Is Screen Addiction Really a Thing?

Analysis of "Step Away From the Screen"

Interview with Mike Pesca and Dr. Adam Alter

By: Bailey Grijalva

            The screen of technology has become the new surface of communication and connection. However, when we are in front of a screen, we are not engaging with the outside world. In this daily podcast The Gist, host Mike Pesca discusses the trend in screen addiction with Dr. Adam Alter, which differ from popular addictions from the past. As Pesca begins his interview with Dr. Alter, he targets the audience by saying, “Just this once, listen to this interview.” This is an outstanding hook to capture the attention of listeners because it distinguishes how people in our modern day contemporary society have become addicted to their cell phones, or other screens. An interesting approach to the topic of the discussion, Dr. Alter starts off by simply defining his meaning of “addiction,” referring to an activity is done compulsively. In his opinion, anything can be considered addictive: opioid abuse, smoking, gambling, video games, and even pinball machines within an arcade.

            The interesting concept about addiction, as described in the interview, is that it defects some sort of personal use, resulting in financial, physiological, or psychological problems; however, it is known to treat loneliness and anxiety. On the other hand, previous studies also show that the overutilization of technology contributes to the increased loneliness, anxiety, and similar conditions. What is making this happen? As noted by Dr. Alter, chemical dependency is sometimes what differentiates some addictions from the others. For example, it is said that online shopping addiction isn’t really addiction, but screen addiction is because it relies on chemical dependency, like addictions to opioids. This was an unexpected correlation because opioid abuse is a far worse addiction than addiction to technology, but in a way, it does make sense how the two contributors made this analogy. Like any other addiction, however, access to technology brings some sort of happiness to the brain, which is something most scholars look at when determining the resulting effects of screens. For instance, when I post a picture to Instagram, I feel content when I receive positive feedback that includes both likes and comments on the post. Overall, these similar types of addictions, including shopping or gambling, bring amounts of euphoria to the brain.

            In relation to technology, the chemical dependency comes into context when referring to the amount of time we spend of the phone nowadays. Mentioned in the interview, the average individual spent eighteen minutes looking at a cellular screen in 2008. Over eight years has passed, and that number has reached up to an average amount of three hours per day, sometimes even reaching up to ten hours a day. But, here is the catch: The amount of activity on the new mobilized smartphone is primarily social media networking, rather than actually texting or calling, the common functions of the cellphone. As a result, smartphones are a new form of convergence because when we are looking at that cellular screen, we are not engaging with the outside world. Rather than starting up conversation when we are alone for only fifteen seconds, we look at our phone. Aforementioned, it’s the place to relieve loneliness and anxiety, but with this addiction continuously increasing, personal responsibility has declined while binging activities have inclined.

"The End of Solitude" by William Deresiewicz - Analyzing the Rhetoric

"The End of Solitude" by William Deresiewicz

Analyzing the Rhetoric: Academic Summary and Précis 

By Bailey Grijalva

For reference, please click to link to read the article and follow along

http://www.univforum.org/sites/default/files/789_Deresiewicz_End_of_solitude_ENG_0.pdf

Academic Summary of “The End of Solitude”

Descriptive Outline

Paragraph 1:

Does - Introduces the link between the contemporary self and connectivity

Says - The contemporary self wants to be visible through social networking

Paragraph 2:

Does - Questions the role of technology in relation to exclusivity, privacy, and loneliness

Says - Not only does technology take away privacy, but it also takes away the ability to be alone; therefore, people are never alone

Paragraph 3:

Does - Argues that loneliness is never something that someone wishes to accompany themselves with

Says - One can’t even do a simple task alone; someone else must also be in the same environment

Paragraph 4:

Does - Places loneliness and solitude in context with other human norms and societal values

Says - It is important to be alone in order to connect with spiritual bodies and to understand the relationship between man and God

Paragraph 5:

Does - Reasons that solitude has its origins from movements, such as Romanticism and the Reformation

Says - The solitude that existed in the 16th century with the printing press and Romanticism novels relates to the solitude that television and the Internet bring today

Paragraph 6:

