Our Cell Phones Our Selves Summary

Words: 2320
Pages: 10
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Vyvian Rogers
Professor Amber Brodie
English 10
20 September 2014
What the Hell Is Wrong With Society Christine Rosen wrote “Our Cell phones, Our Selves”. She is a senior editor for the New Atlantis: A journey of Technology and Society. The article, Our Cell Phones, Our Selves, first appeared in the summer of 2004 in New Atlantis. Rosen quotes and uses many sources to back up her opinion. For example, a sociologist, a communications professor, New York Times, and many others. This article talks about the history of cell phones, and its major and continual impact on present-day society. Rosen argues in the text that the value of cellphones and privacy in society has reduced exponentially. She points out the fact that technology has changed …show more content…
She claims that “connection has long served as a potent sign of power” (Rosen 457). Before the average every-day person was able to have a cell phone, only people of power or importance were able to have phones. Such as, the president, Batman, crime bosses, tin-pot dictators, and Maxwell Smart all had access to phones. Back then, phones were revolutionary in that, there was no mediator, no messenger, and no delay. In 1983, the first truly mobile cellular telephone was sold and was being used mainly in “Chicago and in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area” (Rosen 458). The first generation of cell phones were referred to as “luggable” instead of “portable”. They showed significant status and fortune as only the most important and wealthiest people had one, unfortunately though, phones from this period in time were big, ugly, and extremely heavy. In the 1980s, if you were not someone of importance and had any kind of technology at all, even a pager, you were thought to have it for immoral reasons, and were highly frowned …show more content…
However, “Parents who do this are implicitly commenting on their own sense of security or insecurity in society” (Rosen 459). Shouldn’t parents trust their kids and the community they live in? James E. Katz reports that “parents who give children cell phones are actually weakening the traditional bonds of authority” (Rosen 459). Parents giving their children phones makes their children and teenagers use excuses like, “my phone died” or “I didn’t hear it” in order to find some distance from their ever present parents. In Mobile Phones and Society, Saunders Medlock says that parents should set aside time to have important family quality time. She encourages parents to “limit their children’s access to certain websites and the downloading of specific mobile apps” (sec.4). She believes children should have prepaid phones with monitored talk, text, and data (sec. 4). Medlock considers phones as a privilege instead of a right. It is a privilege that can be taken away for misbehaviors (sec. 4). Sadly, I do not know of many parents who share the same views of cellphones that Medlock
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