Analysis Of Jean M. Twenge Has The Smartphone Destroyed A Generation

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Thesis: Twenge affectively uses emotional appeals to persuade her readers into believing that the excessive use of smartphone has ruined a generation. (summary) In the article “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean M. Twenge discusses the effects smartphones have in younger generations. Twenge is a psychologist who has been researching differences in generations for 25 years. In accordance to Twenge, smartphones have significantly increased the rates in teen depression and suicide. Twenge describes the generation iGen (born between 1995 and 2012) as being at the verge of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Twenge’s research shows statistics of many factors that are affected by social media, smartphones, and the internet. …show more content…

Twenge uses this story to capture the reader’s attention and get to their emotional side strengthening her article. In the story, Twenge asks Athena what she likes to do with her friends, Athena’s response is that very unfrequently they go to the mall with her parents. Twenge recalled the times she would go out with her friends describing it as a form of freedom to escape from her parents. According to Twenge, Athena and her friends are more likely to communicate through social media than physically. Twenge states, “unlike the teens of my generation, who might have spent an evening tying up the family landline with gossip, they talk on Snapchat” (59). Here, Twenge emphasizes on the differences between generations. It is a strategy she uses to engage readers and evoke feelings of right and wrong. The use of an anecdote was not only at the begging, Twenge also closed her article the same way. The closing story is also about Athena, but this time it is about how Athena had an emotional outburst when her friend was not paying attention to her because she was on her smartphone. Once again, Twenge uses this story to manipulate readers and leaving them with mixed

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