Does - Further explains the relationship between Romanticism and solitude that derives from the movement

Says - The contemporary self environs itself with friends which then may enter into a grander solitude, but the self is then validated by a combination of public appearance and private essence

Paragraph 7:

Does - Suggests that modernism gives way to more of a harsher state of solitude than previous movements

Says - The self can’t help but choose and decide to be alone

Paragraph 8:

Does - Dramatizes how solitude is strongly affected by the emergence of new modern cities

Says - Although the self environs itself with friends, the emergence of new modern cities forces the soul back into itself, soon creating a voyage of self-discovery

Paragraph 9:

Does - Describes the rapid transition of urbanization to suburbanization and how it has shaped future societies

Says - New forms of technology were created, which allows people to live further away from others, but urged them to still stay in contact with them.

Paragraph 10:

Does - Introduces the new benefits of technology and Internet that have been brought to decrease practices of solitude

Says - Isolated people are capable of connecting with one another while still remaining isolated

Paragraph 11:

Does - Emphasizes the loss of Romantic “dialect” since the emergence of Internet and new social-networking websites

Says - The sense of closeness isn’t as close as it should be, as people have little time for intimacy but no time for solitude

Paragraph 12:

Does - Defines a new sense of solitude for young people in their teens and 20s

Says - Young people in their teens and 20s are afraid of loneliness but develop solitude unknowingly by sitting alone at computers or in front of other technology

Paragraph 13:

Does - Places the role of the television with the onset of boredom and the symptoms of boredom

Says - We are bored, something we do not want to experience, so we turn on the television, which is designed to “palliate” that feeling.

Paragraph 14:

Does - Argues that nothing to do isn’t necessarily such a bad thing

Says - Boredom, now rather called idleness, is only considered a passive receptivity to the world, since it creates market for stimulation

Paragraph 15:

Does - Uses a comparison of modern day interactions with the interactions during the younger days of the author to describe the causes of loneliness

Says - Loneliness is now the grief over the absence of company because we have lost the ability to be idle, as well as the capacity for solitude

Paragraph 16:

Does - Suggests that the Internet has also affected other practices, such as reading, throughout the years that differentiates from the time of Thoreau

Says - To read is to skim and to browse is to endure a lifetime

Paragraph 17:

Does - Explains the developmental processes of our brains as we interpret complex social signals

Says - Behaviors and decision-making is powerfully influenced by deep and social attachments, both online and in the real world

Paragraph 18:

Does - Offers a new way to expose one’s sense of self by introducing new social-networking pages

Says - Pages like MySpace offer the person to create and a communicate in a new way to the world in performative and graphic ways, rather than analytical and verbal ways.

Paragraph 19:

Does - Expresses solitude in context with the role of virginity to a nun to describe comparisons of the two

Says - Solitude enables the self to explore the mysteriousness and uniqueness, as virginity enables the self to preserve its integrity, mysteriousness, and uniqueness

Paragraph 20:

Does - Explains that it is in fact mandatory to be solitude for particular reasons

Says - No real progress or excellence can be made without solitary environments

Paragraph 21:

Does - Evaluates that solitude isn’t for everyone

Says - A solitary environment can only be made with the willingness to be solitary, mainly because only one can save oneself

Paragraph 22:

Does - Reflects the struggles that come along with the choice of solitude

Says - Our friendless is universal, but securing one’s self would lead towards a “few wounded feelings”; however, to find solitude, one must not stand alone

Thesis of the Article: In “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz, solitude has been expressed as a controversial concept in the new world of technology, as it has been enabling people to connect online, but limits the amount of connectivity a person actually has; therefore, because one has been so adapted to this new form of loneliness connection, it is possible that in a place without technology, a solitary environment is impossible.

Of the twenty-two paragraphs composed in the article, this particular text can be divided into six different major chunks. The first chunk is composed of paragraphs 1, 2, and 3; the second chunk is composed of paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8; the third chunk is composed of paragraphs 9, 10, and 11; the fourth chunk is composed of paragraphs 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16; the fifth chunk is composed of paragraphs 17, 18, and 19; and the sixth chunk is composed of 20, 21, and 22.

