Brittney Brunson

Professor Sipin
3/14/15
Expository Narrative

Interpersonal Relationships:
Are Smartphones Changing the Way We Communicate?

Smartphones have undoubtedly changed the way we live especially the way we
communicate. Smartphones are now equipped with apps that allow for us to communicate with
other across the world and even across the room either through instant messaging(IM) like
texting and video chat like Skype or Face Time. There is so much we can do now with just this
little device. Our hand held aids have a major impact on our social life but are they changing the
way we interact face to face? Are text messages becoming substitutes for spoken words?
Source 1: TED Talk Speaker: Sherry Turkle: Professor and Psychologist
In Sherry Turkles TED Talk discussion Connected, but Alone explores our
expectations of how our devices specifically smart phones change our values of interpersonal
communication and connections. Turkle charges her audience to think about the types of
connections we want to have and ones we want to continue to keep. Through this source I am
able to reveal that the problem is not mobile communications entirely but the over usage of
mobile communication as a mean to replace in person conversations. Mobile communication
allows us the opportunity to affirm our values and our direction as well as the right focus

technology can lead us back to our real lives... Turkle states. But later Turkle reveals that our
plug-in lives can lead us to Trouble certainly in how we relate to each othertrouble in how we
relate to each ourselves and our capacity for self-reflection. With the new mentality that texting
is better than talking Turkle reveals that people get so used to being short changed out of real
conversation which leaves them getting by with less of real conversations. Mobile
Communication enables the owner to edit and delete what they please giving them the access to
developed a person which could in turn hide the real them, the real person who is flawed. Turkle
acknowledges with optimism that mobile communication can allow us the opportunity to affirm
our values and our direction as well as with the right focus technology can lead us back to our
real lives... This brings me back to the issue of responsibility, understanding and overall value
for communication with other human beings face to face.
My response to her discussion and discoveries is for the most part I agree, I have
experienced being both an over loader and an unplugged person for almost a year. Through this
source I am able to reveal that the problem is not mobile communications entirely but the over
usage of mobile communication as a mean to replace in person conversations.
Source 2: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other,
Author Sherry Turkle
In Sherry Turkles book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and
Less from Each Other, discusses how we are being changed as technology offers us substitutes
for connecting with other people face to face. Turkle reveals that adults as well as teens choose to
type their thoughts in text than communicate with the human voice. This statement is later
emphasized when Turkle discoveries teenagers avoid making phone calls for the fear of

revealing too much. This form of communication can be useful for speedy transfers of
information but gives the owner the ability to hide, lie or conceal how they really feel for the
sake of not knowing original thought that would come from a face to face conversation. This
feeling for the need to be heard by any means can cause one to live in constant connection to
virtual worlds even through text.
My response to this book is that I feel almost sympathetic for those who feel that they
have to find acceptance in a world that is comprised of virtual and technological substances. But
in this quest to be heard, to be connected who is really benefiting entirely. The one who is always
plugged in will begin to lose themselves to the person they have created online or through text.
The value of face to face connectivity will soon be a thing of the past, which will leave us to
living beings who are not living in the real state of being.

Source 3: Psychology Today: Author Ira Hyman, Professor of Psychology at Western

Washington University.
In Psychology Today Cell Phones are Changing Social Interaction, Ira Hyman discusses
the psychological problems that develop when Smartphones are used for social interaction.
Hyman asks the question do smart influence our expectations for interaction in real life. For
instance, the discovery through research show that teens and young adults use their phones more
as means to socialize than that of older adults. This later affects drastically at their expectations
for conversations. Hyman also address that the use or over use of smart phones can lead to
addictions which he believes is no addiction but the users form of communication. This in turn
is not their fault, young adults and teens have grown up using cell phones and the internet so
they are able to to effectively maintain and enhance (and sometimes end) social relationships
through their phones.

My response to this is that overall this is true for the fact that younger people like may
age or below have more time to actually spend developing conversations through text. This
article answers the question who is influenced by smart phone technology as a means for
communication, in general everybody but specifically dominant is teenagers and young adults

Source 4: Huff Post: Author Dr. Larry Rosen, Professor of Psychology, Keynote Speaker and
Research Psychologist
In Dr. Larry Rosens article, Our Obsessive Relationship With Technology expounds on
the psychological attachment owners have with technology that is becoming an obsession. For
instance Rosen illustrates vividly how anxiety and curiosity one gets when our phone vibrates in
our pocket or in close proximity so much so that the body neurons near the surface of the skin
emulates the same vibrating sensation with or without the phone receiving the text or being
present, phantom pocket vibrations. Rosen observes the people who surround him young and
old and notices how they all carry their phone in their hand later to discover that these same
people want to know immediately when they receive a text and later adds this feeling as
FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out , as an excuse to check and keep monitor of their phone. Rosen
acknowledges the benefits that cell phones offers to the worlds but pleads that this fad for
constant communication or this something new passes so our relationships with real people
will no longer be interrupted.
My response to this article as I schemed was very shocked about how easily I can relate
to having that surge of vibration or anxiety that triggers sensors in my brain when I receive a text
or notification. This article explores the effects of over use or developing dependencies to our
cell phones. In short this will lead me to other sources for logos appeals.

Source5: TIME magazine; author Eliana Dockterman, Journalist

In the article Kim Stolz: How Social Media is Ruining our Relationships expounds on
Kim Stolz book on how cell phones specifically social medias effects on our relationships. In
the interview with TIME Stolz emphasize that our obsession with our phones is changing far
more than what we do but how we think and feel. For instance Stolz expressed personally how
she would find herself thinking about texting when doing something else. With this constant
checking and manipulation of our mental state of increasing anxiety levels it causes us to
question our self-worth corresponding to the speed to the response. This is the issue at hand not
that smart phones arent great they are beneficial but we must understand the values that lie
inside us towards our relationships. Are they worth attention in mere segments of small
conversations through text at our leisure and laziness or in person in real time?
Source 6: Book: Author William Powers,
William Powerss Hamlets BlackBerry, expounds on his concern with our lives and how
our lives are invaded by our phones hindering us from or maintaining our connections to our
families, books and even our own thoughts. Throughout his book Power references Socrates
with the value of our words when he emphasizes writing wouldnt allow ideas to flow freely.
The way they would during oral exchange. Power doesnt address the debate of whether
technology makes us wiser or dumber and focuses on what matter most: how do we learn to deal
with with it.
My overall argument is really revealing the psychological problems that come with high
dependency with our smart phones as it influences the value of ourselves and our relationships
with others.

Work Cited

Dockterman, Eliana. "Kim Stolz: How Social Media Is Ruining Our Relationships."
Time. Time, 24 June 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. <http://time.com/2917916/kim-stolz-how-socialmedia-is-ruining-our-relationships/>.
Hyman, Ira. "Cell Phones Are Changing Social Interaction." Psychology Today. Ira
Hyman, 26 June 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mentalmishaps/201401/cell-phones-are-changing-social-interaction>.
Powers, William. Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life
in the Digital Age. New York: Harper, 2010. Print.
Rosen, Dr. "Our Obsessive Relationship with Technology." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drlarry-rosen/our-obsession-relationshi_b_6005726.html>.
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from
Each Other. 2011. Print.
Turkle, Sherry. "Connected, but Alone?" Sherry Turkle:. 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together?language=en>.