Growing up in a tech savvy world, some teens have become addicted to smart phones. Advances in technology have made becoming extremely dependent on smart phones a normality for teens of this generation, according to Mike Velasquez, mobile sales expert at Best Buy.
Velasquez thinks that teens of this generation have become too dependent on smart phones, and because of this, lose the social skills essential later on in life, like in career opportunities.
“In a room of teens, everyone will have their smart phone, looking at Facebook or checking their phone,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez also believes, however, that having such a strong dependency on their smart phones can give teens a step ahead in careers that involve technology.
“Smart phones could help [teens] later in life with the wealth of knowledge on the Internet,” Velasquez said. “They can be familiar with the latest advancements in technology.”
According to an article in August’s issue of Time Magazine, a typical smart phone nowadays has more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon.
Now that smart phones are more technologically advanced, Jake Malinowski, sophomore, believes we can rely on them for almost everything.
Malinowski is a smart phone owner and says he is very dependent on it. Some days, he said, he even spends between six to eight hours on his Samsung Galaxy S III.
“I have access to the Internet all the time with my phone,” Malinowski said. “It’s an advantage [in school] because I can look something up whenever I need to. My favorite things about having a smart phone are that it is fast, easy to use, and I can search a ton of information.”
Although Malinowski values his Samsung Galaxy S III more than his previous phones because of its access to the Internet, there are some negative aspects to go along with it.
“Sometimes [smart phones] are just too time consuming, and the phone’s battery doesn’t last,” Malinowski said.
Smart phones have also been found to make people multitask, which can lessen their efficiency level, work rate, and cause mistakes, according to an article on Forbes’ website.
Some people have become so dependent on their smart phones that they have actually developed an illness called “Phantom text syndrome,” where they get the hallucination that their phone or pager is vibrating when it is not, according to an article on BMJ’s website.
Even though there are some negative aspects to having a smart phone, Allie Tassi, sophomore, would rather have a smart phone than the phone she has now.
“I would rather have a smart phone because I want Internet on my phone and apps so if I ever need the Internet I can go on it wherever I want,” Tassi said. “Sometimes when I’m out, I need to check something or look something up, but I can’t.”
Besides the fact that she does not have access to the Internet on her phone, Tassi sees the positives of not having a smart phone.
“I’m not always tempted to be on Facebook and on the Internet when I’m out of the house,” Tassi said. “I feel less dependent on [my phone] because I don’t use it to find all the information I need from the Internet; I use a computer.”
Along with Tassi, Malinowski thinks the current teenage generation is too dependent on smart phones and this obsession will have consequences bigger than just lost time.
