My second assignment is an inquiry based research essay. This assignment is new for me because I have never written anything like this before. We have to develop an inquiry question and do research about this question. My question is “How are cell phones killing conversation and social interaction?” . Our purpose is to use our research to answer the question. This assignment also requires four sources of different genres. We also have to perform the rhetorical analysis of our sources, its rhetorical situation (tone, audience, purpose, genre, author). In this essay, I practiced. about writing in different genres and choosing which information I will use for my writing according to my question. Below is the copy of the inquiry based research essay.
Semab Raza
ENG110
Professor Ian Murphy
11-03-2021
Question: How cell phones are killing conversation and social interaction?
Cell Phones are an essential part of everyday life. The use of cellphones is endless.
You can use your cellphones at any time, at any place. The use of cellphones in
school is also becoming more common. Cell phones also affect your social life. Cell
Phones reduced the social interaction between people. People are addicted to cell
phones. Cell Phones have changed the way we communicate with people. Instead of
communicating with them face to face we text each other. Technology is ruining
people’s communication skills.
MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, she spent the last 20 years studying the impacts of
technology. In her previous book “reclaiming conversation” she talks about the social
effects of cellphones and mentioned her fear that technology would make us more
remote and lonely.
Jill Suttie interviewed her and asked her some questions about her book. She asked
her “Your new book warns that cell phones and other portable communication
technology are killing the art of conversation. Why did you want to focus on
conversation, specifically?” to which she replied that conversion is important for
humans. People learn by hearing others thoughts and observing their body
language and expressions, but because of technology we are moving away from it.
Jill Sutties asked another question that “You also write about how conservation
affects the workplace environment. Aren’t conversations just distractions to getting
work done? Why support conversation at work?” in which Turkle replied that in the
Workplace Communication is effective for productivity and creates a strong team. It
also improves understanding between the employees. She said that it is very
important for companies to make space for conversation in the workplace. She also
shares her experience that once she went to some work place where there was a
place for conversation but everyone was busy replying to their emails.
An article about cell phones affecting people’s social skills talks about the pros and
cons of cell phones. Having a phone is extremely beneficial to everyday life. For
students, it gives access to emails, blackboard and other useful sites. But becoming
so dependent on phones can cause you to not have social communicating skills.
The article brings up a term called “Nomophobia” meaning fear of being without
a phone. A study in 2010 showed that more than half of the cell phone users in
Britain get anxiety when they are separated from their devices. Again contributing to
the fact that being too attached to your phones can cause you to have many
problems. The article also talks about a study in 2013 that connected heavy texting to
sleep problems. Excessive texting and just being on your phone before bed resulted
in less amount of sleep each night. Not getting eight hours of sleep every night can
really affect your productivity and limit social interaction. Also, not only is it present in
teens and college students but also adults. As it says in the article, “66% of adults
have nomophobia, showing it’s time to take a break from technology”.
In the article “how mobile phones are killing human interaction skills” by Jumana
Khamis. She said that in Dubai people are so engaged in phones that the absence of
a phone in their hand is so alarmingly scarce. Nowadays people have an addiction to
checking their phones every few minutes. They are so skilled in the world of
messages that their human interaction skills are diminishing. The author said that this
observation led to the question that Are we losing the art of interpersonal interaction?
Dr Taza Wayne, clinical psychologist and clinical director at lighthouse Arabia
believes that too much dependence on phone communication can affect a person’s
ability to pick up a signal. Dr Wayn pointed out that when we express our feeling by
sending emojis through text at that time we didn’t know about the other person, who
he feels or the emoji is appropriate while when you are in face to face conversation
you know about other people emotions and you share your feelings according to
other people’s emotions.
Shalini Misra, a psychology professor at Virginia tech in Blacksburg, did some
experiments to see how the presence of phones affect the quality of conversation.
She found that during conversation if someone pulled out their phones while they are
talking to the other person felt less connected to that person.
Misra and her team divide 200 coffee shop visitors into pairs to test how much
influence smartphones have on social interaction. They asked them to talk about any
topic and share thoughts and feelings. Her team observed that 29 out of 100 groups
pulled out their phones. After the conversation they asked them to fill out the survey
describing how close they felt to the other and how well they understood. The
participants reported that the presence of phones has a negative effect on the quality
of conversation.
In this article “how cell phones are killing face-to-face interactions” the author Mark
Glaser shares his experiences of how people are addicted to cell phones, they have
less time to have face-to-face conversation. He said that last year he visited London
and when he got lost he asked a woman for directions. It took her a moment to
realize that a real person is standing in front of her and talking to her. She slowly took
off her headset and asked him to go in the right direction and put the headset on.
Mark was surprised by the time she took to reply to his question. The author also said
that, in many cases cellphones are helpful such as in emergencies you can call
police quickly. If you are late for something you can call someone and inform them.
According to the author we all know the bad habits that cellphones cause but still we
are addicted and depend on them.
This article talks about two problems that are apparent with using phones. It talks
about the lack of direct face-to-face contact young people have. Although you do still
see some small groups of kids hanging out in person, majority friend groups interact
through the internet and social media. Staying behind the screen can isolate you from
the world. Communicating over the phones can cause misunderstanding because to
fully understand and feel the speaker there has to be a combination of sound and
sight. The article also brings up that young people like to put on loud music while
meeting with their friends to get away from having to keep on talking to each other.
Cell phone usage not only causes harm to teens but also to adults. Many people text
while driving which causes many accidents, some being fatal. Lastly the article says
that cell phones are a blessing and a curse.
Initially, I said that people are addicted to cell phones and it reduced the social
interaction between them. The information I find in the articles also talk about the
technology and its negative impact on conversations. I think that it also affects your
mental health. In one of the articles it talks about the mental condition that cellphones
cause “Nomophobia” which is the psychological condition that people have when
they don’t have access to cell phones. I believe that the main cause of this issue is
the dependency of people on cellphones.
Work cited
Reporter, Jumana KhamisStaff. “How Mobile Phones Are Killing Human Interaction Skills.” Society – Gulf News, Gulf News, 7 Nov. 2018, https://gulfnews.com/going-out/society/how-mobile-phones-are-killing-human-interaction-skills-1.2205044#.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_smartphones_are_killing_conversation
Cumberledge, Heather. “Students’ Addiction to Cell Phones Is Inhibiting Their Social Skills.” The Arizona State Press, 17 Oct. 2017, https://www.statepress.com/article/2017/10/students-addiction-to-cell-phones-is-inhibiting-their-social-skills.
Dickerson, Kelly. “Are Smartphones Killing Our Conversation Quality?” LiveScience, Purch, 18 July 2014, https://www.livescience.com/46817-smartphones-lower-conversation-quality.html.
“How Cell Phones Are Killing Face-to-Face Interactions.” MediaShift, 9 Feb. 2018, http://mediashift.org/2007/10/how-cell-phones-are-killing-face-to-face-interactions295/.
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