This year the topic is smartphones and social media. Your goal is to analyze and evaluate two of these four readings and write a 600-750-word essay that synthesizes and responds to the claims of these authors.
In order to write this synthesis and response essay you should follow these basic steps:
Introduce the topic you’ll be addressing and explain that you will be looking at how your chosen authors view this topic.
Summarize and compare the authors ideas, making sure to point out how each of the authors relate to the common topic as well as to each others argument or viewpoint.
Offer your own response to the topic based on the thoughts and opinions you developed while reading and analyzing these articles. If you’d like you can answer the question: When thinking about your own experience using technology and social media, what have been the positives and negatives?
Your essay should demonstrate your ability to read carefully, think critically about, and respond thoughtfully to the words of others. It should be reasoned, developed (backed-up), logical, coherent, clear, and focused.
Note: There is no need to do any research or reading beyond the provided articles. You are welcome to draw from your own experience, knowledge, or from other things you have read in the past to construct your response, but you do not need to seek out additional information outside of this essay prompt.
Readings:
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Sept. 2017.
Wheeldreyer, Sarah P. “I Won’t Buy My Teenagers Smartphones.” The Atlantic, 11 Sept. 2019.
Resnick, Brian. “Have Smartphones Really Destroyed a Generation? We don’t know.” Vox, 16 May 2019.
Samuel, Alexandria. “Yes, Smartphones are Destroying a Generation, But not of Kids.” JSTOR Daily, 8 Aug. 2018.
Questions to consider as you write the essay:
What is the main idea of each of the articles?
What similarities do you identify between the authors approaches to the topic of work and play?
Where and how do the authors diverge from each other on this topic?
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the writer(s)? Why?
Can you cite specific examples from your own knowledge or experience that support or conflict with the positions of one or more of the authors?
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