WELL YEA, PEOPLE ARE SPENDING WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR PHONES. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US?
The thing is we lose is face to face connection with our friends when we do this. We've stopped making eye contact with each other and have now instead chose to make eye contact with the camera sensor during selfies, and snapchats. Relationships grow much deeper when more personal contact is entailed between the people in said relationship. This includes eye contact therefore we lose a part of our relationship with one another when we fail to give them our undivided attention in everyday situations. Such as eating at a table while having a conversation. Walking to school with another person. Sitting in the back seat of a car with your friend. The list goes on. Since when have people started recording their marriage proposals?
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There are many ways that smartphones can cause harm to our social lives. Even our lives period. When we prolong ourselves to being around friends with smartphones their use becomes mundane. It becomes easy to not look at each other's faces and instead at our messages and applications on our phones. By experience it isn't uncommon to hang out with my friends in their dorms and just be browsing our Facebook feeds for short and even long periods of time. Up to 30 minutes at times.
Smartphones can also alter our social lives in more traumatic ways. "Eleven percent of drivers aged 18 to 20" involved in automobile accidents admitted they were sending or receiving texts at the time (FCC). If someone ends another person's life while texting, the life of the person that is dead and gone. This also affects the families and friends of the person that's killed. A death due to texting while driving can cause extreme sadness and even depression in the lives of people related to the deceased. The increase in smartphone use that is trending all over the world and especially in America has serious implications. The more people that pay attention to their smartphones while driving, will lead to more people being content with this attitude on the road. The more people that fail to pay attention to the road while driving will increase the number of vehicle crashes and deaths that occur on the road. Smartphones have the potential to affect not just our social lives, but our whole lives as well in this regard. So how do you feel smartphones shape the way you live. Do you see them everywhere? Nowhere? Do they add utility and benefit to your life, or do they distract you and your friends from the life you should be experiencing?
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