Smartphones have grown from the time they first came out till now. Almost everyone has one that they use daily for multiple things. Yeah, their good to have but are they taking away face to face communication skills from us? There have been proven studies shown that smartphones take away from people communicating face to face. Nowadays it only takes one push of a button to send a text messages, or a phone call. The communication method in this generation has went downhill for in person and rose extremely high for over the screen communication.
Smartphones are universal now and for numerous of us they serve as a faithful companion. They keep us frequently connected, fulling up gaps throughout our day, entertainment purposes, and requiring our undivided attention for notifications. Since they provide a suitable alternative to face-to-face conversations and could end up interfering with our communication directly, there’s a rising recognition that they may be a negative impact to socializing and communicating face to face. Smartphones allows us to dodge direct conversations overall.
We can talk over text messages, or in present time on social media, but there’s a risk that we’re missing out on some significant features of communication when we do this. In a respectable discussion, the words we say is solitary one minor part of the meaning that we take, there’s also body language, tone of voice, facial expression. When we’re sending text messages or emails, or posting a tweet, we lose what is being said and so there is a lot of misrepresentation, miscommunication, and feelings tend to get hurt, why? because we don’t have those other bases of information that help us fill sense and understanding into what somebody is saying.
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Smartphones is allowing young people especially to be antisocial. If you have a phone on you that keeps you entertained, why go out your way to talk to people and meet new friends right? Nowadays, when you are in a public area, you often see people quite on their phones instead of having a little chit chat with the person next to you. “One student, observed outside a campus building, was Face Timing an individual on her iPhone. When a friend proceeded to join her in person, the female ignored her friend and continued her conversation on FaceTime. Many students at Lakeside Dining Hall ate lunch with their friends but neglected to engage in any conversation. Instead, a large majority of the students in the dining hall sitting with others (73%) spent their time texting or using their computers or tablets”(Drago,Page 2).
Without the smartphones, I believe that the youth of today wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. As Drago said before, students sat and ate lunch with their friends but there were no words exchanged. They could’ve talked about their day, or what they have plan for the weekend, last night game etc. but instead they gave all their time and energy to the phone. The importance of face-to-face communication has decreased because whatever is on our screen is more fascinating. This will hurt them in the future when looking for jobs or at an interview. Since they rely on the smartphone so often, when being asked a question face-to-face, they will often get stuck or don’t know how to reply because they lack on communication skills.
Phone calls are the most distracting of face-to-face communication because it requires immediate attention. If you are having a conversation, you must stop in the middle of it and start a whole new one. Most of the time, when you are finished with the phone call you often forget what the topic was with the person right in front of you. “Therefore, a person who answers a call during a conversation has to withdraw attention from the physically present face-to-face interaction partner. Accordingly, the disturbance factor of mobile telephony during face-to-face conversations is especially high. Little research has been conducted on conversational interruptions caused by text-based mobile communication.
Text messages are evaluated as less obtrusive and disturbing than telephone calls because the present interaction partners cannot witness the mobile conversation immediately” (Bernadette, Kneidinger-Müller p.330). With text messages, you could wait until later to respond or even reply quick without notice, but phone calls are not so private. It also makes the other person feel a little uncomfortable which lead them into taking out their smart phone. Now that the both of you are on your smartphones, the conversation previously has no meaning anymore.
I think that when you are face-to-face with someone, unless it’s an emergency or is part of the conversation you shouldn’t pull out the phone at all. Sometimes, getting a phone call or a text message is like a life saver from the conversation. Since having face-to-face conversation isn’t as common as it was before smartphones, using your words to speak could be challenging. Pulling out the phone sometimes even means that the conversation is done, and the air won’t be awkward anymore. I think phone calls it the main factor for this. Just for the simple fact that its easier to talk to someone if they’re not right in your face.
Smartphones have started to make people lose touch with their social lives. Instead of keeping us connected with family and friends they are isolating us. People would rather pull of their phones to text or skype than to link up with another person and have an expressive conversation. Even when people do link up with one another, they are continuously sidetracked from the conversation because they are checking their phones. The least thing that people can do for themselves and others is put down their phones. By continuously checking their phones they are missing out on life itself, knowingly that you only live once so it shouldn’t be taking for granted. Humanity is getting taken away.
Smart phones have single and distinct applications that are different from other types of phones. However, the unique applications have threatened social interaction by restraining people to be involved in chat rooms. This is because these apps are smartphones only and influence people with smartphones to talk with others who have a smartphone instead of meeting in person and talk face-to-face. Given that the society is heading to a smartphone society, it is seeming that people will be participating more time to their screens tweeting and attractive to social media than meeting one on one with friends, family and colleagues.
This is because enlarged number of smartphones will have the same mobile apps hence the ability to relate spontaneously with others. This also positions a risk to relationships among people. Regardless of people having the ability to select friends and involve in various relationships at a time, the force of those relationships cannot be counted as some people on social media are frauds. It is deceiving that aside from connecting with diverse people in different social platforms, no actual verbal communication is enhanced.
A main reason for the growth of loneliness is that more people live alone rather than with someone else more than ever before, and mediated communication frequencies such as text messages and social media allow it to be easier to reject from making relationships that require face-to-face meetings, time and effort. People who suffer from loneliness tend to depend on smartphones to relive their loneliness. These smartphones and social media come in as a coping method for loneliness. “ Going beyond just feeling lonely, individuals with a high level of loneliness are known to be lacking in communication skills, which leads to deficits in social interaction.
Those who are lonely and socially anxious have doubts about their capacities to create favorable impressions to others and rather try to avoid disapproval of others than to win approval. Feeling incompetent in interacting with others, lonely people tend to avoid social interaction and prefer spending time alone”( Kim, Jung-Hyun, p.283). When people are lonely they tend to isolate their selves to spend time alone and avoid social interaction. The use of smartphones is to distract them from whatever is making them feel lonely.
They go on social media to find entertainment, or to just keep them occupied. Rather than interacting with people using smartphones, linking up and bonding with others face-to-face takes more energy and effort. Face-to-face communication, as a sort of contact which is full of social and sensitive signs doesn’t permit much time for people to think about what to say or how to act. It could be chancy and challenging for many people who are not that informally self-confident or who don’t have a high level of self-esteem. Those who rather face-to-face communication, have a higher self esteem and tries to escape loneliness.
The thought and creation of smartphones was to make communication easier to get across from wherever. If you need a quick answer to something, sending a text message would be the best thing to do. Or if there’s an emergency, you had a phone right in the palm of your hand. Who knew that they would take away from our social being. It limited the amount of time we actually go out and meet up with people face-to-face. Nowadays people mentality is that you could do and talk about the same thing in person that you could do over a screen.
Smartphones have become very addictive that we must have them with us at all times and have to constantly check them. There have been incidents where a couple isn’t together anymore but have children with one another, and instead of going to see their child in person, they would rather watch them grow up from pictures through social media. Smartphones have turned from being a positive thing for society to a negative thing. Its only going to get worse from here on out if we don’t stop relying on them to connect and communicate with others.
