Cell Phones: A Catalyst to Societal Disconnection

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With the advancement of technology, people tend to keep up with almost every trend and new gadget that comes available to purchase. Probably the most widely used and quickly advancing piece of technology is the cell phone. The cell phone has come a long way from where it was 20 years ago, and now plays a major role in people's lives be it the decisions they make or how they conduct the way they socialize. I think that because of this, cell phones have made our society less sociable and now people rather look for gratification in events that they go to rather than the enjoyment of attending. I remember when I was a little kid. We had a landline in the kitchen and only the adults had cell phones. If we needed to get ahold of them we would memorize their number or have a book of numbers if we needed to find one we did not know. I did not receive a cell phone until I was away from home more than I was at home because …show more content…

They can now send text messages, take pictures, and have very simple games on them. Text messages make it easier to communicate with others without having to call and interrupt their lives for a moment. As Paul Goldberger states in his article “Disconnected Urbanism”, cell phones tend to take people away from the area they are in. It does this by immersing your immediate attention to wherever the person on the other end of the call is at, and the same goes for them. So, this makes it somewhat like both of you are in some form of limbo rather than in the spot your physical being is actually in. In his view, it makes places less special. What makes Time Square special if you can simply call someone who is there already? The sounds can be heard and you can disconnect yourself from where you are at the moment. Now with the technology we have today, you can even video chat with someone in Time Square from here in Illinois. This makes it seem much less special to go to such an exciting

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