The Effects of Cellphones on Society - Free Essay Example

Cellphones have had many positive effects on the world. They have made it possible to instantly communicate with someone thousands of miles away from you with the touch of a finger. They allow you to play games, post things on social media, listen to music, or even video chat with anyone you want. It can feel like you are in your own universe. Now these things may sound good, but I believe cellphones also have a huge negative effect on society. They cause individuals to isolate themselves from one another. Real one on one talking has in a sense died. Most time spent with friends and families is usually done while staring at a screen and essentially ignoring the people around you. In a brand new film called the,Mid90s the director, Jonah Hill, chooses that time period purely due to the lack of cellphones. Jonah Hill states At its core, its a movie about this group of friends at a time when its you and your friends versus the world. The reason why those close friendships were able to form, in my perspective, was because we didnt have phones. We were skating around and waiting for the bus or just talkingwe didnt have gadgets to break away from that connection. I think the simple way Jonah Hill put this is the best way to say it.   It is clear that in this day and age most peopl e are addicted to their phones and cannot picture themselves without them. I would say something negative about this fact, but I shouldnt judge as I too have found myself obsessing over my phone and getting frustrated if it doesnt work properly. While looking for research on this topic I found it easy to come across good sources to help answer my questions. I mainly used the Internet as my database as I found it much easier and more productive than going to the library and checking out books. One thing that I found extremely helpful was using Google Scholar. This is a search engine made by Google that shows links to only creditable sources and scholarly literature. I found out about this website while actually interviewing a friend of mine about his use of cellphones. He agreed with my thinking that many people are addicted to their phones and added in how they are also very distracting during class time. This made me go on to researching the effects of phones in the classroom, which Im sure most people could guess wasnt good when you compared certain peoples grades to the amount of time they spent on their phones. The interview I had with my friend I would call my primary source and the articles I found on Google Scholar I would call my secondary source. Cellular communication, whether it be verbal or digital has affected the population of adults and children worldwide. Cellphones are the main basis of communication, whether it be talking on the phone or scrolling through twitter. They allow entire groups to interact without actually being in the presence of one another. Smartphones offer many applications that offer a variety of tools. Mobile phones have had a positive impact on society and there are many advantages to having a cellphone, but as I said before there are certainly many negative effects as well. Cellphones have affected society for the better and for the worse. They are very useful and let you interact with the world but the constant interaction has its downside. Cellphone companies have found there way into the lives of virtually the entire population, and have addicted many. An increasing reliance on cell-phones among young adults and college students may signal the evolution of cell-phone use from a habit to an addiction. (254 Roberts, Yaya and Manolis) Everywhere from coffee shops to the waiting room at the doctors office, people are constantly on their phones. With new applications offering a wide range of use, todays cellphones make users more prone to addiction. Smartphone use has been changing daily routines, habits, . The constant checking and/or use of smartphone applications 24h a day has been linked to sleep disturbances, stress, anxiety, withdrawal and deterioration in well-being, decreased academic performance, and decreased physical activity.(321 Samaha and Hawl). The new emergence of Smartphones has secretly swept the population. A study from the Pew research center found that 46 percent of cellphone owners said their cellphon es were something they could not live without and that 15 percent of young adults were heavily dependent on their smartphone. (321 Samaha and Hawl) Smartphones are not only guilty for creating addiction, but also for creating distractions when people need to focus on set tasks. In recent years there has been a decline in the performance rates in the adolescent community. In a study conducted by Computers in Human Behavior, they found a strong correlation between frequent cellphone use and rates of inadequate physical fitness. CPUse was negatively related to an objective measure of physical fitness (VO2peak) among a sample of typical college students. In other words, high cell phone users were less physically fit than low cell phone users.(343 Lepp, Barkley and Kirpinski) The more a person uses their cellphone the more prone they were to be physically unfit. This is easily connectable as cellphones can cause prolonged periods of sedentary behavior.   