Proposal Against Obsessive Use of Technology

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English 1B

17 April, 2017

                         Proposal Against Obsessive Use of Technology

        Nowadays, social media and technology is everywhere; whether it be in our cars, at work, in our homes, or in our hands. Technology and social media is an inseparable part of every person’s daily life. Newspapers used to be the go to for any daily news or to find out the latest gossip, but the old is out and the in is i-phones, laptops, ipads etc. We rely on these devices too much whether it is used for google, instagram, or youtube. It is crucial that we make the effort to realize our dependability towards this technology. We must have self control when it comes to going on social media for long periods of time,  in turn taking away from school, studying, and special time that could be spent playing sports or spending time with your family.

        In general, teenagers are to be involved in sort of media communication for up to five hours per day. Most teenagers spend two hours a day watching television and two hours surfing the internet.  Many teens including myself have spent sleepless nights on social media. Consequently, this has led to cases of insomnia, mood swings, and surprisingly increased obesity. This is due to the in-activity while on social media.  This sense of dependability of technology and addiction to social media takes away from a human’s natural ability to sleep,

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learn, and perform everyday functions. Media controls the minds of teenagers like a giant remote controller. Most students who have an Iphone use the smartphone to finish up homework if they are too lazy to finish it, or cheat on tests by using their cell phone calculator. These are only some of the many habits I’ve noticed throughout high school. I have witnessed my own friends flunking out of classes because they are too busy playing the latest game from the app store instead of paying attention to the teacher during class. The solution to making this a priority to avoid is educate yourself on how technology is interfering with our natural ability to learn, sleep and perform natural human functions, and take a break for at least half the amount of time used on social media to do something productive. This will allow a better chance of avoiding not only obesity but a better mentality towards life and bettering one’s mind and actions along with self motivation and self control.

        Studies have shown certain groups of teenagers are prone to violence due to social media influencing their minds and actions. There are easily accessible sites to watch pornography, violent actions, and purchase horrible things. This accessibility has taken away from children’s innocence, and a teenagers malleable personality while growing up. If a teen constantly watches these videos he will grow up being either a violent thinker, or a violent doer. The use of alcohol and drugs now play a huge factor in the use of technology and social media because it is advertised as “cool” from television shows and movies or people posting about it on Snapchat or instagram. Especially the fact that these drug dealers are so easily accessible to teenagers. This is very dangerous because some of the things shown on the internet and posted on instagram have

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comments from people which really shows what is really going on in the minds of these people. Adding on to my proposal of cutting social media time use in half, monitor what you watch as in

make sure what you use the internet for is not going to make you into a person you do not want to be.

        Another addition to my reasoning for eliminating most of the time used for social media is cyber bullying. The use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature. Cyber bullying is a main factor in why teenaers should put their phones down and instead pick up a basketball or a book. This type of bullying occurs everywhere from sending around an edited picture of a girl holding a cigarette and claiming she is a druggy or an intimate picture being shared from person to person. Not only does this bullying occur on the down low but also in modern advertisements. These advertisements try to sell idealized ways of life. For example Abercrombie and Fitch’s CEO assistant claims, “He doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people, He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.” This is completely making plus sized women looked down upon and unwanted in society. Anyone who’s been to Abercrombie & Fitch in the last couple of years has most likely noticed that there is no extra large or double XL sizes of women’s clothing because they don’t  want overweight women wearing their brand.According to this popular teen clothing retailer, fat chicks will just never be a part of the “in” crowd. The largest women’s pants available at Abercrombie are a size ten, while H&M goes up to sixteen and American Eagle goes even