The Socially Awkward Phone-Zombie Penguin Apocalypse Pt.1: Definition of Topic

     Phone-Zombies are everywhere. Whether you’re just innocently walking down the street, having a drink of coffee at Tim Hortons or simply sitting in a classroom, you’ll notice a horde of bloodshot eyed, neck aching, and tedious individuals hiding themselves from the real world like an ostrich with its head underground in fear. Some people only lift their head to get a glimpse once in a while and try and create an equilibrium between their real life and their social media masquerade, while others have no interest in the world around them and, thus, spend hours on developing their profile online. As I pondered over these peculiar persons, curiosity struck, if a person spent most of his life concealed by his handheld device, would he lack, or somehow lose, the necessary skills to speak with another individual face-to-face?

      The answer to my research question would affect society as a whole, and could give society a wake-up call on how we use our Smartphones and other handheld devices. I personally think that using such devices could definitely regress basic socialization skills and could be shown by emphasizing how one would use such devices in contrast to when they were first introduced. Strengthening this key point, one could look at calling time in America vs amount of words produced by phone users when forming a text message or online post and demonstrate how one nowadays would rather text a various amount of words than call for a given minute just to avoid any sense of interaction. This could as well be shown using a survey where one would ask their preferred method of communication.

         The word adolescent has been used in the research question to limit the age group of analysis. The key word in its definition is ‘developing’, which would introduce a sub-question on whether using such devices could encumber future generation’s development process and would they be better off not using Smartphones till a certain age. This kind of sub-question would be in the best interest of parents who wouldn’t want their children to lack basic social skills and would want nothing but the best for their kids. Also, the word regress has also been used to highlight a constant decrease in social skills that could also depict a decreasing rate for society in the future; doing so would require one to compare and contrast generations from when mobile phones were first introduced to today’s modern society.

          Moreover, using the word ‘could’, this question focuses on analyzing the affect Smartphones have on the growing ages that range from 8-18 and could possibly lead to a creation of a possible solution. Personally, I believe that the research will demonstrate that, in most cases, it does regress the skills needed for face-to-face interaction and the basis of lack of experience, things could be done easier through text (like breaking up), and, created recently by Domino’s Pizza, ordering pizza through texting just a Pizza Emoji as a Tweet to Domino’s (a small emoticon of a pizza pretty much). Just like how capitalism altered to attract consumerism through promoting individualism, it seems that capitalism is trying to take full advantage of this change in socialization that it could be generating a negative impact on society’s future.

         Finally, a question that also might arise through this research is if we really need face-to-face interaction. It seems that some may argue that such communication offers a sense of weakness as some can be able to read body movement; furthermore some argue that it can create unnecessary embarrassment or conversation such as talking to a friend with a black eye that you are trying not to show or in the case of trying to tell a friend you simply don’t have time to chat. As liberal as I am, I cannot see people living in a world that lacks micro-sociology, let alone America living such a lifestyle. It is when you physically meet a person where you can begin judging them and use non-verbal cues to read the opposite person’s reaction and emotion, and one could use that to create their next move in conversation.