Option 1: For your argumentative essay, read the following and respond to it using a clear thesis, background information, definition of the topic, proofs, and refutation (as explained in the power-point and the textbook). You will not research this topic. Instead, you will respond to this article. You will use directly quoted passages from the article for support. You will document these passages by introducing the author’s full name and the title of the article on first reference and then using the author’s last name after the quoted or summarized passages in parentheses like this (Richie). These passages should represent a very small percentage of your essay. Your words should take up more than 80% of the essay’s two-page minimum. As always, set this up as you have all previous assignments in MLA style.

Technology is supposed to make us more connected. We can stay in touch with our friends all the time on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and, of course, by texting. But are our smartphones actually getting in the way of real socializing? Could technology be making us more alone?

In the article “

Disruptions: More Connected, Yet More Alone

,” Nick Bilton writes about a YouTube video that comments on our smartphone-obsessed culture.

Last weekend, I was watching television with a few friends, browsing the week’s most popular YouTube videos, when a piece in the comedy section called “I Forgot My Phone” caught my eye. As I was about to click play, however, a friend warned: “Oh, don’t watch that. I saw it yesterday, and it’s really sad.”

The two-minute video, which has been viewed more than 15 million times, begins with a couple in bed. The woman, played by the comedian and actress Charlene deGuzman, stares silently while her boyfriend pays no mind and checks his smartphone.

The subsequent scenes follow Ms. deGuzman through a day that is downright dystopian: people ignore her as they stare at their phones during lunch, at a concert, while bowling and at a birthday party. (Even the birthday boy is recording the party on his phone.) The clip ends with Ms. deGuzman back in bed with her boyfriend at the end of the day; he is still using his phone.

Ms. deGuzman’s video makes for some discomfiting viewing. It’s a direct hit on our smartphone-obsessed culture, needling us about our addiction to that little screen and suggesting that maybe life is just better led when it is lived rather than viewed. While the clip has funny scenes — a man proposing on a beach while trying to record the special moment on his phone — it is mostly … sad.

Students: Tell me …

· Does technology make us more alone? Do you find yourself surrounded by people who are staring at their screens instead of having face-to-face conversations? Are you ever guilty of doing that, too?

· Is our obsession with documenting everything through photographs and videos preventing us from living in the moment?

· Do you ever try to put your phone down to be more present with the people in the room?

· Do you have rules for yourself or for your friends or family about when and how you use technology in social situations? If not, do you think you should?

· Do you think smartphones will continue to intrude more into our private and social spaces, or do you think society is beginning to push back?