Instigator / Con
10
1503
rating
26
debates
46.15%
won
Topic
#1355

Smartphones Are Good

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
3
6
Better sources
4
4
Better legibility
2
2
Better conduct
1
2

After 2 votes and with 4 points ahead, the winner is...

Christen
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
5
Time for argument
Two days
Max argument characters
10,000
Voting period
One week
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Pro
14
1526
rating
5
debates
70.0%
won
Description

Smartphones are bad

*******************************************************************
>Reported Vote: OnDaWay // Mod action: Removed

>Points Awarded: 6 points to pro for arguments, sources, and conduct

>Reason for Decision: What a good debate.

>Reason for Mod Action: This account is ineligible to vote. In order to vote, an account must: (1) Read the site’s COC AND have completed 2 non-troll/non-FF debate OR have 100 forum posts. Moreover, none of his points are sufficiently explained per the COC's standards.
Please see the rules: https://www.debateart.com/rules
************************************************************************

-->
@OnDaWay

Your vote, according to me, is deemed insufficient, I have reported this to the moderators.

-->
@OnDaWay

Welcome to the site. Sadly your vote falls short of the standards, so will be deleted. I hope that does not discourage you, and that you soon begin taking part in debates.

-->
@Club

When what?

Better luck next time

-->
@Imabench

****************************************
Vote reported: Imabench // Mod Action: Not removed

Reason: This vote is sufficient per the standards.
****************************************

When

You're allowed to list quotes from sources, even extensively, if the quoted material directly relates to the debate. Christen did that, you failed to make a successful counter argument to save your life, so that gives the edge to him for overall points.

List how he elaborated more than just the fact that he elaborated. We both spent the first round listing our points, and the others refuting each others. This should award a tie.

Plus, most of his arguments were quotes, so in essence, he barely did any debating.

-->
@Imabench

He barely refuted two of my points, smartphone addiction, and test scores.

You both barely refuted each others arguments so the fact that Christen was more elaborate with his points and that his points were inherently stronger to his case than your argument were to yours gave him the edge overall. You spent a vast majority of the debate trying to poke holes in his points by dismissing them as unimportant which was thoroughly unconvincing

-->
@Ramshutu
@oromagi
@WaterPhoenix

Vote plz

-->
@Imabench

Christen only had one okay argument about usefulness, and I countered that saying that usefulness comes with productivity, and phones limit productivity, by providing distractions.

-->
@Imabench
@Barney

He also used quotes as almost all his arguments, I'm not sure this counts for arguments, but should be taken off

-->
@Imabench

He barely refuted mine, I barely refuted his. It should be a tie.

-->
@Barney

I just said he conceded, not conceded the whole debate.

-->
@Barney

What's a contention heading?

Also I waived the last round 'cause he told me to.

-->
@Club
@Christen

In future please use contention headings throughout the debate (in essence, that R1 bolded text should stay bolded and recycled into each round). https://tiny.cc/DebateArt

---RFD (1 of 2)---

Gist:
This should not have been so hard to read...

1. Easier Communication (pro)
Faster than smoke signals and the like.
Challenged with the existence of various other means of communication (including cell phones and messenger apps... ugh). Talking also ranks 11th in how people use smartphones.
Some of the other communication means are contested on grounds of access restrictions, and in general not being computers.

2. Utility (pro)
List good things about smartphones in that they save space, and potentially money (Toys R Us example).
The money example is disputed, as the source cited non-smartphone games.
Pro continues by explaining that smartphones are small computers which can be carried in a pocket.
It goes on to what pro reduces to luddite complaints.

3. Saves Lives
When kidnapping people, you can get them to give you directions on their GPS (brilliant!).
Mitigated as the maps fall under the utility argument, not a special unique argument onto itself (plus the kidnapper was stupid, which the smartphone did not induce). ... Somehow con later tries to make this into a negative for exploiting stupidity.

---RFD (2 of 2)---

4. Hurts Test Scores (con)
Korean student grades are inversely correlated to smart phone access. This was asserted to be unrelated to smartphones, but the greater time spent not using them...

5. Addiction (con)
Anyway both agree that addiction is a thing, that people can be better doesn’t change it, nor does fault matter. Con tries to relate it to the dangers of tobacco, pro explains the lack of lung cancer. Pro also shifts some of the problem to social media, which people will be addicted to with or without smartphones (it mitigates the problem, but smartphones still play a role in access).

---

Arguments:
See above review of key points. I’m leaning in pro’s favor on this, but I have stuff to go do, and am willing to admit my bias as a smartphone user; so will not award this without greater consideration to the cost/benefit. Thus, leaving it tied.

Sources:
These could have been integrated much better.

S&G:
Pro could have taken this had he not switched to a weird style in R2. Otherwise I would have penalized con for poor formatting that initially caused me to think he conceded (I don’t always read things in the normal order, so checking his responses to C1 before moving on to C2, the lack of anything to mark what was a quotation from pro made it look like con was listing how great smartphones are).

Conduct:
Trying to trick voters is inexcusable: “Yes it's stopping face-to-face interaction, thank you for conceding. The only things that use smartphones are humans, and if it does bad things to humans, it's bad. VOTERS: CONCESSION!” I think we’ve all been there, explaining as pro does: “Me defending smartphones, refuting your arguments, and backing it up with various sources is by no means a ‘concession’.” That he gave some ground, doesn’t mean he conceded the whole debate, as con repeatedly proclaims.
I should note here that pro had zero obligation to waive the last round.

-->
@Christen

Wrong site

-->
@Club

Even if I don't personally use the radio app on my phone for "listening to USELESS music" there sure are other people that do.

Your article that you linked seems to be trying to imply that smartphones HELP the economy, not HURT it.

"Cell phones have had a profound impact on a number of different industries, helping to develop new communities and business networks in economies on a global scale. Not only are these devices able to connect people to their customers in a new way, they also allow those from different socioeconomic backgrounds to engage in consumer behavior without traditional financial institutions to help them."

"Cell phones help instigate and encourage economic growth in developed and developing nations. Increasing the access to and usage of cell phones, as well as the speeds with which people can connect with one another, helps improve the efficacy of businesses."

Also, no, they most certainly do not get rid of the use of things. These things like the calculator are still usable and still used today. It just so happens to now be in the form of a smartphone app as opposed to a physical bulky electronic that requires it's own set of batteries and whatnot.

Smartphones come with a variety of useful apps, such as the calculator and the radio, and even if these apps are not included in your smartphone, you can most likely download them from the App Store or Play Store. These apps make it so that you do not need to get a physical calculator or radio with batteries in order to calculate numbers and listen to the radio, thus saving you space. If you have a drawer, for instance, you don't need to store these things inside it and take up unnecessary space when you can have easy access to them in your pocket. If you plan on traveling, you don't need to carry a physical flashlight, calculator, or notepad, since all of these things exist as apps within a smartphone, and thus, it saves you space in your backpack for other more important things. [2]

But I wanna ask you a question, when do you ever use the RADIO on your phone besides listening to USELESS music. And calculators, it's good alright, but SMARTPHONES actually hurt the economy, by getting rid of the use for a bunch of things. https://www.reference.com/world-view/cell-phones-affect-economy-e5f55c3167504f19

-->
@Christen

Sorry I did not respond to one of your arguments, here's the argument

5 rounds, oof