Saving the Self in the Age of the Selfie Article Analysis Essay Sample

In a digital world it becomes easier for to fall through everything just from getting on our phones. Paul Miller, a 26 year old reporter for The Verge, took upon himself the dare to completely remove himself from digitally communicating with the world for a year (McWilliams 319). Paul quickly learned that humanity had shifted online; there wasn’t a place for those without. The Internet as well as the mobile device industry has been successful for years now resulting in a heavy user-base, but with this excess of people instantly having access to who or whatever they want it has groomed consumers to be wired only for instant-gratification. Users of these platforms slowly forfeit their social skills as they are taught attention spans, the ability to hold a conversation, and moderating unhealthy behaviors are optional. Actions that lead to short or long term happiness are vulnerable to being swayed by our phones and the value we give them.  James McWilliams educates the audience in Saving the Self in the Age of the Selfie that humans have managed to develop dependencies on the internet and their devices, directly preventing some from achieving sustained happiness.

Paul Miller is a wonderful example of recognizing an issue influencing his performance and mental health and proceeding to do something about it. Paul was struggling to accomplish tasks required for his day-to-day life that he once was able to do comfortably, so he took it upon himself to live without his phone for a year. According to James; “Paul realized his online habits weren’t helping him to work, much less to multitask. He was just switching his attention all over the place and in the process, becoming a bit unhinged” (319). James later states once Paul had been disconnected from his phone for a while he “became more present-minded,” yet Paul’s friends failed to do the same as stated; “his companions did as he once would have done: they whipped out their smartphones and went into other worlds” (320). While Paul is working into who he wishes to be his bystanders are oblivious as to where they are even working towards; the constant use of cellphones has created a storm of unaware people who are lead into believing everything that’s important lives inside of an Otterbox case. Those who misunderstand the trade-off they’re making by being codependent on their phone are damaging their personalities and conversation skills, which infringes upon their happiness because of their increased likelihood to self-sabotage in spiritually enriching situations. 

Everyone who operates a phone has complete control over it in those moments, yet it seems the phone manages to manipulate the user just as easily. Smartphones are given unrestricted access to consumers in the form of social media, news, messaging, forums, servers, and many other shapes and forms. When a user chooses to indulge in any aforementioned method of entertainment they barter mental aptitude on the account of convenience, furthering them from maintaining happiness. James explains that by deciding to rely on your phone you are ignorizing yourself to the loss of communication skills required to fundamentally communicate to one another, saying; “Socrates, for one, fretted that the written word would compromise our ability to retell stories… he argued in Phaedrus, would favor cheap symbols over actual memories, ease of conveyance over inner depth” (322). Humans are choosing convenience in using phones as a form of communication instead of physically speaking to each other. This sort of behavior is a polar opposite of the emotional and mental tendencies our species was built upon, providing easy ability to blame the phones. The idea of switching off depth for convenience also brings to light our blatant failure to maintain patience, and without patience or self-control it makes plenty of smaller decisions more difficult to process and react to resulting in even more difficulty being happy. 

Smartphones allow us to provide ourselves with information and ease at reaching those we love, as well as revolutionalizing our economy, standard of living, and the privilege of being able to entertain yourself wherever you may be. However, anything without moderation can become extremely unhealthy. James states:

Only the digitized moment remains. And that moment has seduced us with a particularly compelling promise: to make us present and ever present at once; to be attentive here and there at the same time. Such a universal human desire, in itself, irresistible. But when the tool aiming to fulfill this promise also fits in our hand and responds to our thumbs, then it requires heroic effort to escape the alluring verisimilitude of ever presence. (323)

 The choice to live inside a phone costs all of the memories that were never allowed to happen; all the talks missed because the Instagram feed was too entertaining, the dozens of complete strangers passed while on the phone, as well as the conscious decision made to slowly chip away at self-control. A positive influence in life is exclusively just that; anything short of perfect is unacceptable in heavy consumption and will result in tapering the ability to rightfully pursue happiness. 

James McWilliams gifted his readers an understanding of how phones interact with the world as well as the consumer and how these interactions can inhibit or exhibit happiness. Saving the Self in the Age of the Selfie was able to provide useful information on using smartphones without moderation and how it creates issues in making decisions that can have a mystery of consequences. Phones also can act as a detainer when withholding the user from potential social occasions and connections that would’ve transpired if they’d been attentative. It would be impossible to measure how many chances were missed because users are unaware such opportunities happened due to distraction.  With cell phones becoming an even more commonplace item among all age groups it’s important to comprehend the damage they are doing when moderation as well as self-control isn’t being exercised appropriately. Try as hard as possible to stay off your phone when it’s unnecessary; doing so will increase the odds of something wonderful happening along with giving a chance to become a better form of yourself.