Smart phones are mobile phones that are capable of performing tasks similar to that of computers. These devices, equipped with a touchscreen, endless access to the internet, and constant affiliation with others, have begun to produce negative fallouts. Today’s youth is more involved with what’s on their screen than what’s right in front of their faces since the creation of the smartphone. Face-to-face communication has severely declined due to the rapid demand for mobile devices as a primary means of communication among family members and companions. If cell phones continue to be the main source of connection among human beings, direct interaction could soon cease to exist. Direct interaction among individuals promotes healthy social skills, encourages building strong relationships, promotes the use, and understanding, of body language and nonverbal cues, and can decrease the amount of misunderstandings conveyed between two people. Negatives that arise from this are fewer face-to-face interactions, subjection to cyberbullying, and social anxiety. Within the last fifteen years, cellphone use, specifically through social media, has caused an obvious decline in the amount of face-to-face interactions among youth in the United States, which has caused a decline in the quality of conversations and nonverbal communication.

Face-to-face communication is one of the most simple and convenient modes of interaction. It allows for two or more people to engage in connections that increase personal relationships, as well as people skills, such as listening, communicating, and being empathetic. Since the creation and popularity of cellphones have spiked, the quality and quantity of conversations have declined drastically. Mobile phones have had negative effects on closeness, connections, and conversation quality. In Emily Drago’s article discussing the effect of technology on face-to-face communication, her study revealed that “97% of American college students take their phones with them whenever they leave their house, 74% of the students using them in the presence of another student or peer” (Drago 15). Of the conversations being studied, “89% of participants recorded that the quality of their conversations decreased in the presence of a cellphone” (Drago 16). Many students reported feelings of neglect once they realized that the person they had been talking to chose someone on the phone over their physical presence. Feelings of neglect and oversight makes people not want to partake in future conversations with that person, causing a decrease in the quantity of conversations because of the decrease in the quality. 

In addition to the decrease in quality and quantity of conversations, mobile phones have also become a factor in deteriorating social skills, such as being able to read and react to facial expressions and social cues. Phones possess an “addictive” quality; they allow for people to access any information at the tip of their fingertips, and in the blink of an eye. Society is more wrapped up in what is happening on a glass screen rather than what is happening right in front of their faces. Since people prefer communication on a mobile device over communication in person, conversations that occur face-to-face have proven to be more superficial and less enticing. This can be seen in Drago’s research, as well as in many other surveys and analyses conducted by other researchers. Less developed conversations can result from a decrease in social interactions and vocabulary. By communicating strictly through a mobile device, vocabulary and the extent of social interactions decline tremendously. Cell phones were created for “business purposes to relay short, important messages quickly” (Campbell 3). Society now uses mobile devices primarily for communication and interaction among friends, family, coworkers, and peers, but more times than not, the short lingo still applies. By using “texting or tweeting etiquette,” the amount, quality, and recollection of vocabulary is reduced. Social interactions are less intimate due to the actuality that some people are not able to hold meaningful conversations because of their lack of language and experience of face-to-face conversations, and the “evidence that people may not be able to verbally communicate or express their feelings” (Graham).

Other factors that contribute to the decrease of quality and quantity of social interactions include the ability to read, comprehend, and react to facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. These elements of communication create deeper, more personal relationships, and form bonds between multiple people if they practice face-to-face communication. Decreased emotional cues are defined, by Bob Kellogg, as “losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people”. Kellogg’s research, conducted alongside the UCLA Psychology department, acknowledged that “75% of teens in America (2009) owned cellphones; 25% accessed social media; 54% used texting on a regular basis (more than 5 hours a day); and 24% used instant messaging as their mode of communicating with family and friends” (Kellogg). Numbers from this study have only increased since the figures were collected. Kellogg writes, “The group deprived of media recognized emotions significantly better than those subjected to the media,” suggesting that the constant use of mobile phones leads to a significant decrease in the ability to recognize and acknowledge human emotions. Social media plays a huge role in this “addiction” to smart phones by replicating intimate and complicated relationships. Adolescents misuse this power; they use their phones to date and breakup, and as gateways for confrontation, apologizing, and accountability. In the future, children who behave this way will compromise their relationships and will be unable to communicate their feelings and thoughts. This allows the young adults to hide behind phones, instead of addressing issues head on. This not only affects children socially, but psychologically as well; by providing a screen for children to hide behind, parents subject children to cyberbullying, sexting, and lackadaisical time management. These can lead to feelings such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Younger children are more prone to impatience in relationships, whether they be romantic or not, because of the spontaneity produced by social media. Adolescents have grown so accustomed to being able to refresh a site and gain access to information with the click of a button, that when they are forced to communicate at a more intimate level, they often become agitated and restless, which is evident in Kellogg’s research. 

