HW 22- Final Paper

Introduction:
My morning routine consists of:
- Checking AIM
- Checking Twitter updates
- Responding to missed text messages
- Listening to my Ipod on full blast
All of this is done before I get to school at 8 o clock in the morning. I wouldn't be surprised if other teens in New York (or even in the rest of the country) had similar morning routines. Digitalization has already begun it's course of taking over the minds of teenagers. Whether it's texting, instant messaging, social networking websites, or the addictive Ipod, teenagers seem to be under digitalization's 'spell'. Not many teenagers are not seen reading the newspaper in the morning instead, they are listening to their Ipods/mp3. Not many teenagers know Barack Obama's views/ideas and why he may be a good president for America (besides saying "I like him because he's black."). Not many teenagers know or even care about the issues that are currently happening in our world today, and that may effect us in the future. The Digital Representational Devices are becoming apart of teenagers daily routine. This is causing teenagers to become socially unaware of whats happening around them, in society, and the rest of the world.

Argument 1:
Social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter are full of updates, pictures, and comments about your life.Teens update the smallest parts of there lives on these websites to make their lives sound interesting. Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites on the internet. In a study done by Nielsen (Wire), it was shown that "From April 2008 to April 2009, total minutes spent on Facebook increased from 1.7 billion minutes to 13.9 billion minutes – an annual growth rate of 700 percent" (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/06/02/total-us-time-spent-on-facebook-up-700-in-the-last-year/).Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites. To see that this website has increased 12.2 billion minutes in the last year is puzzling. Imagine how much time teens had to spend on the computer to contribute to this increase in time.This time spent chatting with friends and looking at recently posted pictures could have been used more productively. Instead of caring about whats happening in our society, teenagers would rather spend a significant amount of time on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Besides being distracted by the internet and popular websites, teenagers are distracted on a regular basis. Even though many may not know what's going on in the world today, everyday use of digital representational devices makes teenagers oblivious to what is happening in their everyday lives. As soon as I get outside, my headphones are in my ears, all the time. Whether I'm on the train going to school, out to lunch, or walking with my mom, my Ipod is always on. When I have on my ipod, it is easy for me to block out everything and get engrossed in the music. My music may prevent me from hearing unwanted conversations, annoying cars in the street, or other people's music. However, it keeps me from noticing the people and situations around me.

Many teenagers are like me when it comes to their music, but are unlikely to own up to it. However, the distraction from digital representational devices can be seen everywhere. Teenagers are seen texting while walking, laptops instead of books in airports, and Ipods on the trains.Teenagers are so captivated by digitalization and various digital representational device (DRD's) that it is not only keeping them from knowing/caring about what really matters, but making them negligent to the everyday events in their lives.

In the book, the Feed controls everything the teenagers(and most of society) do. Titus and his friends are constantly thinking about what to buy from from places like Weatherbee and Crotch, just like teenagers today are thinking about what they want or need to buy. Whether its clothes, games, food, or the new hottest digital device, teenagers in the book and our society today are always wanting for something. I feel this has to do with the constant use of advertising. With Titus and his friends, the Feed is always showing them sales and specials at their favorite stores, but also gearing certain products towards them. We see the same thing in our society. Advertisement are everywhere; on billboards, t.v., radio, even throughout our public transportation system. Everywhere we go there is an advertisement for something, so why wouldn't we always be thinking about what to buy? we are trying to be persuaded to buy something everywhere we go.