Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Can it be separated?

Lauren Geisel
Mrs. Straub
Economics B3

Can it be separated?


Imagining a day without technology is unbearable. Let’s be honest, some of us can’t even go an entire class period without checking to see if we got any new text messages, notifications from social media, or playing clash of clans. These days, we live in a world filled with smart phones and dumb people. And why is that? That is because we rely on technology to tell us the answer. We rely on talking to people over the internet instead of face to face, because we are terrified of what could happen. The only way we are capable of solving most of our problems is texting the other person, because half of us don’t hold up the confidence to stand up for ourselves in person.
Smartphones are our source of deciding whether you have money or no, whether you're fit for a certain group of people, or even fit for today’s society. You see teens on iPhones and Androids, and without a doubt, can run their lives. The demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus had skyrocketed, and pre-orders for the iPhones had been on a dely. According to the CEO of Sprint, the iPhone 6s had reached their biggest launch day over the other iPhones that had been sold through the company. IPhones are a private good, that not only every teen pleads for, but the possibilities of what we have access to are endless. Between accessing Google and social media in one touch of the finger, we open up to a whole new world.
But, it’s not about the demand of iPhones, or the whole new world that we open up to, but it has shown downfalls in the “normal” social behaviors among people. The technology we have access to opens to a world of the amount of likes we get to feel ‘beautiful’ or ‘popular.’ Sitting hours on end with our phones in our hands, our screens are a whole new world and a different story. We are socially and psychologically cut off from the outside world. The world that we are only beautiful or popular by the amount of likes we get, and the amount of self-esteem we have is judged by the comments telling us how well we look in a picture.
On average, people in the US spend around 444 minutes or 7.4 hours, looking at some sort of screen whether it’s a tv, computer, or a phone on a daily basis. America, only runs in sixth of how long we spend our time looking at a screen. Seeming that 7.4 hours is almost as much time as we are awake during the day,  Indonesia runs in first place, with an average of 540 minutes, or 9 hours a day drooling over a screen.

Time during our young years are priceless, and we will never get it back. But, we would rather sit and let a screen run our lives, and not take the time to turn the phone off, shut off the tv and computer, and actually hold a verbal conversation with someone. Technology had gone from an elastic to an inelastic good. We as teens, are making memories by putting it as our snapchat stories, or our new instagram picture. Ten years from now, who knows where technology is going to be, but are you willing enough to separate yourself from your phone during social interactions, and actually do something with your life?

















Bibliography

"Horrifying Chart Reveals How Much Time We Spend Staring at Screens Each Day." BGR. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Molina, Brett. "Demand Surges for Larger IPhone 6 Plus." USA Today. Gannett, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.

"Negative Effects of Technology on Society." Teen Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.

19 comments:

  1. This argument is interesting and the graph that you provided really shook me up a bit. Could we really be spending that much time looking at screens? Its abominable! However, this article provided little to no connection to economics. Maybe it would be beneficial to look at the possible negative externalities involved in staring at a screen all day or needing to keep your phone on at all hours? How much has the smartphone business contributed to the national/global economy? How much money do people tend to spend on apps and music and other downloads? Also, I think it would be interesting to compare the different types of smartphones and their overall costs once you include damage insurance, apps and other downloads, cases, headphones, and other fees/accessories accompanying these goods. You talk about phones becoming inelastic, but I do not see how you explained those terms or how they even are relevant to the article you wrote as a whole.

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  2. I agree with your post on that we don´t need to use our phones and multi-media products as much as we do. I never would´ve guessed that Indonesia had the longest time spent on these multi-media devices. I always thought the USA would be on the top for usage of multi-media. Personally, I don't spend nearly as much time on any electronics that I own as much as the average may be. I might spend 2 hours at tops on everything, but when people are spending half of their days locked into these screens is when you realize that we seriously have a problem. Overall, good post!