By becoming restless and irritable, adolescents are subjected to a lack of engagement when speaking to someone face-to-face: a lack of in-depth conversations is most notable. Conversations become less personal, interesting, and engaging. An interview conducted by Jill Suttie, with author and professor Sherry Turkle, revealed that although cellphones provide an illusion that makes users feel like solitude is not an issue to be worried about; an excessive use leads to isolation. A study included in Turkle’s book “Reclaiming Conversation”, revealed “89% of Americans took out a phone during their last social interaction, while 82% of interviewees claimed that the phone deteriorated the conversation that was taking place” (Suttie). Turkle stresses the importance of empathetic connections and quality of conversation to Suttie. The world-renown author states that inserting a phone into social interaction not only decreases the quality of conversation, but also decreases empathetic connection between those present in the interaction. “The less a person interacts socially with others, the less willing they will be to sharing their personal emotions”, Turkle states, furthering the claim that social interaction is mandatory in the everyday life, and is healthy for the body. Repressing emotions and feelings can lead to depression and social anxiety. Later on in life, problems can arise from depression and anxiety, causing subjects to be heavily medicated and attend therapy or counseling. Another reason Turkle believes cellphones are being abused is the illusion they provide to prevent boredom. “Boredom is good, it allowed the brain to replenish and get some down time”, Turkle explains to Suttie. Boredom is most adamant when adding social media into the equation; some people’s worth comes from acceptance, want, and desirability – all feelings and emotions that can be faked using social media. When people have time to spare, they will browse through social media, engaging in conversations and interactions through mobile devices. Turkle also provides examples of workplace etiquette in her interview, informing Suttie that cellphones have begun to affect professional workplace environments as well as everyday interactions among people. The author petitions that “workplace conversations promote more collaborations and creativity” (Suttie), implying that the use of cellphones at work has diminished not only quality of conversations and empathy, but the creativity in the enterprise as well. By documenting Turkle’s allegations, Suttie can expose the negatives of cellphones in social interactions as well as in experienced workplaces, which can then lead to increased difficulties among professional colleagues, not just close friends and family. 

Conversations with close friends and family are easily conducted; or supposed to be at least. A conversation between author Susan Dubin and her sister, Julie, reveals otherwise due to an insertion of a mobile device into the conversation. By engaging in two tasks at once, otherwise known as multitasking, one hopes to do more things at once. But what some people don’t understand is that they 

“may be doing more than one thing at a time but they are not able to do as good of a job at each individual thing…if someone is using their phone when they’re trying to listen to another person, they may be able to do both of those things but not able to do them as well as if they did them one at a time” (Dublin).

By inserting a distraction, such as a cellphone, into a conversation, people experience feelings of disrespect, ignorance, intrusiveness, and a loss of personal connection. Dubin stresses the difficulty of delaying gratification as a main point in her article, “because people have access at their fingertips, they have difficulty delaying gratification because they know they can access information as soon as they want it” (Dubin). This accounts for one of the many reasons people prefer mobile communication over physical communication. Cell phones can access information quickly, whereas speaking to someone in person may be awkward or uncomfortable when trying to pry information from someone. Although it is the easier route, social interaction is healthier than conversations that occur over the phone because people learn to use language and emotions to explain how one is feeling and communicate nonverbally.

The main argument grasped from Lee Humphreys’ article on social interactions in a wireless era is communication through nonverbal cues is crucial in development and social situations. When people are associating over the phone, a lack of engagement is present. Not only are nonverbal skills not being practiced, but social anxiety can appear in situations where someone takes a phone call in the presence of someone else. By causing the other person to be left out of the conversation, social anxiety (especially prominent in those considered “introverts”) is distinguishable. Humphreys emphasizes communication through verbal and nonverbal cues (aural and visual); these cues include eye rolling, motioning hands, or pointing fingers. Visual cues are obviously not present in consultations that arise over the phone, eliminating half of the empathy and trust that could be present if the discussion had been in person. Humphreys’ article hones in specifically on three-way interactions; those in which two people communicate in person, and one takes a phone call or a text, leaving one person feeling left out and anxious. Humphreys describes this as “social ostracism” (Humphreys 827). 

Isabel Schlote and Christine Linke’s chapter in Mobile Media and the Change of Everday Life support the claims made in Humphreys’ article. The chapter brings light to “how far new media methods of access have changed social norms and coexistence” (Schlote 97). Interactions are met at both situational and personal levels: one needs to engage in conversation at a personal level and at a socially-acceptable level. This level cannot be met using a cellphone. Face-to-face communication helps to build social skills, and aids in expanding one’s knowledge of different nonverbal cues. Reading other’s body languages is a crucial skill to possess, as it can represent a different, separate conversation. If this skill is not mastered among developing adolescents, the chances of being able to understand nonverbal cues at a later age are extremely slim. This has the potential of causing not only under-developed relationships, but problems and frustrations when one cannot grasp what another is trying to get across through motions. Although cellphones have taken over most of the communicative field, “face-to-face encounters can (thus) still be regarded as the prototype of communicative processes” (Schlote 99). Mobile phones have taken priority over face-to-face interaction because it helps the conversers to avoid awkward, unwanted conversations, as well as avoiding confronting and on-the-spot decision making. Through personal interaction, both people must react to the conversation accordingly and on the spot, rather than inhibiting the relationship by avoiding certain conversations. 

