CHRISTIAN !

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Quinci Christian
Ms. Caruso
UWRT 1103-29
April 12, 2016
Defense Paper
How many times a day do you check your smartphone? A simple question that will make
you realize you cant count that high with only ten fingers. The Mobile Mindset Study shows
that we check our phones, at the very least, once every hour. An amazing 73 percent of people
confess that they would panic if they had lost their phone. (Lenhart) Our mobile devices have
become so immersed into our society and our individual lives that it has become equivalent to an
extremity. Often times we do not truly think about how connected we our to our mobile devices,
and much less how much time we spend fixated on the perceived magical world they reveal to
us.
This advertisement was intended to make people realize how captivated they were by
their mobile devices, and cause them to examine how much time they spend in their online world
versus the one around them. I conducted a brief survey that I dispersed amongst a minimum of
100 people in various age groups, in order to gather data to create an advertisement/flyer. I chose
to condense the data into an advertisement or flyer so that the information was clear and organized. By putting the data in an IPhone format, the technology driven generation would not only
relate to it better, but also understand the information better. This ad can be displayed in various
forums especially for campaigns, organizations, or companies, such as Pocket Points, encouraging people to become more active in their daily lives.

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Pocket Points is an app that encourages students to stay off their phones in class by
keeping track of the time they spend off their phones, and rewarding them with points redeemable at restaurants and other stores. The app has approximately 100,000 users who, all together, have kept their phones locked for over 100 years. They have partnered with over 1200
business that help them reward students with coupons, discounts or even free shipping.(Tepper)
This advertisement/flyer could be used by companies similar to this to motivate students to reflect on themselves and be more active in the classroom. Many other apps are being released to
help consumers monitor their cell phone usage that could greatly benefit from my advertisement.
The first step in creating this advertisement was to assemble a series of intuitive questions
directed at my audience. My goal wasnt to ask about how technology has impacted them or
their relationships, as I had previously addressed in my inquiry. Instead, my goal was to gather
concrete evidence concerning how connected we are to our phones and how our focus shifts because of our phones. Pew Research Center conducted several studies concerning smartphone usage and a few touching on social media. (Lenhart) Their findings were so interesting that I used
them to construct some of my own questions for my survey and concluded to separate my questions into two parts.
The first set simply asked participants to relate several images to images they may see on
a daily basis. These images were several squares with color schemes of popular apps that an astounding amount of people quickly correlated to popular apps they were familiar with. The second set of questions were general inquiries concerning their phones use. These questions produced the expected reaction of anxious looks, groaning, and over half the participates whispering
too much through gritted teeth.

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The survey revealed some disturbing realties. For every synthesized logo used, over
50% of participants could quickly and accurately identify every image. It was because of this that
I deemed it necessary to create a survey question as I went labeled, What is your cell phones
primary use? Luckily, half of the participants said communication via text, FaceTime, or phone
call. However, the other half causes me some distress! Forty percent of the remaining half say
that they mostly use their phones for social media. The final ten percent of participants referred
to their cell phones as a life line.
As if securing the role of life-line" wasnt enough, technologys effects have bled over
into researched diligently to find a way to make people want to help me with my survey. In an
article relevant to the reliability of surveys, I stumbled across information applicable to my inquiry. A study, also conducted by Pew Research, found that only 9% of people asked would actually participate in surveys as compared to 36% in 1997, and they blamed the increase in cell
phones! Oremus concluded that people simply don't like to answer phone calls from numbers
they do not recognize.(Raz) Even though I only conducted less than 10 over the phone surveys, it
was interesting to see to what extent technological advancements have affected even seemingly
meaningless aspects of our lives.
Finally, I consolidated the data and compared it to my previous research findings. For instance, in my inquiry, I mentioned a study done discovering that younger generations would send
about 109.5 text per day, and spend approximately 7 hours a day on some form of technology.
(Raczkiewicz) I condensed the data from my survey into a similar average that came out be less
than 7 hours and about 71 text per day. Then, I reconsidered the older groups surveyed, who
spent so little time on their devices, versus the 40 percent of the people I surveyed, the younger

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crowd, who admitted to using their phone for more than 5 hours a day most likely looking at
more than 100 text many of them admitted to receiving.
The results were in! After recording all the data it was time to put my creative flare on all
these ugly numbers. I struggled for a long time trying to find and appropriate way to get my
point and the data across. I wanted to create something that teens would immediately identify
with, the obvious choice being an iPhone . In my survey I had participants identify logos and a
strong amount of participants were accurate. Hence why I chose to research the most iconic logos of all time, and of course the Apple logo sits at number 4.(Cohn) Using anything Apple related to portray this information was necessity considering the significance this generation attributes to the iconic bitten fruit.
If we take anything out of this research we should take the concept that we place our
lives, our relationships and even our worth on a logo. After filling out the survey participants
looked at their peers shockingly and many said something a long the lines of, Thats bad!
Technology has opened many doors for our generation and made it possible to connect to a world
outside of our own. Nevertheless, we should consider putting the phone down to connect with
whats around us first.

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Works Cited: (old)

Lin, Helen L. "How Your Cell Phone Hurts Your Relationships." Scientific American. 4
Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.
Novak, Martin. "How Cellphone Use Can Disconnect Your Relationship." Psychology
Today. 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.
Raczkiewicz, Frank. "Media Communications." Baylor University || Media
Communications || News. 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.
Research, Addiction. "Cell Phone Addiction Similar to Compulsive Shopping and Other
Behavioral Addictions." The Ranch. 21 June 2013. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.
Schwartz, Marnie S. "Are You Obsessed With Your IPhone?" Shape Magazine. 15 Jan.
2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.
Tsirulnik, Giselle. "Mobile Phone Ranked Most Used Electronic Device: Forrester." Mobile Marketer. 23 Sept. 2010. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.
Works Cited: (new)
Cohn, Maria, and Morgen Bromell. "The 50 Most Iconic Brand Logos of All Time." Complex. 7
Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
Fitzgerald, Britney. "Americans Addicted To Checking Smartphones, Would 'Panic' If They Lost
Device (STUDY)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 June 2012. Web. 27
Mar. 2016.
Lenhart, Amanda. "Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015." Pew Research
Internet Science Tech RSS. 09 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Center

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Raz. "How Reliable Are Surveys?" NPR. NPR, 3 June 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
Tepper, Fitz. "Pocket Points Rewards Students For Staying Off Their Phones." TechCrunch. 10
Sept. 2015. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.