Part 1: The author starts off his article by introducing the relationship between the wants and desires of the contemporary self and the whole idea of connectivity through the Internet. In this day and age, Deresiewicz describes technology as taking away the privacy and concentration that society once knew, which has led to a downfall in an incapability of being alone.

Part 2: By finishing his third paragraph with, “Why would anyone want to be alone?” the author transitions into the history of the different viewpoints of solitude and how it has changed throughout history, especially within the movements of the Protestant Reformation, Modernism, and Romanticism. It remained normal for one to stay solitary, simply because the soul couldn’t help but choose to be alone, even as the modern city merged into civilization.

Part 3: With the emergence of the modern city, urbanization had then led way to suburbanization, which allowed new technologies to spread, causing people to bring themselves closer and closer together. As the Internet became a newly used technology across households, it allowed everyone, including those who felt isolation, to connect with one another.

Part 4: The modern fear that still exists today since 1952 is the fear of being cut off from a social group, leading towards younger people in their teens and 20s to have no desire in solitude. But, as solitude becomes a possibility during the day, boredom, or even anxiety, comes into place and the television is now the savior because it creates a capacity of idleness.

Part 5: As mentioned in paragraphs 17, 18, and 19, Deresiewicz explains the consequences of what the lack of solitude brings to oneself, simply because solitude allows the self to explore the uniqueness of the soul.

Part 6: To conclude his article about the future of solitude, the author finishes by expressing the difficulties of turning towards more of solitary environments rather than social ones. Although he claims that there will come consequences by willing to be unpopular, he evaluates that friendless still remains universal.

Coherent Summary

In “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz, the author examines the historical context of how the struggles of solitude came to be where they are currently. In today’s age, as described in paragraph 15, people of particularly younger age have lost the ability to be alone as well as their capacity for solitude. However, solitude in this context is primarily described as the state of being without a piece of technology. Since a television set can ease the symptoms of boredom, a computer or smartphone has the capability of connecting people with one another, through graphically displaying their lives on websites, such as Facebook and MySpace. Due to this specific adaptation of new emerging social-networking websites, people feel anxious when someone doesn’t text back right away, or even when they feel uneasy about having nothing to do. What Deresiewicz argues is that although people are connecting through technology, they are at risk of being even more alone because it’s the only thing they are doing. On the other hand, he discusses that solitude is in fact not such a bad thing after all because through different movements, like Romanticism, it has been common to isolate oneself in order to learn more about the individual. By learning about the individual, one can also communicate with the world in a more appropriate manner.

Précis:

In “The End of Solitude,” an article written by William Deresiewicz and published by The 

Chronicle Online (2009), the author suggests that there will be an end of solitude in the present generation of people in their teens and 20s if they continue to rapidly adapt to the solo use of technology. Through a history of literary and religious movements, such as Modernism, the Protestant Reformation, and Romanticism, Deresiewicz goes into depth about how solitude has progressively changed throughout the centuries, from the emergence of the modern city to the suburbanization that brought upon the common use of televisions and computers. By using this information and other analytical resources coming from prominent figures known for solitude, like author Henry David Thoreau for example, Deresiewicz claims that the key to success is in fact solitude because it allows the self, or perhaps soul of a human being, to understand itself and dive deep into the mysteries that makeup the individual, along with other mysteries of society. Although this text could be intended for persons who are in their teens or 20s, Deresiewicz writes this article in more of a narrative tone in which he wants everyone to understand the meaning of solitude and its relationship with technology because solitary environments have now become the epicenter of someone who is connected by means of internet, but alone at the same time.

A Breakdown of "The Binge Breaker" by Bianca Bosker

Addiction, or connection? A Breakdown 

Map of Silicon Valley and its existing companies

            Silicon Valley forever remains the center of technology across the United States. Located in California, Silicon Valley is home to several competing technological companies, including Google and Apple, Inc., as well as many innovators such as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Time Well Spent founder Tristan Harris. In “The Binge Breaker,” an article dealing with the prone addictions of technology, Bianca Bosker shadows Tristan Harris as he continues to find a way to lower the addiction that has been brought on by gadgets. In a world that is surrounded by tablets, iPhones, and other devices that offer social media applications, how is it possible to reinforce an improved utilization of this technology? Generally, technology has been known as the shortcut to solutions, such as communicating with a colleague. In a place like Silicon Valley, technology is made and used for further innovation, but there comes a point of no return.