The emotional portion of today’s youth is considered in Tamyra Pierce’s article regarding the correlation between social anxiety and technology. She relays that “75% of American teens use SITs (socially interactive technology)” (Pierce 1367). Once used for educational purposes, now cell phones are solely used for communication purposes, prominent in adolescents. The use of cellphones has drastically increased since the 1990s, due to findings revolving around technology and interactions. Cell phones are mostly used by those who have introverted personalities, helping them to communicate on a regular basis with the hope that feelings of anxiety are repressed. Pierce defines social anxiety as “a state of anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of interpersonal evaluation in real or imagined social settings” (Pierce 1368). Unfortunately, Pierce’s study recognizes that there is an obvious preference of a screen rather than a face among young teens, as well as a positive correlation with social anxiety; cellphones and social media “hinders or acts as a substitute for face-to-face communication” among youth (Pierce 1368). She explains that the adolescents that use social media to fulfill their non-interactive purposes have fewer in-person interactions. As a result, cell phones have begun to replace face-to-face communication altogether. 

With support of Pierce’s article, Marilyn Campbell’s article further investigates the impact mobile phones have had on young people’s social lives. The phone is said to be the “most popular form of electronic communication among adolescents” (Campbell 2). Campbell claims that the cellphone has evolved from a technological tool to a more social tool. Due to this occurrence, the impact of the evolution affects relationships among family and peers, and the institution of schools. Cell phones cause disruptions, can lead to cheating, cyberbullying, and even ostracism. Since so much can be accessed on the devices, people (mainly adolescents) are more apt to hide behind their device when experiencing a conflict on a social media site. This can lead to cyberbullying and ostracism. Phones, originally created for business use by adults, are now being used every day, and can be seen the most in schools (middle and high school specifically). Younger children (7th-9th grade) seemingly are more attached than older students (10th-12th grade), and for most, cellphones are a status symbol among peers. These devices not only cause distractions in the classroom during teachings, but they also reduce student’s attention-span in class, as they could be awaiting a text or snapchat. Campbell best describes youth’s use of cellphones as “a very useful way of undertaking one’s social obligations to stay in touch without spending time or energy on the encounter”, displaying a sense of laziness and apathy (Campbell 5). Although young kids use cellphones primarily for the means of communicating with family and friends, more serious precautions should be taken to decrease cyberbullying and ostracism among developing kids. “Cyberbullying increases levels of depression, anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, and suicidal thoughts” (Campbell 5). Even though bullying can occur in both face-to-face interactions and over the cellphone, verbal abuse is more enduring and unforgettable when displayed on a phone; kids tend to forget every word that is said to them when being bullied in person, but over the phone, the text message is present until physically deleted, entitling the subject to be able to read the castigations repeatedly. This increases the levels mentioned earlier in the article, therefore increases the emotional damage to the subject being harassed. 

Cell phones, though, do produce some positives when correlated with interactions that take place in person. In Jin and Park’s article, they discuss the connection between interpersonal motives and their effects on face-to-face communication versus mobile communication. The authors state that the higher the motives are, the more cell phone communication will take place. Those motives, affection and inclusion, are influenced by interactions that occur in person. Only then will one be able to predict if cell phone usage will take place. Their article, and research, also displays a negative correlation between cell phone usage and shyness, as well as cell phone usage and social anxiety, depicting that the two characteristics are neither affected nor encouraged using a cell phone for communication. The authors explain that “motives for using cell phones tend to rely on previous telephone research, which takes the uses and gratifications perspective” (Jin and Park 611). This makes cellphones important today, because “…people buy and carry a cell phone because it enables them to contact other people immediately whenever and wherever they want to” (Jin and Park 612). The authors also provide evidence that can support the assumption that face-to-face communication makes cell phone interaction more enjoyable, because it motivates someone to want to talk to another person more. After conducting their experiment and research, the two authors concluded that “although face-to-face communication may not strongly influence mobile communication, it has effects on it by influencing the extent to which people want to use cell phones for interpersonal purposes” (Jin and Park 618). They came to find out that the amount of everyday in-person interaction a person experiences is associated with the level of loneliness that they acquire. 

To some, it may seem that cell phones provide more positive relations with regards to face-to-face communication than it does negative; phones have increased means of communication, they provide faster and more efficient ways to access information, as well as encourage kids more introverted to have conversations through the device rather than having to face people in person. Nevertheless though, phones have produced more negative components regarding in-person interaction. They decrease the nature and abundance of conversations that occur in person, which causes a decline is socializing abilities along with a limited vocabulary and loss of intimate parts in relationships through the lack of conversations. Cell phones encourage a lack of engagement when speaking to someone in person, as they provide easy-to-access distractions (in everyday life and in schooling settings), as well as causing conversations to be less in-depth, lacking visual cues, which can cause developmental and social problems, such as social anxiety. Regarding the emotional portion of today’s youth, teenagers who use cellphones on a regular basis are more prone to cyberbullying, ostracism, and social anxiety. These problems can lead to reliance on mobile devices for means of communication, further diminishing face-to-face interactions, leading younger children to forget or never learn to read emotions, or to never address their problems in person. 
