Read and compare these arguments. In a brief essay, argue for the quality of one versus the other. Which of these arguments is stronger and why?
English 102 Midterm Exam
Read and compare these arguments. In a brief essay, argue for the quality of one versus the other. Which of these arguments is stronger and why? Please post your essay on turnitin.com by the end the examination period. You may write it to an audience that has read both of these arguments.
The best investment a college student can make
Larry McDermit
Sophomore Triton College
Major: culinary arts
College students would be better off if they exchanged their smartphones for regular, old-school mobile phones. I’m talking about the kind without keyboards: phones that use T9 lettering and limit single text messages to only a few dozen characters.
Those phones still exist and many of them can be set up to work on pre-paid or pay-as-you-go plans. These phones are cheap, durable but also easily replaced. Most do not download aps, and some of them don’t even have cameras. They work on accessible SIM cards, and they are simple enough that most people can learn how to use them in only minutes.
Most students look at their smartphones as their primary communication tool. I know I used to do this as well. That was until I realized I was addicted to my phone. I took a simple mindfulness test to measure my own anxiety by leaving my cell phone with another person for an entire weekend.
During that time, I almost freaked out. There were times when I would get so anxious, especially while doing things like waiting for busses or just sitting around at home, that I realized I had a negative relationship with my cell phone. Without it, I often wondered, “What am I going to do now?” I was also wondering what my friends had posted on Facebook when I was doing things like making breakfast or reading homework assignments. The phone is supposed to be a tool. However, mine was harming me more than helping me.
A smartphone is harmful in a variety of ways for a college student. Not only is it easy to get addicted to a smartphone, but smartphones are also very expensive to operate and own. The average smartphone plan costs around $60/month. Many plans cost much more than this, and I know people here at my community college who spend well over $100/month on their smartphones.
A smart phone is a financial drain for a college student. Consider this: a student working 20 hours each week at $10/hour makes only $800/month before deductions. A smartphone can cost this person more than 12% of their monthly salary. Most students at my college have part time jobs, and almost all of them have smartphones.
How can you justify this cost? A smartphone is not housing. It is not tuition. It is not food. Yes, it’s a tool, and it can be a valuable one. However, most things that a smartphone does can also be done on a laptop or a desktop computer. The difference is that the laptop remains in your bag, forcing you to check your Facebook or e-mail only a few times each day instead of four or five times each hour.
If you’re a student here at our college, you don’t even need your own computer. There are plenty of them on campus, and the computer labs are open late even for students who have many responsibilities in the daytime. Currently enrolled students can use laptops at the library for free.
The reason I advocate for students to get cheap phones that do not allow internet access is because of the main reason people want phones: to stay in contact with people and to have them in case there is an emergency. There is also another reason: freedom. When you finally feel free from your phone, you will realize how much time you had been wasting and how much you had been harming yourself. The money you save can be reinvested toward your education, or perhaps it can be saved and used to purchase a tablet computer. This is a much better tool for a college student than a smartphone.
So, be good to yourself and get the monkey off your back. If you pick up a regular old phone, you’ll be more focused, healthier, wealthier and freer. Ask anyone who tried it.
Discipline Yourself
Fred Zipp
Sophomore Harper College
Major: music education
In his book, The Shallows, David Carr makes a strong argument against undisciplined and mindless internet usage. His book is a warning to people, primarily students and professionals whose jobs require high levels of concentration. He argues that computer work, primarily when the computer is connected to the internet, offers us so many opportunities for distraction that it harms our capacity to concentrate and read.
The internet encourages us to begin searches unrelated to what we originally wanted to do when we started “working” or “browsing”. Most anyone who has ever tried to read a book on a tablet or a cell phone will know how this feels: if the book reminds us of something, we get the urge to look it up on the internet. Most people are unaware that the internet is interfering with their ability to focus. Even well trained thinkers, a guy like David Carr himself, are affected.
When some of my peers here at the college hear his argument—or even when people realize on their own that they are addicted to their cell phones or social media—their most common response is to suggest limiting our internet usage or even changing the kinds of devices we use to access the internet. I feel this is not only unrealistic but that it avoids the real problem.
The internet does not distract us. The true problem is that we use the internet to distract ourselves. Carr claims that pencils and notebooks cannot distract us the way the internet does; they don’t have the ability to instantly gratify our curiosity. But the internet is not forcing us to download songs, just like a notebook is not forcing us to doodle when we should be listening to a lecture. We can’t blame the notebook because someone is unfocused, undisciplined or uneducated.
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