The other day my friend broke her phone, and when I say broke, I mean really broken. The only thing it’ll do now is show the little white apple on a black screen for a few seconds, and then turn off again. We’ve tried pretty much everything to fix it . All the self-help sites and calls to apple haven’t led to any solutions, the phone still won’t turn on. So, she decided to have her mom send her an old one that was sitting around the house, however, until that gets here, she’s pretty much screwed.
Trying to help my friend has really made me think about society today; and how without a cell phone, or a way to contact people away from your computer, you’ll be left behind. Pretty much the only way people our age contact each other is through texting, and without a mode to do this, you miss out on any plans made and other social interactions. Another thing phones have is calendars and email, and without access to these, if you have an important meeting or email that comes in, you likely won’t notice and miss important information.
Phones also contain all a persons social media accounts. I would say, that today, most people find out news from some sort of app or social media, and without this access you’re completely out of the loop. Yes, you could go online on a computer and check these sites or apps via internet. However, does anyone actually remember their passwords for things anymore? I know that personally, I always just do the automatic login and hope that I never accidentally log out.
Overall, what I’m trying to say is that: often times, cell phones keep us on a leash, and without them, people are crippled. I know a lot of people who had to make the switch to smart phones because its actually cheaper to have one now. Beepers have gone by the wayside, snail mail is pretty much irrelevant and even desktop computers aren’ t really a thing anymore. Technology in our world is advancing and keeping up with that change is necessary to participate in society. Everyone knows that a broken phone is super inconvenient, and in 50 years, dependence on technology could be so great, that a broken phone is actually worse than losing a limb.
anth102spring2016 
It is quite depressing that we have gone dependent upon our cellular devices. I have tried to keep my phone away, but to be honest my whole life is on that device. This device keeps my life on track. With this device I am able to check the time, scheduled appointments, class times, email updates, events updates, able to keep contact with friends, to obtain information on the go, ability to contact my family, payments, my notes, keep track of my passwords and my social media updates. The real question is what does not my phone do for me?
Once I was doing an experiment to observe how dependent I was on my phone by leaving it in my locker at school– I lost track of time and activities I had to attend. Lots of people were trying to contact me and as Amy stated, it is quite necessary to have one’s phone so that we do not feel like we are out of the loop. My phone is the reason people are able to keep up with me, because of my busy schedule.
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Thank you for posting this. I have thought often about how dependent people are on their phones in today’s society. It makes me sad when I go to a doctors appointment and I see a child playing in the play room and their parents on their phones. I have attended an all girls camp since I was 9 years old. One of the reasons this camp is so unique is because the girls who attend as campers are not allowed to have any electronics except for a CD player (thats right, no iPods allowed either). The only connection that these girls have to the outside world is snail mail. I am incredibly grateful that I went to this camp when I was young, because our generation has lived through so many advancements in technology that can easily take over our world if we let them. By attending this camp for 2 weeks of the summer, I was able to learn how to live away from home, learn how to sail, swim, and many others things. The most important thing I learned from being at this camp was so many people stay inside all day, but when I’m at camp I get to explore and enjoy the outdoors with absolutely no distractions. I agree that people get left behind in society if they don’t have the latest update on their smart phone, however, I am happy to say that I grew up knowing there was a little place in the woods of New Hampshire that I would never have to deal with this technology-racing society.
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Technologies are getting more advanced nowadays and I think that’s cool. Now, I can’t live without my phone. It’s my everything! lol…I check my phone everyday and I take it everywhere I go. But, I think it’s sad seeing little kids nowadays having a cell phone. I could remember that the only that I had as a little kid was a coloring book and outdoors. That’s it and I’m pretty sure you guys would remember doing the same thing as well too. Also, another thing that I would like to point out is that technologies are also taking away from to rememeber how to spell. I can’t recall a time of when I don’t use auto correct when I’m texting. All I would have to do is type a single letter in and the word would pop up. I don’t even have to do that much thinking! As for that, that is a negative part of looking at technologies because student will have a hard time trying to remember how to spell a certain word and that’s sad. With technologies doing everything, sooner or later, we won’t be able to do any product activity at all.
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