FUNECE 2018 — Questão 48 · Língua Inglesa

TEXT II

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

Jean M. Twenge

59 More comfortable online than out partying,
60 post-Millennials, also called iGeners or iGens,
61 are safer, physically, than adolescents have
62 ever been. But they are on the brink of a
63 mental-health crisis.

64 (…) Born between 1995 and 2012, members
65 of this generation are growing up with
66 smartphones, have an Instagram account
67 before they start high school, and do not
68 remember a time before the Internet. The
69 Millennials grew up with the web as well, but
70 it wasn’t ever-present in their lives, at hand
71 at all times. iGen’s oldest members were
72 early adolescents when the iPhone was
73 introduced, in 2007, and high-school students
74 when the iPad entered the scene, in 2010.
75 The arrival of the smartphone has radically
76 changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives,
77 from the nature of their social interactions to
78 their mental health. Numerous pieces of
79 evidence suggest that social media has an
80 adverse effect on their users as it is
81 associated with outcomes like depression and
82 loneliness. In fact, the statistics are shruging:
83 in 2011 the suicide rate surpassed the rate of
84 teen homicide for the first time in almost
85 three decades. These changes have affected
86 young people in every corner of the nation
87 and in every type of household. Where there
88 are cell towers, there are teens living their
89 lives on their smartphones (…)

_{Compiled from: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/ha s-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/and https://blog.12min.com/have-smartphones-destroyed-ageneration- summary/}