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  3. Great grammatical structure and use of current vocab words! I also agree. Teenagers around the world are getting to the point in which they can't live without technology. The demand for new technology is increasing exponentially. Because of this, I think it's important to spend some of your day actually relaxing. Take at least 20 minutes a day and unplug from all this technology. Anyway, its abundantly clear that technology can't be separated from our lives; even though doing so is important.

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  4. I Agree with the idea that people are too attached to their phones today, especially teenagers. I'm guilty not not being able to make it through a class period without it. I think it might be counted a negative externality not just because they buzz and annoy people around you but for the user themselves, because we become addicted to them.

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  5. I thought this was a very interesting piece to read about. I like how you brought into economics that is a growing problem in our country. More and more teens and even adults are becoming attached the screen that holds the whole world, well to them. This is a negative externality, especially in class when it can distract students from learning. Iphones used to be elastic and they were a special thing to have, Nowadays if you do not have a iPhone or smartphone in today's society, you are socially unacceptable. I like your graph because it really showed the impact of this problem. Nice job and very fun to read.

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  6. The smart phone firms certainly have succeeded in creating unrivaled value in their products. With access to seemingly everything nowadays, iPhones and similar devices appear to be wonderful uses of the majority of teens’ spare time. Obviously this creates issues with people with regard to the concept of friendliness and face-to-face interaction, but it’s not the users’ faults. Apple, although not a monopoly, utilize network effects to create a greater need for iPhones. Therefore, everyone who is anyone must have one – or something very similar – in order to stay hip with the world.

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  7. Apple and other major phone and technology companies, greatly benefit from brand recognition. Once a person gets hooked on one brand they dedicate themselves to only by products of that certain brand. Often times people will only buy apple gadgets or only buy adidas shoes not necessarily because they believe they are better quality, even though that is often times true, but more so because they feel they are in essence part of the team. If everyone around them is enjoying a product of a certain brand, people want to get in on the action as well. This results in what you discuss in this post of people at times relying too much on the social norm and buying products they often times do not need as much as they think.

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  8. I am constantly on my phone and so are my friends, and basically all of my classmates. I go to dinner with friends and it's like we spend more time staring at a screen rather than having an actual face to face conversation. I am probably on my phone around a total of 4-5 hours a day, and I find it crazy that the average in America is 7.5 hours. It's harder than you might think to break away from a phone. It becomes like an addicting habit that I must constantly check up on. I think technology is a good source to look up information and to stay connected with family and friends, but it can most definitely get out of control at times.

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  9. This concept has been brought up quite a bit over the years. The addiction to technology is real, just like any addiction to alcohol or drugs. The problem however, is people aren't treating the technology addiction like a problem at all. It's so widely accepted in today's society to be attached to your smart phone, computer, tv, etc that no one thinks twice about it. The reality is that when we are on our phones, we are not truly conscious of what is going on around us. We miss out on potentially very special memories. I remember when I went to a concert not too long ago, I was struggling the whole time trying to decide if I should record the concert on my phone to share with others and show them what I was up to over snapchat, or just simply enjoy the concert in person with no distractions from my phone. It's a constant struggle, but I think the first step is recognizing the issue and being aware of it.

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  10. I think this is a great topic choice, especially at a time when it seems like the only thing people know how to talk about is the latest Apple products. I think that your determining of technology as being an inelastic good is very accurate; many people have become slaves to the newest smartphone fad, seeing little room for substitutes. I also really enjoyed your identification of the the need many teens have for social media popularity. I myself often check my phone to see how many likes I got on an Instagram post and it's really unhealthy! Overall I think you did a nice job of relating such a popular topic back to economics. Good work!

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  11. Lauren,
    I think this was a great piece to iterate especially in this point in time. Just reading your exert about "Clash of Clans," I be just majority of my class took the time to check and see if they had been 'raided' since they last checked about ten minutes ago during our lunch period. It's true cell phones--mainly smart phones--has seemed to circumference our world. Heck I know that even I can't go one class period without checking my phone at some point in time. The negative externality of a cell phone is certainly a large portion of how the world views the cell phone industry, but it is a negative externality that has almost become essential to the ways of today's world. Great job!