When talking about cellphones and school, the effects are rather negative as well. High cellphone use is one of several attributes to a decline in academic rates. Cellphones take a toll on students once again. In a study of 451 college students, researchers monitored cellphone use and academic performance. The results were unsurprisingly negative. They also related excessive cellphone use to higher levels of stress. Compulsive smartphone usage is positively associated with technostress, which is stress caused by information and communication overload. ( 322 Samaha and Hawl) In other words, the more each student accessed their cellphones to communicate with the world, the more their stress levels boosted. Cellphone use could be too much for some people and they may not even know it. Problems with cellphones are not only associated with addiction and distraction, but also with inappropriate content. Smart phones open doors to young adolescents and let them experience almost anything they want. There is little regulation as to what adolescents say and do online. For example, cyber bullying is a prevalent issue among our society and has been steadily growing for a long time. According to the available literature, the prevalence of cyberbullying among adolescents who possess cell phones ranges from 5.9 to 24.6 percent. (Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, Sanson and Sanson) Cellphones open the gates to unlimited communication between adolescents and these limited regulations are often taken advantage of. Cellphones cause stress for people from the constant checking and replying that it requires. As an empirical example, in a study of more than 100 individuals in the United Kingdom reported that cell phone technology was associated with increased personal stress. The emergence of stress was attributed to participants getting caught up in compulsively checking for new messages, alerts, and updates.(Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, Sanson and Sanson) In a study conducted in upstate New York, researchers looked for total cellphone use and the relation with stress. The correlation was strong with higher cellphone use linked to higher rates of stress in work and family relationships. Cellphones take yet another toll in the category of mental health by having an effect on our sleep as well. In a Belgian study conducted by Van den Bulck, they found that members of the study who used their cellphones more than once a week were 5 times more likely to be in a tired/sluggish state. They found 35 percent of participants reporting such states throughout the day. Also in a Japanese study 94,777 young adult researchers linked cellphone use in later hours of the day to shorter sleep duration, poorer subjective sleep quality, insomnia, and excessive daytime sleepiness. Cellphone use effects sleep patterns of excessive users with overstimulation. Cellphones, whether talking about any number of these effects, should be considered when talking about the mental health and overall well being of the young adolescent community. To say that smartphones are taken advantage of would be an understatement. Cellphones affect the world in some positive ways, but a lot of negative ways. They are very useful tools that allow people to communicate, analyze and process data. When used in moderation, cellphones are very beneficial. It is when these devices become a part of daily life and become inseparable from the host, that they effect the population.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While researching this topic I learned a lot about the negatives of cellphones that I never knew before. I of course was familiar with the benefits like most people in this generation are, but I was never fully aware of all the damage they can cause. Cellphones can greatly affect your mental and physical health. They can cause irrational sleep patterns and in a sense make a person lazier. Cellphones are addictive and bring people simple joy by liking and sharing things online, but having constant access to these devices distract us from the real world. When people have their phones with them they are less likely to get work done. They become distracted and focus less on their priorities like getting an education or going to the gym. Although these devices have many benefits we must learn to use them in moderation before its too late and we all get sucked into the digital world. Works cited Samaha, Maya, and Nazir S. Hawi. Relationships among Smartphone Addiction, Stress, Academic Performance, and Satisfaction with Life. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 57, 2016, pp. 321–325., doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.12.045. Roberts, James, et al. The Invisible Addiction: Cell-Phone Activities and Addiction among Male and Female College Students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, vol. 3, no. 4, 2014, pp. 254–265., doi:10.1556/jba.3.2014.015. Lepp, Andrew, et al. The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use and Academic Performance in a Sample of U.S. College Students. SAGE Open, vol. 5, no. 1, 2015, p. 215824401557316., doi:10.1177/2158244015573169. Lepp, Andrew, et al. The Relationship between Cell Phone Use, Academic Performance, Anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in College Students. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 31, 2014, pp. 343–350., doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.049. Sansone, Randy A., and Lori A. Sansone. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, Matrix Medical Communications, Jan. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579483/#B12.

