Cristina SierraENC 3347Professor Tripp

Oh NOmy cellphone!! It died, I dont know how Im going to survive the rest of the day without it?! Based on how most people are when it comes to their cellphone always in their hand or up against their ear, that is only a small example of their reaction if in the worst case scenario their phone dies less than half way through the day; it is as if the world has come to an end. I once felt lost without my phone also but then I got bigger priorities in life, like a life outside my phone, its all about prioritizing yourself; I mean there was a life before cellphones. In my essay I will explore the literacy in mobile devices also known as cell phones and how much of an impact they have made on our community negatively and positively, then I will conclude the possible troubles that could occur in generations to come because of this literacy and technology upon us. First I plan to share excerpts from literacy narratives that show how dependent teenagers or young adults are with their cellphones. Second, I will discuss the effect that spell check on cell phones will have for these teenagers or young adults that are dependent on using it and relying on it to send messages and/or complete tasks. Lastly, I will explore how this theme of literate in mobile devices could truly be a good thing for our society in generations to come. Im never going to want to put this thing down, IPhones literally offer every app you could think of (Conroy). As mobile technology continues to upgrade every year the amount of applications one device can do is only increasing, to the point that you could possibly complete almost every task on one piece of technology. Mobile technology has gotten to the point that it has taken over teenagers and young adults lives that they have basically lost the original interpersonal communication that was once known at the dinner table or out and about with friends or family, but what is now looked at as extra time to use your mobile device. As Conroy states in this narrative IPhones literally offer every app you could think of, thats a given fact. IPhones cover a wide variety of tasks when it comes to apps such as, checking your e-mail, texting or calling your friends and/or family, Dictionary/Thesaurus, streaming the web, a note pad, update social network profiles, listen and download music, and many more but I think you get the picture; theres A LOT of apps. Bringing us back to Conroys point that IPhones literally offer every app you could think of but his other point he makes is Im never going to want to put this down, and with that being said IPhones might do justice in completing most tasks in a given day but what about the world outside your IPhone? What happens when your IPhone is no longer in your hand to use for an outside source that has all the answers or a notepad that corrects your spelling errors? I think these are the questions we as a community should be asking ourselves; has technology really gotten that out of control that it has affected the way we become literate? What happens when I have to hand write something and I dont have my phone to catch my mistakes (Conroy)? I believe this is a valid point that Conroy states, since most cellphones if not all offer the spell check feature when texting, searching the web, or writing in your notepad app and most people after a while for example like Conroy did, get lazy and lose the drive that comes with wanting to learn how to spell something or grammatically structure a correct sentence once your phone offers a feature that will do it for you; then like Conroy, you become literate in mobile devices. This feature starts off by benefiting your life because it appears to be making you look like a better writer online when you have this kind of access to technology but, what happens when you are in a circumstance and your mobile device is of no access, such as during a written test in class? That device that you are so dependent on to correct your spelling and grammar errors is now legitimately not allowed and youre left dumbfounded with a projected failing score. Knowing how to spell will take me to college (Young). Young seems to be a young, innocent girl that hasnt possibly experienced much of the world yet, but her look on knowing how to spell solves all troubles all the way to going to college. But in the big picture of life and college and all the troubles that go along with that, knowing how to spell doesnt necessarily take you to college and being literate in mobile devices is a perfect example. Many students can truly, gradually move their way through college without knowing how to spell or grammatically write correctly but instead depend on other outside sources other than their own brain to take them to college and get them through it. But based on the mind and the drive of a young innocent child their mind set is, what you learn in school, you bring to the table for your future ahead of you; not that this isnt true but because of the vast amount of time that students put themselves into their mobile devices the drive to learn for themselves has plummeted. Nonetheless being literate in mobile devices may have a negative impact on teenagers and young adults but it also has impacted them positively in many ways too. Im a very tech savvy person, Ive always had technology in my life and up to this point I think I always will (McClellan). Based on what McClellan states I think it has a lot to do with the generations that are born today, they will not know of a world outside of the highly based technology formed society so they will be just like McClellan, most likely, and by the looks of the progress of technology, it is only improving each year so I dont personally see it going anywhere in our future. But going back to how being literate in mobile devices has impacted teenagers and young adults in a positive way, McClellan states that he grew up going to schools that always incorporated technology in your learning and because of that it helped him be more literate in his writing. Also McClellan grew up downloading music on his cellphone/IPod and incorporated some of those lyrics into some of his writing and then if there was a lyric he didnt know what it meant he would look up the definition for it, which also improved his grammar and made him become more literate. Then on a closing note McClellan states, Im Very fortunate to always have technology and I will always use it, and I will incorporate it with everything I have in the future (McClellan). As I earlier mentioned being literate in mobile devices doesnt always have a negative effect on teenagers or young adults, it all pertains to the restrictions you give yourself when using a specific app and the time frame you use a specific browser in between more important priorities so you dont go off task for too long. For example as Lindsey Steeprock states You control how long you stay on a specific social network and what distracts you and how long it takes your time away from your priorities (Steeprock). It all depends on your will power to stay on track and not let pieces of technology such as mobile devices keep you from moving forward each day. But referring back to Steeprock she also might state that its all about prioritizing yourself, but then again she has a very highly amount of her time put into her mobile device on a given day, as she states when asked what would you do if there were no computers or cellphones? she then says, I dont know, I think I would die without my cellphone! That statement she ends with shows how much of an impact her cellphone has on her life and how much technology has shaped the way she lives. Before all the research and information that was brought to my attention about different narratives that are literate in mobile devices I always observed my community and saw how much cellphones seemed to impact teenagers and young adults and how the amount of interpersonal communication has decreased by a long shot, as I observed restaurants and entertainment locations around town. I am blown away to see how much of a turn technology has brought upon us, but as I stated earlier, I am proud to say it hasnt affected me the way its affected many. I miss interpersonal communication, versus texting to get your point across; I miss being able to hang out with someone, and truly hang out and not always have to wonder are they bored hanging out with me, since there always on their phone, or are they truly listening to me when I talk, since eye contact has also disappeared between a conversation. Overall these literacy narratives served as a big part of my research in my claim and I truly believe that they narratives are very important because they serve as a specific piece of data from someones personal opinion and perspective on mobile devices and how its impacted their life. Being literate in mobile devices can have a positive but also negative impact on your life, but it all depends on how you prioritize yourself and the amount of will power you have to keep the technological world from taking over your life outside your cellphone.

Work CitedConroy, Luke. "IPhone Literacy." IPhone Literacy. N.p., 19 May 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.McClellan, Patrick. "Literate Through Technology." Literate Through Technology. N.p., 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.Steeprock, Lindsey. "Technology Today." Technology Today. N.p., 30 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.Young, Kayla. "Spelling Is Education." Spelling Is Education. N.p., 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.