An article was published in Time Magazine’s online version claiming that one of the major causes of unhappiness in our society is the use of cellular phones at the dinner table. The article is based on a recent study which focused on mobile phones being one of the major causes of dissatisfaction from social relationships and experience of unhappiness. This analysis will focus on the comparison between the mention of the study in a popular media outlet such as Time Magazine and its mention in the shape of an original research based article.
Methods
There are major differences in reporting of study methods by the story in popular magazine and the research based article. The popular article correctly reported that the 1st study comprised of 300 (adult and young) participants who were family and friends. But the popular story did not report the correct size of the second study’s participants and the nature of their relationships. The original article states that the study participants were 123 students from same educational institute (Dwyer et al., 2017, p.4). However the popular article states that there were 100+ participants (Ducharme, 2018). The researchers accept that the number of participants in their study were fewer (Dwyer et al., 2017, p.6). Thus not mentioning the incorrect size of subjects and weaknesses in the study design in the popular magazine article depicts that the author is trying to mislead the audience. Other than the size and social relations of the participants, Time’s story did not identify complete details of the subject’s demographics (Ducharme, 2018). It is clearly mentioned in the original one that the participants belonged to the regions of US and Canada (Dwyer et al., 2017, p.5). Therefore, the story of Time is trying to make all of its audience feel that phones are the cause of unhappiness when used in dinner settings. This assertion may be incorrect because the social situation of people belonging to the West is quite different from the people of Eastern or Asian regions. In Western regions people are more individualistic and therefore it is quite common for them to use phones during in-person social interactions. On the contrary, in Asian regions people exercise collectivism. As a result of which they may also ignore their phones even if it rings during their social interactions.
Study Conclusion
The popular article states that when the subjects of the first study were dinning out they experienced dissatisfaction and boredom if they used their mobile phones instead of interacting with their peers (Ducharme, 2018). The popular article does fail to mention that the researchers concluded that the outcome was not statistically robust (Dwyer et al., 2017, p.4). Therefore, the popular article is misleading the population into thinking that use of phones during dinning out sessions with loved ones is a cause of their unhappiness. The popular article author has involved in faulty generalization. This is because of the claim that all participants who used the phone while dinning out experienced unhappiness.
Reflection
The story should not have been approved by the editors of Time to be published. This is because ample amount of factual and necessary information has not been reported within the article. For example; readers of this article may be people who do not belong to individualistic societies such as Canada and the US and they might accept that the study results also apply to their population. Instead of hiding information, the author should have clearly mentioned all the details of the participants. This is because the general audience tends to relate more with popular media outlets and accept and adopt what these media outlets present to them. The insights in the article relate with one of the major causes of depression, anxiety, unhappiness and boredom experienced by people. The course material has repeatedly mentioned the importance of in-person communication for stronger social relationships and its resulting outcome of happiness. Since mobile phone use has increased, in-person communication has decreased and people are experiencing unhappiness as a result of being disconnected with their social peers.
References
Ducharme, J. (2018). Using Your Phone At Dinner Isn’t Just Rude. Time. Retrieved 11 April 2018, from http://time.com/5178352/phone-ruining-dinner/
Dwyer, R. J., Kushlev, K., " Dunn, E. W. (November 01, 2017). Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. From https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0022103117301737/1-s2.0-S0022103117301737-main.pdf?_tid=b3026d8d-52b5-4176-938e-fa347e411c67"acdnat=1523463486_0c98f48266c5d00486e7e284cfd6dae7)