A Study of Space in Small Island and The Lonely Londoners - Literature Essay Samples

As a human there are certain rights we believe we have. It is not uncommon for one group to believe themselves superior to another, or for each group to believe they have certain rights and the other group to disagree. This was the case when large numbers of non-Caucasian individuals migrated to England from the Caribbean believing that the mother country was going to welcome them and supply them with more opportunities than they had at home on the islands. Some of these individuals had even helped to fight with England in WWII and were now to the country they had fought for. Others who made the trip had family that had made the move to England before them and they were now coming to meet them, believing that the transition would be smooth and a place to call their own would be waiting for them since another had somewhat paved the way for their arrival. With all these new arrivals came anger and frustration among the prior residents of London. They felt threatened and thought that th is group was intruding on their space. In both Small Island by Andrea Levy and The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon characters struggle to find the place in London where they will fit in, and spaces in which they will be welcomed and accepted. In this paper I will examine the importance of having a space to belong to, regardless of the colour of one’s skin, and will argue that while England may not have been ready to have a place for everyone upon arrival, those who made an effort could make space for themselves. There was a clear power struggle in England between the whites who were already residing in London, and the newcomers who were making the voyage in search of better lives. This struggle is greatly represented in a quote by George Lamming, ‘†¦imagine waking up one morning and discovering a stranger asleep on the sofa of your living room? You wake this person up and ask them â€Å"what are you doing here?† and the person replies â€Å"I belong here† ‘. The white population, who had already been residing in England, felt that there was a whole group of uninvited people who were now showing up and intruding on their space. No one had bothered to ask they native Englishmen how they would feel about these strangers making a place for themselves in the city and therefore felt the strangers had no right to what had been theirs. Meanwhile, the non-white individuals who made the journey did not see themselves as strangers; this was the motherland. Rather, they sa w themselves as welcomed to make a place for themselves and begin their lives anew. They were so sure they belonged on this sofa, which is a metaphor for England. Each group believing something different lead to raised tensions among them. Some of the native Englishmen saw the need to state their control over the strangers and the land they had come to make their own, making it clear that they did not belong in London. The native Englishmen wished to keep their space the same as it had been prior to the war and the mass movement of those of other ethnicities while the new arrivals were trying to make a place for themselves to live the life they had come to England in search for. In the novel Small Island by Andrea Levy there are many examples to reinforce the idea behind Lamming’s quote. The idea is that some individuals arriving in the country believed that England had a space waiting for them and they would be accepted with open arms, to sofa was theirs to sleep on. This is the case with Hortense who travels from Jamaica to England after her husband had made the journey a couple of months before. Prior to her arrival, Hortense had an image of England in her mind which included a big house with a door bell and being greeted at the docks by her husband Gilbert. Upon disembarking the ship there was no sign of her husband welcoming her, and she soon realised life in England would not live up to her expectations After struggling to communicate with the taxi driver and upon finally finding the house, her place in England, the welcome she received was less than warm. When the door was opened to reveal Hortense standing there, Queenie the owner of the house , was ‘puzzled’ to see this women waiting outside with a large luggage. Queenie was the individual waking up to see a stranger, Hortense, sleeping on her sofa. Queenie was mystified at the women standing there with her luggage and stating that she belonged in the house. Once all the confusion was cleared up Queenie told Hortense, ‘I hope you are not bringing anything into the house that will smell’. Queenie was actually not trying to be rude though, she was welcoming Hortense into her house and helping her make her own place in London. But at the same time, she did not want to be inconvenienced in her own home by the smell of something from Hortense’s home. So even though Hortense was welcomed, and even belonged in this house, she should not expect to make it completely hers. There were regulations set in place by the white, native Englishwoman that Hortense was expected to obey. While a large amount of native Englishmen represented in Small Island were not welcoming of the country’s new residents, others individuals were open and ready to welcome them and help them find their place like Queenie. Queenie opened up her home to rent out rooms to anyone who needed them including those of colour. Her relationship of those with colour offered them a safe space while in her presence and in the privacy of her house. Just because Queenie was accepting of coloured individuals did not mean others would tolerate it. Just by allowing coloured individuals to take up space in her house strained Queenie’s relationship with her neighbours who did not want their neighbourhood diminished. An example the