            Alumni of Stanford University and former employee of Google, Harris compares the cell phone to a “slot machine in [his] pocket” simply due to its addictive qualities. With new advancements in technology in the Silicon Valley that soon spreads across the world, the people at most risk are considered to be part of the younger generation. For example, as Bianca Bosker mentions, kids are melting their own brains by continuously using tablets or new forms of technology. This is an interesting concept to bring up because she claims that the older generations have learned to adapt to the addictiveness that technology may feature. However, what exactly is the older generation? What is the age group of this “older generation” that Bosker mentions within her article? From the beginning of the article, Harris even particularly references that at age thirty-two, he has still found ways to be negatively affected by the onsets of technology. In this situation, Harris has found the basis of software to be the ill foundation of addiction to technology. How could this be so?

iPhone (1st Generation -
"This is only the beginning.")
Released in 2007

            While currently working for his new technological company Time Well Spent, Tristan Harris focuses on the possibility of creating software that doesn’t result in addictive activities by people of all age. For example, within Google, he has generated a setting that delays the incoming of new mail while someone is still completing a task. An interesting component, this allows the user to focus on a task without being distracted. But the problem that still comes across innovators within the Silicon Valley is that technology produces more maximizing experiences for users. A Facebook executive, for example, focuses of this type of maximizing because their main goal is to hook users by tapping into “deep seated human needs.” In addition, this type of strategy is what makes the most popular sites and applications, like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and others, successful. As critics continue to view the negative onsets of technology to be caused by weak will power, it is in fact due to the type of software that companies come up with.

            Although the majority of the thoughts written in “The Binge Breaker” are ideas brought upon by Harris himself, Brosker is still capable of giving this topic surrounding technology a credible outlook. While she reflects the strategies and opinions of Harris, the reader, including myself, can understand that technology is causing us to act in certain ways. The rise of technology, I think, started as a phenomenon that was new to the world, simply due to new advances in the global and interconnected world. Since people started to communicate more by the century, by the decade, by the year, by the month, by the week, and by the day, there have existed these mysterious “variable rewards.” As Harris describes to Bosker, this is a term used by psychologists as they attempt to explain the compulsiveness caused by the advanced technological devices, but more particularly the smart phone. An example, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter hook us all by delivering messages, photos, and “likes,” but they all come at an uncertain schedule. For example, Dr. B.J. Fogg at Persuasive Technology Lab explains that a like, which is then considered a “variable reward,” encourages the user of a social media application to shift from occasional to daily activity of the app.

Social Media Brand Usage 2016, Edison Research

            Although there have been numerous claims that users of a younger generation are most negatively influenced by the onset of technology, Harris and Bosker together explain that the addiction can melt a brain of any age. Technology, as Harris explains, should be the doorway for meeting our goals as well as giving us control over relationships and setting boundaries. With the experimentation of software he has created, he is capable of counting the amount of hours someone devotes his or her time to each app per week. But within one day, he was able to count that the average person looked at his or her phone approximately 150 times, which is an astonishing statistic because it really shows about how much technology has influence our activities. After interrupted by an application, such as Snapchat or Instagram, Bosker implies that it takes about twenty-five more minutes for that user to return to his or her original task. With software that is brought upon by these competing companies in the Silicon Valley, it’s difficult to see whether technology will ever return to its original role rather than addiction in one’s life.

