Jean Twenge, an American psychology professor, was born in 1971. Twenge, being a psychologist, has been researching generational differences, development speed, life goals, and work values. Apart from being a professor at San Diego State University, she is a consultant, public speaker, and author. One of the articles she has written is the have smartphone destroyed a generation? This article was published in the Atlantic. The thesis statement in this article is the impact phones have on the young generation. This article talks about how millennial youths are more familiar with their phone than ordinary people. The article mentions many facts course by smartphones such as the vulnerability of youths. In her article, she has evidence of her numerous data collection topic proving why her topic is true. The author conducted data collection, which shows a drop in sexual activities, dating, and sleep after the iPhone was released in 2007. In this article, Twenge interview young teenagers Athena. From this interview, the teenager’s view on life and the impact on the phone is well elaborated. Athena talks of how she is always on her phone, even when she is with their friends. There is minimal interaction between her and her friends since each of them is on their phones. Twenge concludes that it would be impossible to restrict technology entirely. This is because even toddlers use phones and other electronics. However, there is a need for restriction on the time teenagers have to use phones and other devices. This would make a very big difference in the reduction of harmful behavior.
Twenge has a well-written article that had a lot of effects since she made use of factual information from data and research she conducted besides talking of issues everyone, especially the youth, can relate to.
First, the author of this article interview a teenage girl, Athena, and they talk about how phones influence her life. This approach makes this article more approachable, more so to the teenage audience. If this article were to be read by another teenage girl, they would feel more interested because someone of their age had an input in it. They can easily relate the information from the article and their life. This is an important part of the article, which adds relatability, pathos, and credibility. She goes ahead to give people born between 1995 and 2012 a name iGen. She believes that smartphones and internet has shaped the life of this generation. She goes ahead to talk about the emotional as well as behavioral changes experienced in teenagers. These changes started to emerge after around 50 percent of the American population possessed smartphones. All these are things that can be related to what is happening in the world today. Many of the youth and even adults are very busy on their phones. Some of the social media pages such as Instagram, Facebook, and snap chat are commonly used daily. They are replacing the old way of interaction where people were physically communicating and interacting.
Twenge conveys the message in the article by use of relatable information, accurate data, and credible sources. The use of graphs and statistical data in her article gives the audience the true situation and the problem caused by the use of smartphones in teenagers. In addition to the data and graph, her conversation with Athena helps her article get the pathos. Although smartphones are the main cause of behavioral changes in teenagers’ lives, Twenge acknowledges that other factors contribute to the same. This makes her work more credible. Twenge is very credible and effective since she is able to pass across her points to an indented audience effectively, clearly, and with intelligent material.
In this article, Twenge talks of how to screen activities are associated with less happiness and how no screen activities s are associated with more happiness( Twenge). This seems to be a correct argument but not to the degree in which this author implies. The author means that increased use of smartphones leads to depression in teens since they do not involve themselves in other activities. There is increased abuse of drugs in high school, and depression and misbehavior cases are on the rise. She also talks of how teens nowadays do not go to the town pol, basket courts, and other events but instead stay home using their phones. The author, however, does not mention how urbanization has affected kids today. There could be many reasons as to why teens don’t get social events apart from smartphones.