Thatcher Dougherty
8/31/13
Daniel Ayala
English 10
Cellular Confusion

In the modern age it may seem as though the culture of the world has been significantly affected by technology, especially cell phones, in a negative way. Christine Rosen wrote as follows “…with the breakdown of hierarchies and manners…” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 470), is there a breakdown of hierarchies and manners? Yes there is some out there that do not have manners, but common courtesy still exists, people still hold doors open and still show kindness to others. Christine Rosen has presented good ideas that she has supported very well, however her theory is flawed because the cell phone is not the singular cause of social recession, the cause of the breakdown in social skills is actually the culmination of many new age technologies.
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The cell phone is not totally at fault nor is it innocent, but the majority of blame falls on the media and television. A lot of the most popular broadcasting is reality shows, these shows have a huge influence on their audience either by the audience wanting to emulate what they have seen or by a more deep subconscious effect. This subconscious effect causes many to simply avoid social situations out of fear of humiliation or not being accepted. It is not the content of the shows per say but the lack of social practice, for example the television gave people a reason to stay home. Before the televisions invention many people spent their days outside unknowingly mastering the art of socialization. On a different note social manners differ from location to location, some places are very friendly to strangers were other places are not and this can be seen by the comparison of New York to a more rural state such as Oklahoma. New York is notorious for having very inhospitable people whereas a more rural state such as Oklahoma will have stranger friendly people. Whether the difference in friendliness id caused by the media or something as simple as how people are raised is a very hard question to answer, however it is definitely not caused by cell phones.

Cell phones cannot make you act a certain way, it can influence us but it cannot force us to do anything, everything we do is based on human nature. For instance, cars don’t drive drunk, pens don’t misspell words, and guns don’t kill people. Same idea for cell phones,