It seems inevitable. No matter your gender or age, we have all been allured by the power of smartphones. Jean Twenge, who is an American is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, author, consultant, and public speaker. Twenge spends her time researching researching generational differences, including in work values, life goals, and speed of development which gives us an idea of her credibility and why we should take her words into consideration. In 2017, Twenge published an article titled “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”. Twenge’s main point in this article, as the title suggests, is that smartphones have brainwashed an entire generation. This generation is known as the “iGen” generation and we all know why the lowercase “i” is the first letter in that name. From generation to generation, smartphones have affected us differently, more or less at a level rate. But when it comes to these iGen, “the gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial generation began to disappear” (Twenge, 4). I agree with Twenge’s main point because I have a 5 year old brother who is already showing symptoms of a Tier 1 iGen and no matter how many times we hide his iPad or console controllers, he always seems to get them back. He even has his own smartphone. Twenge spices her article up with a little bit of ethos which is the ethical appeal, pathos which is the emotional appeal, and logos which is the appeal of logic. This stabilizes her argument and gives the article a solid and stable foundation to go by. Twenge is credible with her work, and uses effective examples for emotion and logic via Athena the 13 year old, teens and sleep deprivation, and other examples to help her case that smartphones have indeed, destroyed a generation.
Just how credible is Jean Twenge. Can we be sure to take her word for it in this writing? Well, we shouldn’t just take her word for it, we should also greatly consider taking her work for it. This is Jean Twenge’s work. She’s been doing this for several years as a psychologist. “In all my analyses of generational data—some reaching back to the 1930s—I had never seen anything like it.” (Twenge, 4). You don’t have to much to demonstrated credibility as a simple piece like this will work wonders. Just off of this piece of writing from the article, Twenge stamps her credibility into the reader’s mind. Twenge uses ethos in a powerful, yet undercover way with this sentence. When you want to convince someone to believe your research and study, especially through writing. I feel like it is effective to if you grab the audience’s attention until a quote using ethos is reached early on. The earlier credibility is demonstrated, the better. Right after the writer demonstrates credibility using ethos, it seems like a given that the audience will trust your writing and continue to read. It’s an effective style I’ve perceived and one that sold Twenge my interest. Twenge also does a good job demonstrating pathos.
How does a good writer demonstrate pathos? Pathos is used to invoke sympathy from the audience. The goal for the writer is to make the audience feel what the writer themselves is feeling. Jean Twenge uses key examples like Athena the 13 year old, and how smartphones affect teenagers and their health as the keys to demonstrate solid pathos to help her case. Athena, who is a 13-year-old who is living in Houston. Athena has had an iPhone since she was 11. Athena likes to go to mall trips, not with her friends, but with her family. These trips however, were occasional. “More often, Athena and her friends spend time together on their phones, unchaperoned.” (Twenge, 4). You’d think this is normal right? Well later on, Athena tells Jean that teenagers “didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.” This made me feel shocked. I realized that this is indeed true because my little brother, who spends way too much time on his iPad just zones us out. He doesn’t listen at all. That’s an example I most definitely relate to of an iGen loving their phones more than actual people which shocked me. If Twenge’s goal was to shock you with this example, than she sure did. Twenge also talks about the health of children being born into the smartphone era and how smartphones are cutting into teens’ sleep. Twenge writes that many teens, “now sleep less than seven hours most nights. Sleep experts say that teens should get about nine hours of sleep a night; a teen who is getting less than seven hours a night is significantly sleep deprived. Fifty-seven percent more teens were sleep deprived in 2015 than in 1991.” (Twenge 45). While reading this, immediately I realized that I myself do not get enough sleep, let alone my little brother who sleeps at 10 p.m. on a good day. This scares me because I know that I will continue to suffer from this as I cannot get into bed and sleep straight away without checking my phone, in the dark, while I should already have been sleeping 2 hours before that. Once I pick up my phone in bed, I must go through everything! That also includes watching some youtube videos, which maybe pretty long. I’ve been suffering from sleep deprivation this whole time which is why I start to feel tired at school mid-day. Twenge takes me back to my middle school days when I was smart phone free and innocent. I would love school and be energetic the entire day, all because I slept well, at 8 p.m. each night before. These are only some examples that made me go through emotions of how life used to be. Twenge’s pathos was executed effectively. But how does Twenge execute logos?
Logos, or the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. What facts does the author provide? What is the reasoning for these facts? Is the author logical? Well, Jean Twenge’s issue with iGen and smartphones is logical to anybody who has a mind. Kids nowadays are more into technology then they are into their own parents and we all see that in front of our eyes everyday at home. Twenge has been studying generational difference data for 25 years. Some of her research, dating back to the 1930s. Twenge says that “Millennials, for instance, are a highly individualistic generation, but individualism had been increasing since the Baby Boomers turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.” (Twenge 3). Twenge of course has the right to make that statement due to her studies as she backs up her writing with the credibility. Well, then she started to study Athena’s generation. “Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states. The gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial generation began to disappear. In all my analyses of generational data—some reaching back to the 1930s—I had never seen anything like it.” (Twenge 4). Although this doesn’t directly state a fact, this paints a powerful picture in your mind to why iGen act so different with technology. Smartphones have even affected dating for iGen. Today’s teens are less likely to date. “ The initial stage of courtship, which Gen Xers called “liking” (as in “Ooh, he likes you!”), kids now call “talking”—an ironic choice for a generation that prefers texting to actual conversation. After two teens have “talked” for a while, they might start dating. But only about 56 percent of high-school seniors in 2015 went out on dates; for Boomers and Gen Xers, the number was about 85 percent.” (Twenge 16). This is another effective fact that Twenge uses. Dating should be a normal part of life, but thanks to smartphones, it has become harder than it should be. That’s just scratching the surface of what Twenge has to prove.
All in all, Twenge is really trying to spread awareness on something we have so little control over. Twenge uses ethos, pathos, and logos to create a writing that effectively proves a point to a problem that we can try to fix. We look at ourselves and our young siblings and ask, is this normal? Why am I not outside looking for a girlfriend? Why am I on my phone and not hanging out with friends and doing something to create a memory? It’s definitely a waste of time. These questions put people in their emotions, which is what I think makes this article great. The pathos Twenge demonstrates on a topic like this has effectiveness written all over it. I recommend this article to all teenagers and parents who want to decide if they want to try and do something about it. I say try because well, smartphones are, indeed, on the verge of destroying a generation.