conflict of having a space in private but not in public was when Gilbert accompanied Queenie to the movies. When he attempted to sit down next to Queenie in the theatre, the usherette stopped him and told Gilbert that he would have to sit in the back due to the co lour of his skin. Gilbert was shocked at this example of segregation stating that, ‘This is England†¦This is not America†¦I will sit anywhere I please’ referring to the Jim Crow Laws in place in the States. Gilbert thought he knew England as a space with no segregation, especially after being welcomed by Queenie, a white Englishwoman. But the events at the cinema showed that segregation was very much alive in England. Even though Queenie had no issue with making a place for Gilbert in the seat next to her, the theatre had designated his place to be in the back, separated from the white crowd and the white GIs who were seated in the front. Gilbert was the individual stating that he belonged there, in the seat next to Queenie, while the rest of the cinema saw him as an intruder in their space. Not only were there no segregation laws in England, but Gilbert was also a GI who was fighting to help England in the war. None of this mattered in the eyes of native Brit s though who were not willing to share their space with Gilbert’s type. They saw themselves as the rightful residents and therefor had the right to say they did not want to sit near an individual of colour. Both groups, the whites and the coloured, were fighting to define and protect their place in England at this time. While the newcomers were attempting to make a place for themselves that was next to, and equal to, the white population, the white natives were trying to keep their space separate and send a message saying that the colours were only visitors in their space. This struggle between the two groups was its own type of war being fought. As previously stated, the biggest struggle over ‘place’ in Small Island was between those who had already been residing in England and those who had just arrived. Bernard, Queenie’s husband, had been someone who had already been residing in England and upon returning from war believed he knew what would be waiting for him back home. But when he returned to his house Bernard was in for quite a surprise. While he was gone Queenie had rented out rooms in the house to anyone in need of a place which included multiple residents of colour. When Bernard answered a knock at the door he was not prepared to come face to face with Gilbert who asked Bernard, ‘Who are you?’ to which Bernard replied, ‘ â€Å"Who are you?† is more the question’. This was Bernard’s house and being asked this by Guibert, a guest, made Bernard feel like the uninvited and unwanted stranger. This meant that Bernard now had to state his dominance over the house and make it clear that this place was his. However, Gilbert believed the house was his place in England since he had been living in it for months. Bernard was now the one intruding on a structure that had been built. The conflict came to a head when Bernard asked all the residents to leave the house. But the residents had made a place for themselves in the house, and felt that since Bernard had been absent for so long, he had no right to the place and no right to tell them to leave. Both Bernard and Gilbert believed they had a place of their own in the house, only to have that idea challenged upon meeting each other. It was once again a struggle between a white and a coloured. Who’s place was it really and how would they decide? There is no exact answer to this conflict. Both individuals did have a right to the space, but neither would have been satisfied with coming to that agreement, so they instead found themselves in a hostile, uncomfortable environment that was now their England. While all new arrivals in England struggled at some point to find their place in the large city some were able to adjust better than others, like the characters in The Lonely Londoners. The characters in this novel each fought hard for a place and a space in the big city to call their own, and their dedication to this proved triumphant in the end. James Procter points out that in the opening of the novel, the narrator is on his way to pick up a new arrival in London and is describing the fog covering the city as ‘alienating territory’. This can be seen as how the newcomer will at first be experiencing London, as since he is new to the city he will not yet feel at home or know his way around. And as this is just the beginning of the book, readers are also newcomers to this narrator’s London. Procter then points out that the way in which London is described shifts as we see the city not as a newcomer, but as the narrator Moses. Procter states that, ‘This shift between alienation and belonging is most clearly articulated through the naming of the landscape’. Since Moses is not a stranger to the city and knows exactly where he is going and what he is doing, his descriptions are more detailed then the first description of London, and include the specific bus he rides and exactly where he is headed. These details cement the idea that Moses is not a newcomer and has mastered London in some way. Moses has found his place and become a Londoner and now he is attempting to help others to do the same. Procter emphasises how important the naming of locations in the novel is as it really represents the boys’ settlement in the city. When telling the newcomer that they are heading to where Moses lives, Moses refers to it himself as the Water but informs the new arrival, ‘Bayswater to you until you living in the city for at least two years,’. The slang is reserved for those who have worked for it, those who have successfully made a place for themselves in the city and those who the city has accepted. It seems characters in Small Island had more