Dear Teen Readers,

Hi, my name is Emily. I am in 7th grade and I go to Pleasant Valley Junior High. I feel that my argument is important to the Teen Readers because many teens agree with this argument. My argument is “Would it benefit teens to turn their technology off for a day.” My overall opinion on this argument is that it would be a benefit to turn off technology for a day.


My first claim is that is would be a benefit to turn down technology for a day. Additional to that is “There is more and more evidence that our electronic devices can be addicting,” said Despina Stavrinos, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at UAB. “Certainly our research shows they can be dangerous” (Source #1). Along with the text evidence its sharing that technology is becoming addictive to many people, also very harmful in different circumstances (Source #2). Also another text evidence I had found is “Heavy users of social media can also adopt coping mechanisms — similar to training oneself to eat healthily — said Wilhelm Hofmann, an assistant professor who studies behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “It’s a problem of self-control,” he said.” Source #2 This text evidence goes along with how people act when they have or are using technology, their behavior is out of control. Connecting to the amount of technology we use these days.


My second claim is Turning off technology for a day could possibly be a struggle to those whose works/ schools involve using technology on a daily basis. Along with that though they are strongly able to figure out other ways to do their work. In addition to that “These are very valuable tools, and we’re not going to give them up,” she said. “But we have to balance the benefits of staying connected while mitigating the impact of the distractions, whether it’s while driving, walking down the street or even having dinner in a restaurant” (Source #1). Along with technology being a helpful tool some people do need it for work because its a daily need for their work ability. Along with that they could not use technology at all at home for social medias and stuff, so that is kind of illuminating at least some technology in their day. Another text evidence related to this claim is “Mr. Gross is among those working on solutions to the problem by creating services — including an application allowing users to save content from around the Web — that help stanch the flow of data that is streaming in at any moment” (Source #2). Basically what this text evidence is stating is that they are trying to come up with ways of not working as much with technology for work purposes. In some circumstances there is ways to do work in more than just using technology but again excuses for it being so handy and fast, when half the time you have to wait 10 minutes for it to load when you could have it done by handwriting.


My third claim is turning off technology for a day would change your daily moods. Finally a piece of textual evidence for this claim is “How important is this, really? How happy does it actually make you?” he said. “Harness that feeling of pride when you do resist and stick to it” (Source #2). Along with that text evidence, the meaning to it is that people should realize the mood it puts some people into, because people over share their thoughts and feelings. Another piece of text evidence is “Stavrinos said a little self-control is called for because our love for devices is not going away” (Source #1). This Text evidence is connected to the last text evidence because it goes along with behavior and how we as humans react to so many people being addicted to technology.


An opposing claim that someone may offer on this argument is what I call excuses. In other words their opposing claim may be that turning off technology for a day would do no good. I would refute their claim because I strongly believe that not trying something new like turning off technology for a day is not going to help our community and many other communities get anywhere.


In the results of this, I would like if it would be possible for teen readers to share this with other friends, family, and technology users to maybe get them motivated to tag along in something like this. Also coming to the end here I would like to thank you to anyone that's reading this for listening to my claims and taking the time out of your schedules. Thank You.







Sincerely,



Emily