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**Repeating the Errors of History?** America was growing rapidly in the years from 1880-1910. Many settlers were moving past the plains states in order to make a life in the previously undiscovered West, and existing cities were growing in record numbers. The manufacturing industry was booming, and a new influx of mostly European immigrants arrived with hopes of living the American dream: holding down a good job, owning a home, and creating a family (//Reader's Choice// 470-71).

Unfortunately, as often happens with industrial revolutions, the country's new prosperity invited a plethora of social problems--overlooked initially because of America's industrial dominance. Everything appeared wonderful on the surface; underneath was anything but. Industry leaders cut corners wherever possible in attempts to increase profits, and their workers suffered as a result. Working conditions became deplorable, and there were no government regulations in place to protect workers from exploitation. The rich became richer, and the poor became poorer (//Reader's Choice// 470-71).

Socially conscious journalists called muckrakers and other writers attempted, through their craft, to expose societal ills and indirectly initiate change. Mark Twain--in an attempt to "portray people as they actually were, rather than idealizing them" as his Romantic predecessors had--referred to this period as the Gilded Age in his societal critique of the same name while others simply tried to "create vivid portrayals of their own regions," thereby satisfying the curiosity of Americans who lived outside those areas (//Reader's Choice// 471). This former literary movement was called Realism; the latter Regionalism.

A more extreme literary offshoot of Realism, Naturalistic writing is characterized by scientific theories that "human beings are shaped by heredity and environment and dominated by economic, social, or natural forces" (//Reader's Choice// 471). Authors such as Jack London, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Stephen Crane portrayed individuals as powerless in the hands of an uncaring universe--metaphorical buoys in an ocean of societal corruption.

America now finds itself in the midst of yet another industrial revolution--one of the electronics variety. Compact discs are slowly fading away as electronic music distributors like iTunes and Rhapsody become more and more popular. Blu ray discs are replacing DVDs while internet companies such as Netflix and GameFly displace stores such as Blockbuster. With today's technology, computers now can control all the systems in a house, from the water temperature to the lighting and heat; refrigerators now create grocery lists and do the shopping; and consumers pay for purchases using their fingerprints. Smart phones now not only make calls and store contact information but can also play games, surf the internet, send text and e-mail, play music and videos, take photos, provide directions--just about anything multiple other devices ordinarily do, in one cheaper, easy to carry package. Due to new innovations in electronics, people's lives have become much, much easier.

But at what cost?

Smart phones have allowed people who cannot afford--or have room for--a separate phone, television, stereo, camera, computer, GPS, and gaming system access to all of those amenities at a reasonable price. Now, not only can upper and middle class individuals own all of that technology, but so can those with lower incomes, such as single parents, teenagers, even recipients of state aid. And in today's economy, having this technology makes people feel like they are a part of something, like they matter.

AT & T makes a smart phone seem indispensable: Commercial 1: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Commercial 2:

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Who wouldn't want all this information at their fingertips? With a smart phone anything at all is within reach, from addresses of old friends, to public documents, to video conferencing.

Smart phones aren't always used in productive ways, however. Students often use their smart phones to cheat at school, whether it be texting answers to friends, storing answers on their phones, or surfing the internet in search of the answers. The following video elaborates on possible reasons for this growing problem:

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According to Zach Miner, a writer for //US News//, approximately 35 percent of students admit to using cell phones to cheat. What's worse, only 3 percent of parents think that their children would stoop to academic dishonesty, which makes solving the problem much more difficult. James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, believes that restricting cell phone usage isn't the answer. Instead, parents and teachers should educate themselves on the ways in which students cheat and then make those cheaters aware "that the consequences for online or electronic cheating are just as serious as those for old-fashioned cheating" (qtd. in Miner). For most institutions these consequences range from a lack of credit on the assignment to possible suspension or expulsion from school.