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  12. Lauren you provide an interesting view into how technology impacts our lives. It’s true that our obsession with technology and our dependency on it comes with certain opportunity costs, such as time outside or time with family, but there are also economic benefits we see from technology. Technology cuts the cost of production and cuts time out of production, so that consumers are getting more variety of product and at a cheaper price. IPhones do also have many benefits, such as being vital to some companies for communication, and Apple in general is an economic powerhouse--though, our generation does seem to reap the consequences of the technological boom.

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  13. Technology in our society today is one of the most prominent and key distractions to our society as whole. Companies such as Apple and major phone companies such as AT&T excel in this world today because there is a constant drive for smart phones or technology based products, especially from top companies like the two stated. It tends to show that more individuals are going to be buying products that other friends or families are buying as it seems to be more of the norm. Due to that, a lot of the nations money is fluctuated towards technology based companies because there is such a high demand with a high supply, which I believe will quickly grow and continue as your graph depicts the amounts of technology used by each country.

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  14. I agree with the idea people are getting to attached to their phones and can't live without them. If we go to school and can't find our cellphone it seems like the whole world is crashing down because we rely on them to much for everything. It's crazy to think that we spend about 444 minuets on a daily basis. That spending so much time on our cellphones does make us unable to then communicate with people in person. Your essay does show that people are getting more and more dependable on using their cellphones and just might cause an even worse problems in the future.

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  15. As technology evolves, it is natural that it will become more integral in our lives, as shown with Apple introducing Apple Pay and the Apple Watch. But as you said, there definitely is some overuse of these devices. One main reason would probably be that people are finding more entertaining things to do on the internet like play games. So although it is an issue, it isn't as big as people make it.

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  16. I totally agree with everything that you are saying. I don’t have a smartphone, but do have an iPod along with my generic, internet-less, phone. So even though I don’t have that iPhone that everyone seems to crave, I still am looking at a screen all the time! Even in school, they encourage us to use our laptops and the internet and technology instead of learning from books, or hands-on lessons. It’s ridiculous, and I am honestly scared to see where we are with technology in the next 10 years. Google has already come out with gadgets and technologies that can alter your body to improve yourself, like Google Glass which are glasses that can do everything the iPhone can do, or the motion glasses that help you see motion better -- it’s absolutely crazy to hear and see that people are crazy into technology, enough to modify their bodies with it. Way to make a point, and a challenge for us Lauren!

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  17. The real debate shouldn't be if the technology we utilize frequently is hurting us or helping us. Technology has some very obvious pros and cons, just like a strictly no technology world has it’s pros and cons. But rather we should be discussing the situation at hand. There is no way to convince society today to up and stop using technology as a whole. It’s just not realistic. The only thing that would have an impact on technology use today would be to either make technology appear unappealing, or make face-to-face interactions more appealing.

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  18. I believe this is quite strong, since many people nowadays, as the article said, are staring at a screen. Technology has become a huge part of our lives, whether negative or positive externalities occur while using the technology. The question if we can detach from it has a mysterious answer, because there is a range from "hardcore" users, who can't live a second without technology to those who only use technology to keep in touch with those who are out of reach. I use technology quite a bit, mostly for entertainment purposes. So, detaching could be hard since more and more people become dependent on technology.

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  19. I believe there is a marginal benefit and a marginal cost for the usage of technology in today's world. Personally, I believe that the marginal benefit outweighs the marginal cost. The only downfall to using technology is the lack of social abilities between people, but I don't believe that technology is the only thing to blame for this. While it does cause of social pitfalls, it allows us to have knowledge at the click of a button, conversations with a couple taps of the thumbs, and much more. We may need to begin to stress the ability to interact socially with individuals so that we don't rely so much on technology for communication, but a good this powerful can only be a positive impact for society.

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