Are You Sirious

Are+You+Sirious

Avah M., Executive Editor

Would you accept the vacation of your dreams knowing there was a catch? What if that catch was letting your parents have full access to the contents of your phone before you could clean it out? Well that’s just what Samsung France did in their The Way You Are ad, which was first aired in May and awarded a gold EPICA.

The commercial features a variety of teens, all owners of the Samsung Galaxy, who are under the impression they’ve been called in for an audition. Each person is individually brought into a room where they are proposed the “vacation with a catch” and surprisingly enough, every single person accepts it. The ad then continues on to document each teen’s “oh crap” moment as their parents walk in and start sifting through their phones. You can feel each one’s discomfort through their nervous pacing and mutters of profanity. But the best reactions come from the parents; from pursed lips to awkward chuckles, it’s hard to tell whether the kids will live after this to make it to their vacation. “I would definitely accept that opportunity,” says sophomore Emma Stack. “Anyone who would have to reject this because they’re so secretive about their phone would really miss out.”

The ad sparked a lot of controversy, as critics debated whether this was an actual advertisement or a social experiment. Many also pointed out that it highlighted the issues with teen phone content and privacy. “What’s on my phone is no one else’s business,” says sophomore Keira Wilson. As a whole, society has grown super attached to their phones. The average American spends about 4.7 hours a day on their phone, which means you’re spending about a third of your waking hours bonding with that hunk of metal and glass. We guard our phones with our lives. If our phone breaks, we break. Those 16 gigabytes contain our entire persona, withholding secrets that would probably make grandma cringe. Not to mention, according to Daily Mail, you have a one in seven chance of accidentally sending that scandalous text to the wrong person. Do you really want to be another statistic?

We live in a world of cellular babysitters: we never let our phones out of sight for more than five seconds without having a mental breakdown. This may mostly be due to the fact that we spend so much precious time with them. Not to mention our mobile devices hold all of our secrets (mostly undecipherable conversations that only you and your friend could understand). Cell phones store our personality and memories, but are they starting to take away from the joys and opportunities of life?