Cause And Effect 2

Ben Grubbs
Mrs. Billman
English 121
12 April 2015
Technology Addictions In most peoples daily life, they will experience interaction with technology that has been developed my humans. Whether it be driving to work, talking on the phone, doing an English paper, etc. With the advances in today’s technology, the younger generations are becoming more exposed to this environment. In my younger years, my problems were the involvement of video games and later cell phones. I would like to share with you the impact that technology has had in my life. three major points will be the effects of video games and cell phone usage. Fleming, the founder of communication studies website, tells us that the Pew Internet Research Center calculated 75 percent of teens own cell phones. The age group is between 12-17 for the percents. The reason for getting a cell phone was mostly to have conversations with your friends. It’s a fast and reliable way to communicate without having to spend time trying to get together. It was also the cool thing to have the newest phone to show off to your friends. There are also some downsides to having such an easy way to communicate with others. First, it distorts human social interactions. Back then, people would have face to face conversations and develop better people skills and public speaking. Now, we just use our fingers and letters to hold conversations of daily talking. Some people even go as far as texting while sitting next to one another. Since teens now have the power of words without being in person, text bullying has become popular. A website called bullying statistics tells us that around one and five will become victims bullying over text. Then, around one and ten teens will engage in bullying from texting. These bullying text can cause negative repercussions: depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, violence, and suicide. Lastly, have you ever tried to hold a conversation while someone is on their phone? It’s nearly impossible because their mind is occupied on something else. He/she will have little to no eye contact with you during your conversation from my experiences. Another arising issue I had growing up was playing video games. Games are something that people enjoy to do for entrainment. During my years of playing, it helped me connect with my friends. We would get on after school and have a blast playing games with one another. Games started to become an issue when there would be more game time than study time. This became a problem when grades started slipping because games became more important than school work. Becky, a writer for Live Science, tells us that teens who played video games had consumed nine weekly hours from a Kaiser survey. In 2010 a study was taken by researches at Denison University. In this study, two groups were made up of newly gamers and other four months later. The first group with gaming consoles reported a huge decline in reading and writing scores. Lastly, certain video games can cause some behavioral issues. For example, some games are developed with violent content. In 2008, a study was shown that 90 percent of games rated for ten years or older had violent content. Researchers had defined that violence was the act of intentionally harming others. The Iowa State University, after 130 studies of kids and teens, showed aggression increased and empathy decreased. This was the effects of violent video games being played. As technology keeps advancing, we can’t lose sight in human interaction with others. As adults, we need to teach our children how to hold face to face conversations with others. Interact with strangers and don’t freeze up with you talk to someone new. If it comes to them and screen time, we need to learn to regulate that. Start to develop a set time to which they will grow up and obey. Teach them to take school work more seriously than playing a game. Also, keep in mind that physical activity is another great way to interact with others. Be aware of the internet. Without flirters, they can be in contact with inappropriate content. Hopefully, something can be learned from some effects that I have had in my life. Teaching others not to repeat my mistakes.

Works Cited
Fleming, Chase. "Teen Cell Phone Statistics [Infographic]." Communication Studies. N.p., 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Harri. "Technology Addiction: The Effects On Society - Get Organised." Get Organised. N.p., 09 June 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Oskin, By Becky. "Teens and Video Games: How Much Is Too Much?" LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
"Text Bullying." - Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.