn what they are expected to do largely by observing what others do as well. If parents are constantly on their phones, that’s the behavior that kids are going to model, and it’s going to carry into their school life as well. Aside from parents, work can also be done by large social media companies, like Instagram or Snapchat, by increasing their minimum age. While a lot of them have 12 or 13 as the minimum, I believe it should be closer to 16, as does Haidt. By combining Haidt’s “levels” with the behavior that parents should model described by Turkle, and some regulations put on social media apps, I believe the issue of phones in school could be greatly improved.

CONCLUSION – not started