Something that has struck me recently is what I actually use my phone for.  Although I’m constantly on my phone to check Twitter, Facebook, text messages, or even Snapchat, there are some things that I actually avoid using my phone for.  Maps, for example, are something I rarely trust my phone with.  Although many people love the map function on iPhones, I’ve grown to hate it.  It frequently gets addresses wrong and leads you down a different street, sometimes takes forever to load, and isn’t always the most reliable.  Whenever I was going somewhere I didn’t know back home, I always went on my computer and printed out a Google map to bring in the car.

I also keep myself from watching videos on my iPhone.  It’s no secret that streaming videos takes up a huge amount of data, and given the small amount of data that Verizon gives its users each month, I’m always worried that I’ll go over and have to pay extra for exceeding the limit.  I feel like phone advertisements always promote how easy it is to show your friends videos on your smartphone, but in reality, you’d need some pretty strong WiFi for that.

I guess this makes me feel better about using my phone, because I know that my whole life doesn’t revolve around it.  Yes, I use it a lot.  But I use other types of media and communication as well, so I’m not too worried about my so-called phone “addiction.”

I recently watched the Louis C.K clip on cell phones (http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone) that professor Mittell recently tweeted. Upon watching I realized we should be concerned for upcoming generations and how they will develop personal connections. Although my generation may be showing similar signs, I believe we were raised by parents with a different technological mindset. Louis C.K mentions the importance of recognizing facial expressions and how that in turn shapes the way we feel. Calling someone fat in person and watching his or her reaction, he explains, is far different than saying the same thing through text. We learn a lot by feeling emotions, which quite frankly isn’t the same over a phone or computer.

 The basis of his argument stemmed from the decision he had to make on whether or not to get his child a cell phone. Kids are getting phones at a much younger age today than even 5 years ago. I remember getting my first phone when I was 14, and my older brother only got one when he was 16. In today’s world, it would be social suicide to not have a Smartphone by middle school. Children need those years to build strong relationships, explore interests and develop their personality traits. I feel strongly that cell phones and social media take away from that.

My best friends younger brother is 13 and has over 2000 Instagram followers – while following only 200 – and garners roughly 300 likes per picture. He knows maybe 30 of these followers, which causes me to worry for him. He has never met, nor will he ever meet, a majority of the people he communicates and interacts with on a daily basis. To finalize, I don’t think we should eliminate the digital media use of young adolescents because it is a world they will eventually grow up to live in. Instead we should limit their usage, allow them to get the best of both worlds.

– Cam

Over the years technology has changed. As we grow older and as technology revolutionizes, things we do are made simpler with the use of devices that fit right into the palm of our hands. Not too long ago you would’ve needed multiple devices to do the same things that a smartphone can do in a simple touch of an app. Or you would need to use your instincts and memory for certain things.

Are we becoming lazy?

Need to find you way to the nearest mall? Google and GPS it. Simple, right? What if we didn’t have that technology and had to figure out where the nearest mall was without the use of a handheld device? Would you find it? Most times the answer would be no. As technology makes life easier, it is erasing our ability to find things with knowledge and memory. The convenience of knowing that I’d simply have to just go to my “recent destination” on my phone to get directions to go somewhere would stop me from thinking that remembering how to get from point A to point B becomes irrelevant. Why use memory when we have access to information with one click or command to Siri?