trouble making a place for themselves in London than the characters in The Lonely Londoners. I feel this is because characters in Small Island did not fight as hard for their place in England and rather expected it to be there for them. An example of this is the character Hortense, instead of trying to make her own place she attempted to fit in. She thought that by making one change to herself she would be accepted by the city. Hortense thought that she would gain respect and more if she talked in her accent that had, ‘†¦taken [her] to the top of the class in Miss Stuart’s English pronunciation competition,’. She did not realise that a change in her dialect would do little towards acceptance by the native Enlgishmen if she could not change the colour of her skin. Unlike Hortense, characters like Tanty in The Lonely Londoners decided that rather than change their ways to fit in, they were going to fight to create th eir own unique spaces. One example of Tanty making her own place is when she introduces the use of credit to some of the shops in London. Tanty was unhappy when a shopkeeper in London did not accept credit as a way of payment like they would back home in the islands. Instead of adjusting her way of living and making a small change to fit in to the already set up structure, she worked to change her surrounding to suit her. Tanty did not give the shopkeeper much of a choice when she took control and told him to write down her name and amount she owed him and that she would be back on Friday to pay. After keeping her word and shocking the owner, the shopkeeper began accepting credit as a way to run his business with all his customers, entirely thanks to Tanty working to make herself comfortable. She made a space for herself because she did not have to change her ways, and at the same time she was accepted by the shopkeeper. Instead of trying to fit into the pre-set structure of London, Tanty acted in reasonable ways that demanded attention and admiration. She was respected and accepted by the city and those who knew her. She created a space for herself in London which was similar to her space back home and this made her feel comfortable, confident, and like she almost entirely belonged in London. Even though she made her change on the shops in London, some things were to big and structured to change in a way suit her. This did not stop her from creating her space within them. Tanty felt she could not truly belong to the city until she mastered all its ways of transportation. While she was first uncomfortable by both the tube and the bus system, she gave both a try and felt triumphant after her successful journeys. Instead of expecting the city to accommodate her, she made the effort to respect what was already in place. So while it took effort and she couldnt change the transport system to her liking, Tanty did not give up simply because it intimidated her or confused her. Instead, she accepted that using these forms of mass transportation was a part of being a Londoner, and she embraced them. Tanty fought to make her place in the city. Wether it was changing something to suit her, or changing herself for the city, she did not give up or accept defeat. She was determined to b e comfortable in London and create her space in the city and she was rewarded. One of the most important spaces for the characters in Lonely Londoners was a private space that Moses was unknowingly creating. It was his room, which he had originally created as a space for himself, but ended up being a space for the boys he had become acquainted with. While each boy individually made spaces for themselves throughout London, Moses’ room was a place they kept being drawn back to. Just like they each had originally been strangers to London, they were also originally strangers to each other. But through their time spent in London they worked to create a place for themselves in which they would feel comfortable and which they could call their own. Moses’ basement is one of those places. The basement becomes a small place in London for just them where they could talk about anything, especially of their times and experiences in London. Their settlement of London is especially represented in this room through the boys language and descriptions. As Procter m entions the way the boys refer to location around London truly represents their settlement in the city and here in this room the boys are using nicknames and shorthand terms to refer to a London which has accepted them and made a space for them to live. This being one of the final spaces and scenes mentioned in the book really exhibits the progress the boys each made since arriving in London. Each character was able to come a long way from Moses having to share his space when they were new in London, to them visiting his room as a meeting place, but being able to leave it and return to their own places and spaces in London. It was clear that London was not ready to have a place to those who didn’t work for it, regardless of the colour of their skin. In both Small Island by Andrea Levy and The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon the characters must work to gain a place in the city rather than just expect it to be given to them. And while London was not kind to them all, making it seem for some impossible to find a space for themselves, those who worked hard and did not settle were rewarded in being able to call London their city and to have a place especially for them within it. Bibliography Lamming, George, ‘The Coldest Spring in Fifty Years’, Kunapipi 20: 1 (1998). Levy, Andrea. Small Island (London: Headline Publishing Group, 2004), pp.14-16. Procter, James ‘Dwelling Places: Postwar Black British Writing’ (Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 53. Selvon, Sam. The Lonely Londoners (London: Penguin Books, 2006), p.16.