In the article "American Jerks," author Todd Schwartz tries to explain that society is yet not enough civilized, and the civilization we claim we have is only limited to speeches and books, but not applied or cultivated in real life. The author puts a very intelligent, yet humorous and sarcastic piece of writing. On the first paragraph of the article, Todd Schwartz mocks a historical paragraph written by Charles Dickens. These famous lines, which open A Tale of Two Cities, mentions the novel's central tension between love and family, on one hand, and oppression and hatred on the other. Todd Schwartz instead, puts the tension on the level of which we are civilized. I deeply agree with the author that our society is far from being civilized, people seem to care more about their phones than interacting with other individuals.
The author proves his point that people have lost their simple manners and responsibility of being an exemplary civilian, as our lives has been resumed and entertained by our electronic devices. In today's society there is a barrier, which has been inhibiting social sharing between humans, such as talking to someone face to face, instead, we rather interact with our friends and family through our cellphones and computers. Social networking sites like Facebook and Skype provide us with all the "companionship" we believe to be necessary to fulfill our egotistic minds. Without face-to-face contact and person interaction we begin to lose empathy towards one another and forget how truly important human interaction is necessary for our lives. .
We are easily influenced by the negativity of our society through many forms of social media, like TV shows and social media. There are fewer constructive and intelligent TV shows being broadcasted today. The population is not interested in constructive information anymore such as news and history. Our television shows have being invaded by drama, violence, and money, as a way to entertain their targeted audience.