Cheating isn't the only problem arising from the advent of smart phones; the practice of bullying has been taken to a whole other level. Many are familiar with the case of Megan Meier:

 xxxxxxxxxxx [|Megan Meier Story, Part I] xxxxxxxxxxxx [|Megan Meier Story, Part II]

Phoebe Prince was another, much publicized victim:

media type="file" key="Phoebe Prince.mp4" width="300" height="300" <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Yet there are others--many others--who have felt that the immense weight of cyberbullying was simply too much to bear. Below are just a few:

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> xxx <span style="color: #808080; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Kayla Wright xxxxxxxx Megan Gillan xxxxxxxxxx Amanda Cota

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> xxx <span style="color: #808080; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Hope Witsell xxx <span style="color: #808080; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Ryan Halligan xxxxxxxx <span style="color: #808080; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Alexis Pilkington

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">According to anti-bullying expert and speaker Claudio Cerullo, over half of students say that they have

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">either engaged in or been cyberbullied. Over thirty percent have been threatened online, the vast

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">majority of them repeatedly. The saturation of smart phones today obviously contributes to the problem

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">by making bullying not only more common, but also more relentless than ever before.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Sexting is another common problem among teens with smart phones today--one which the news

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">networks brought to the limelight years ago:

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">media type="file" key="Teen sexting.mp4" width="294" height="292" xx media type="file" key="Teen Sexting 2.mp4" width="322" height="291"

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Despite schools' and law enforcement's efforts to thwart it through the enacting of various laws, sexting

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">continues seemingly unabated. In fact, according to a 2010 survey conducted by the National Campaign,

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">nearly 40 percent of teenagers have sent sexually explicit messages to others, either through text or

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">online (Webster). Since smart phones are now more affordable, it makes sense that more teens own

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">them. If that's the case, these statisitics have surely grown.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">So why is it that news coverage of sexting cases has waned, except in rare instances? Why is it that

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">cyberbullying only makes headlines when a teen commits suicide? Why is cheating only front-page news

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">if teachers are involved?

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">The truth is, all of these negative byproducts of smart phones--electronic cheating, cyberbullying, and

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">sexting--are inevitable evolutionary metamorphoses of previously existing social problems. As

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">technology advances, so do the ways in which problems present themselves. And these are problems, no

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">matter their guise. Just as with the previous industrial revolution, when issues such as child labor,

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">women's rights, and treatment for the mentally ill all came to the forefront, this most recent digital

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">industrial revolution has produced more "unforeseen" societal ills. But were they really unforeseen?

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Mark Twain had no crystal ball; he simply called it as he saw it. It's difficult to believe that others couldn't

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">foresee what Twain put into words in //The Gilded Age//. People in power have numerous brilliant minds in

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">their ear whose sole purpose is presenting them with all the options. With economical matters, however,

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: impact,charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">It seems that Dr. Spock was right: "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few--or the one."

__<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Works Cited __

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Cerullo, Claudio V., PhD. “CyberBullying Statistics.” Bullying: The Silent Threat. What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know. 5 Jan. 2011. 29 Dec. 2011 []. <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Miners, Zach. “One Third of Teens Use Cellphones to Cheat in School.” //US News and World Report//. 23 June 2009. 29 Dec. 2011 [].

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Webster, Richard. “From Cyber Bullying to Sexting (stats and videos): What's on Your Kids' Cell?” //Hartford// //County// //Education Headlines Examiner//. 29 Jan. 2010. 30 Dec. 2011 []. <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Phd. et al. //Glencoe Literature: American Literature: The Reader’s Choice.// New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2008.

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif;">Photo and Video Credits __ <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Alexis Pilkington photo courtesy of cbsnews.com <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Hope Witsell photo courtesy of cbsnews.com <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Ryan Halligan photo courtesy of tutufoundationusa.org <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Megan Gillan photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Amanda Cota photo courtesy of respectance.com <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Kayla Wright photo courtesy of spokeo.com <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Videos courtesy of YouTube.com and MySpace.com