            The next question is: Now what? What do we as a society need to accomplish in order to prevent this point of no return in the field of technology? Perhaps, it may be due to the flexibility of software that companies like Google and Apple, Inc. uses. Although these companies produce such advanced software that enables us to communicate whenever we want to in various ways, there still remains a gap in how to fix the addiction. According to Harris, we have lost control of our relationships with technology because technology has become much better at controlling everyone. In a situation where it’s addictive to look at his phone, Harris tapes a post-it note to the inside of his computer saying: “Do not open without intention.” Is this something that everyone should follow? If snapstreaks on Snapchat or likes on Instagram is really giving people of all ages that much anxiety, there is room for a new type of software: an alternative that will help us spend our time well, surrounded by core values. 

The High Points of Fall 2016

         

College?

As I continue to hear about the misunderstanding between High Point University and West Point Military Academy whenever I bring up High Point in general, it always makes me laugh because it reminds me how much of a small school it is. However, due to its recognition by newspaper and journal outlets in the past several years, it astonishes me how people have really never heard of this beautiful institution. I grew up in Stratham, New Hampshire, a small town in New England that is approximately twenty minutes away from the Atlantic Coast of our state.

Stratham, NH

The University of New Hampshire always remained as one of the top universities that people in my high school graduating class would attend, but for me, I realized that I needed to extend my boundaries and go somewhere else. Somewhere warmer and somewhere that gave me more opportunities. High Point University was the place to go.

            Moving into the R.G. Wanek Center was perhaps one of the happiest days of 2016 as I was able to move forward with my new life as a Panther. It was the day I met my new best friend, or my roommate for the 2016-2017 school year, Brittany from a small town in New Jersey. As much as we initially and still do have in common, our interests were still far apart. It pretty much starts at the moment when I told her I was an International Relations and Spanish double major when I found out she was totally against history, politics, and language. In contrast, she is an Exercise Science major with strong interests in math and science, so whenever she needed help with homework that concerned economics or democracy, I helped her!

Brittany and I, September 2016

            Besides from our differences concerning education, she has been the best person I relied on because of her experiences in the past, which included the deaths of both of her parents. Along with little interaction she’s had with her brother, she has proven to me what true strength looks like. Luckily, we both had classes that started around the same time and I always relied on her to yank me out of bed; I am eighteen years old and I still have not adapted to waking up at 7am almost everyday.  While she went to her anthropology course at 7:50am, I went to my First Year Seminar called The Arab Spring. The most interesting thing, I believe, about having a roommate that is studying something completely different from me is that I can listen to her about what she likes and dislikes. Listening is a key virtue when developing a relationship with a new roommate, and from what I observe based off what she says, I’m able to understand her point of view.

            One of the attributes of High Point University that grabbed my attention from the very start was its focus in the study abroad programs. From the very beginning, I have always wanted to travel and continue my education in Spain because that is the origin of the Spanish language. Although this country has a different dialect than other countries like Chile or Mexico, I believe that it can teach me so much about communication within the Spanish language. So far, I’ve been studying the language since the sixth grade and it has always been important to me due to my Mexican heritage. With a professor from Chile during the fall semester, I was able to embrace more of my background because she would always share stories as a little girl and explain what her life was like when she first moved to the United States.

            I think one of the most prominent professors I’ve had so far was Dr. Graeber, who is part of the Political Science and International Relations departments, simply because of his passion for teaching. The first day he walked in he introduced himself with a short timeline of his life, and this really helped me understand how he was going to be as a professor. I consider himself a younger professor than most, but he still had the passion and knowledge of the course that I was taking; it was my Intro to International Relations course, a major requirement. Although I had only obtained a B+ in his course, we discussed rigorous topics among economics, diplomacy, and solutions that would solve the information and commitment problems within governments and militaries across the world. Even though I had known that I wanted to pursue a career in government, this class motivated me to express more activism concerning the previous election and my passion for spreading democracy and human rights.

            I never expected the fall semester to go by quickly the second I landed in Boston for Christmas break. I exited the plane knowing that I had put in my best work I had ever done, but it still astonished me that I was still in love with High Point University despite the work. As I reflected with my mom about the up’s and down’s of the semester, I could tell that most of my experiences reflected more positively because I had enjoyed almost every second of the semester that this institution offered me. I may have lost a few friends here and there, but through the amount of clubs and programs, I was still capable of expressing who I really was and found friends who loved me for me.