Something Extra!
Blog #1
I’ve done a lot of observing people with their cell phones in the past and have noticed quite a bit of things that Christine Rosen mentioned in “Our Cell Phones, Our Selves.” At the beginning of this year as I was standing in line for the financial aid office a young lady was talking on her cell phone. It sounded like she was just talking to a friend but the conversation seemed pretty boring. I was surprised to see that she talked on the phone the whole time we stood in the line (which was a good hour and a half or so). There was so many people in this line and it seemed as if nobody wanted to talk to each other. Rosen makes many points in her essay saying that we have an “absent presence”, where we are physically there but not mentally. It was nice to see a person behind me that was trying to make conversation with their neighbor. I seem to notice that if I’m in a situation where I don’t feel comfortable or know anybody, I will pull out my cell phone and see if anybody wants to talk. But I won’t just call somebody up randomly and talk to them for an hour in my spare time. It is nice to see people who try to strike up conversation and usually if somebody wants to talk to me I am very willing to talk back.
In Rosen’s essay she mentioned multiple times that a lot of people seemed to be very rude when bothered on there phones. I have yet to see somebody that really just snapped at another person for bothering them when on the phone. Usually if someone is on the phone they’ll politely talk to you for a brief second and then go back to talking on there phone. Talking on the phone isn’t what a lot of people seem to do these days, it’s texting. Texting is what kids do in class, while driving, at the store, or even when taking a walk. Texting is much more polite then calling but can be just as distracting if you are texting multiple people at once. There are times when you may never put your phone down and still be in your own little world. A little world of non-socializing.
Rosen likes to use lots of quotes and information from other authors. I like the fact that she does that because it ads conversation to the essay and it shows other peoples point of view. If she didn’t it would just be her giving her own opinion on cell phones and how they use them. I really enjoyed her talking about Goffman’s research and saying how cell phone users now a days are acting like mental patients that he use to study. I think it would be very interesting to read an article from him about that information. I also like how she tries to leave her opinion out of it until the end. She gives a lot of good information on cell phones, such as how people can check bills online and how they really can get you out of a sticky situation. Then she backs up her point of how cell phones can be harmful. Some examples are that people are becoming addicted to phones and that they are taking away our social aspect of entertaining ourselves by talking to each other in public. Now all people are doing is going off into their own little worlds and totally ignoring others around them.
Rosen’s essay definitely makes you think more of how you should use your cell phone in public. One of the golden rules you should remember is act how you want to see others act on their cell phones. Making conversations with other’s is how people use to entertain themselves so why can’t we seem to do that in today’s world? Cell phones have changed our society in many ways, for better and for worse. You can make the choice to have a conversation or talk, to make acquaintances or life long friends, or to live in the real world or in cyber space. The choice is all yours.
Comments:
I decided to put this blog in my portfolio because it shows kind of what my first opinions of "Our Cell Phones, Our Selves" which is the essay I decided to do my midterm on. This information was the basis of how I all started creating this essay and this is really the only time where I show my true opinion of Rosen's essay and give some real life examples.
I’ve done a lot of observing people with their cell phones in the past and have noticed quite a bit of things that Christine Rosen mentioned in “Our Cell Phones, Our Selves.” At the beginning of this year as I was standing in line for the financial aid office a young lady was talking on her cell phone. It sounded like she was just talking to a friend but the conversation seemed pretty boring. I was surprised to see that she talked on the phone the whole time we stood in the line (which was a good hour and a half or so). There was so many people in this line and it seemed as if nobody wanted to talk to each other. Rosen makes many points in her essay saying that we have an “absent presence”, where we are physically there but not mentally. It was nice to see a person behind me that was trying to make conversation with their neighbor. I seem to notice that if I’m in a situation where I don’t feel comfortable or know anybody, I will pull out my cell phone and see if anybody wants to talk. But I won’t just call somebody up randomly and talk to them for an hour in my spare time. It is nice to see people who try to strike up conversation and usually if somebody wants to talk to me I am very willing to talk back.
In Rosen’s essay she mentioned multiple times that a lot of people seemed to be very rude when bothered on there phones. I have yet to see somebody that really just snapped at another person for bothering them when on the phone. Usually if someone is on the phone they’ll politely talk to you for a brief second and then go back to talking on there phone. Talking on the phone isn’t what a lot of people seem to do these days, it’s texting. Texting is what kids do in class, while driving, at the store, or even when taking a walk. Texting is much more polite then calling but can be just as distracting if you are texting multiple people at once. There are times when you may never put your phone down and still be in your own little world. A little world of non-socializing.
Rosen likes to use lots of quotes and information from other authors. I like the fact that she does that because it ads conversation to the essay and it shows other peoples point of view. If she didn’t it would just be her giving her own opinion on cell phones and how they use them. I really enjoyed her talking about Goffman’s research and saying how cell phone users now a days are acting like mental patients that he use to study. I think it would be very interesting to read an article from him about that information. I also like how she tries to leave her opinion out of it until the end. She gives a lot of good information on cell phones, such as how people can check bills online and how they really can get you out of a sticky situation. Then she backs up her point of how cell phones can be harmful. Some examples are that people are becoming addicted to phones and that they are taking away our social aspect of entertaining ourselves by talking to each other in public. Now all people are doing is going off into their own little worlds and totally ignoring others around them.
Rosen’s essay definitely makes you think more of how you should use your cell phone in public. One of the golden rules you should remember is act how you want to see others act on their cell phones. Making conversations with other’s is how people use to entertain themselves so why can’t we seem to do that in today’s world? Cell phones have changed our society in many ways, for better and for worse. You can make the choice to have a conversation or talk, to make acquaintances or life long friends, or to live in the real world or in cyber space. The choice is all yours.
Comments:
I decided to put this blog in my portfolio because it shows kind of what my first opinions of "Our Cell Phones, Our Selves" which is the essay I decided to do my midterm on. This information was the basis of how I all started creating this essay and this is really the only time where I show my true opinion of Rosen's essay and give some real life examples.