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Oscar H. Suarez Professor Cole ENGL2010-043 09 May 2013 From Personal Communication to Mobile Hallucination Over the last few years multiple technological advances have been focused on development of new and revolutionary mobile devices. As extremely addicted consumers, we are blind enough to be indifferent to the negative effects of our technological advances. If I want to think about the world without mobile phones I can see a beautiful prairie where nature is everywhere. Thinking about mobile devices, it is mandatory to think about the ocean of artificial technology, and it is a fact the existence of six billion cell phone lines around the world. Those days when you used to be free, without any device attached to your body are gone. Nowadays our grandmas, grandpas, parents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends and acquaintances are religious users of smart phones and all their conveniences such as social networking, web surfing, photography, games, GPS, books, and specialized applications. The phone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell to make distances shorter. Today new mobile devices include many applications and the phone calls aspect became a secondary accessory. My main concern is about the negative social effects related to the use of mobile devices followed by health issues, and finally our substantial dependency on technology. Technology users can say that everything is fine because our antisocial behaviors have become widely

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accepted or also because the high demand of devices has created a non-sense consumerist attitude. I really do not want to connect with individuals that do not show when you are trying to communicate face to face, and these technological zombies have their minds linked to the little screen and the little keyboard. How easy we can start a monologue, when our talk partners decide by themselves to disconnect from conversation. A recent study, at The Pennsylvania State University, shows the incidence of cellphone on social interactions. They concluded that when cell phone users are in the midst of proximate others, they experience an obligation toward both the distant and the proximate others, show a desire for privacy, and are cognitively distracted forcing them to distribute their attention between the caller and the proximate other.(Banjo) Statistics released by the government the last few years have shown how the numbers are going up in traffic accidents involving cell phone usage. Every day drivers get involved in accidents because they are easily distracted while texting, taking phone calls or manipulating the music player. Edgarsnyder.com presents some interesting statistics about traffic accidents: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the percentage of drivers who were using a cell phone (texting or manipulating it in some way) increased to 0.9% in 2010. The percentage of drivers using a cell phone while holding it to their ears was 5% in 2010 The level of hand-held cell phone use was higher among female drivers than it was for male drivers.

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Younger drivers ages 16 to 24 were more likely to use a hand-held cell phone. More than three-quarters reported that they were likely to answer calls on all, most, or some trips while driving. They also said that they rarely consider traffic situations when deciding to use their cell phones.

There were 3,092 deaths in distraction-related accidents in 2010, but the number is likely much higher.

Most drivers said they are willing to answer a call or text while driving, but most of these same drivers said they would feel unsafe as a passenger in a car where the driver was sending or receiving text messages. While I was watching T.V. a few years ago, I saw on the news that a train driver was texting,

causing a collision with another train in California. It is shocking how other people had trusted their lives to such an irresponsible person. (Chatterjee) Recently I had the opportunity to fly outside of the United States, and at every airport I saw the same scenario; people confined to their mobile devices. I asked myself, What is going on? It seems to be a global shift regarding the way people communicate. Why do not we adapt our devices to our lives, not our lives to our devices? The other big question is the negative effects of these technologies on human health. After living half of my life without a cell phone attached to my body, I can state that I really do experience the physical impact of these portable devices. We have learned to survive in a wireless universe surrounded by radio-frequency (RF), and electromagnetic waves. Human body

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is constantly absorbing unwelcome radiation, contributing to an involuntary and cumulative process. The major 3 arguments of negative effects of cell phones were pointed out on Forbes.com in April of 2013: 1. In 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (or IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization classified cell phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic. 2. Certain epidemiologic studies (mainly from a single group in Sweden) indicate an elevated risk of glioma (the most malignant type of brain cancer) in long-term users of cell phones. 3. Some laboratory studies indicate that exposure to RF at typical levels can have serious pathologic effects, including effects on the blood-brain barrier and on the integrity of DNA. (Kabat) How beautiful it would be to take away from the landscape those amorphous cell phone towers. The effect is so bad that we do not accept the reality, and we are still looking for more research in that area, and hoping for better news. Unfortunately, all the big cell phone companies have invested in this research hiding them from the general public, and hoping wealth. Dependency on technology is the diagnosis, but there is not a cure yet. I remember with melancholy those years when the world used to walk; today we prefer to run without care of all those negatives consequences that I had mentioned before.

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We live in a concrete jungle surrounded by million of mobile devices, but it is important to stop and remember the natural world that used to be our home. Probably we could not change what we see, but we can give the right use to our new technologies, yet is possible regulate with the right laws and policies. It is important to recognize that cell phones are now a way of life. They are here, and they will stay. It is important to acknowledge advantages and disadvantages of our ways to communicate. That is why respect, measure, and responsibility should also go on the price tag of mobile devices.

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Works Cited Banjo, Omotayo, Hu, Yifeng and Sundar, S. Shyam. Cell Phone Usage and Social Interaction with proximate others: Ringing in a theoretical mode. The Pennsylvania State University. University Park PA 16802, USA: Media effects Research Laboratory, of Communications, 2008. Chatterjee, Syantani, Henderson Peter, and Maler Sandra. Train engineer was texting just before California crash. Reuters. Los Angeles,CA, U.S.A. October 2nd, 2008 http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/02/us-usa-train-crash-USN0152835520081002 "Cell Phone Use Listed as Possibly Carcinogenic: Health Physics Society Thoughts." Cell Phone Use Listed as Possibly Carcinogenic: Health Physics Society Thoughts. N.p., June 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. <http://hps.org/hpspublications/articles/cellphoneuse.html>. "Cell Phone and Texting Accident Statistics." Edgarsnyder.com. Web. 5 May 2013. <http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/cell-phone-statistics.html>. Davis, Devra Lee. Disconnect : The Truth about Cell Phone Radiation, What Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family. New York: Dutton, 2010. Print.
Kabat, Geoffrey. "Should The FCC Re-Examine Cell Phone Radiation?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 04 Apr. 2013. Web. 5 May 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreykabat/2013/04/04/should-thefcc-re-examine-cell-phone-radiation/>.

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