Debate preparation template

First speaker guide

Topic Do mobiles apps improve people’s quality of life?

Speakers’ names Oscar Eduardo Parra Rodriguez

Speaker’s position Affirmative.

Greeting and Introduction
Good evening chairperson, opposition and audience.

I am Oscar Parra student of analysis and development of information systems.

In today's world, mobile applications can give people ease in different areas of daily life,
allowing us comfort, experiences and solutions. We find these benefits in every activity
of the day and leads us to think that we are more dependent on these applications,
leading to complications in the lifestyle that affect people's social, health and economic
level.

Next, I am going to express in which cases mobile applications positively or negatively

impact people.

Outline your team's case:

a) Your points:
I will be speaking about how mobile apps:

● Shorten distances for communication between individuals.

● Facilitates people's daily activities.

● Save lives.
b) Second speaker's points:
Our second speaker will be talking about:

● Health issues related to the use of mobile apps.

● Social problems caused from using mobile apps.

● Extreme scenarios (Death, accidents, etc)

Your First Point

My first point is related to how mobile apps shorten distances:

In the article published by the newspaper "La Republica" on June 28, 2019
(https://www.larepublica.co/empresas/las-aplicaciones-generan-cambios-tanto-en-la-
vida-de-las-personas-como-en-las-empresas-2879115), it says that connectivity between
individuals is getting shorter every day and the future of connectivity in the near future
will always be online in every corner of the globe, and It will be as common as oxygen,
this leads us to people always being a call, message or video call away.
Your Second Point
State your argument:
My second point is about how individuals can take advantage of mobile apps to solve
daily problems or get help with their daily routines.

As we know technology is in every area of our lives, we can see it in our study, work, in
our recreation spaces, transportation, etc. And if we think about how all these activities
would be without the help of mobile applications, we could see that doing them would be
a true challenge as in past times, consuming time, money and not allowing us to be
competitive.

Your Third Point

My third point is about cases where mobile apps or implementations in smartphones
saved lives.

With the status of technologies developed by the current technology companies, we can
react to different emergencies in record time, since we have within our reach applications
and devices that, as the "Robotina" article published on August 29 2021
(https://www.robotina.us/entretenimiento/Un-Smartwatch-salvo-la-vida-de-una-
persona-mayor-en-dos-ocasiones-20210829-0009.html) says that a smart watch saved
the life of an older adult on two occasions since one of his applications automatically
called the emergency agencies when this older adult fell off his bicycle and this allowed
him timely attention.

Closing statement
Chairperson, opposition and members of the audience, in conclusion to the arguments
presented in favour of the benefits that mobile applications bring to people, we can say
that mobile applications in today's world are necessary and extremely useful and facilitate
every activity of individuals , that if we manage it responsibly, it will bring benefits and
opportunities for all, taking technologies in the near future will give people the
opportunity to improve the quality of life and increase knowledge in different areas of
knowledge.

Second speaker guide

Speaker’s position Negative

Expressing disagreement with first speaker’s arguments

On the other hand, I disagree on the arguments that defend the mobile apps as the
saviour of the community because they cause more problems than solutions.

Considering that is true that certain mobile apps are useful for health, finance, daily
activities and so on, most of the applications are specifically designed to create an
addiction on the person who uses the app, taking the user to stay more and more
involved in the application and causing social problems, health issues and in more
advanced scenarios even death of the user or others involved.

Briefly State the Points You Will Make

Today I will be talking to you about:

● Health issues related to the use of mobile apps.

● Social and mental problems caused from using mobile apps.

● Extreme scenarios (Death, accidents, etc)

Your First Point

My first point is related to health issues caused from the use of mobile apps daily.

The best example is a term caused precisely from such behaviour, “Text neck” is a term
mentioned by the newspaper “South China morning post”
(https://multimedia.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2183329/text-neck/index.html) for a
condition in which a person is with their head pushing forward and his shoulders pointing
forward also, this happens usually when using mobile applications.

This can cause chronic pain in the neck, difficulty to move the head and in some cases
herniated discs.

The statistic of people that suffer from these conditions is greater than the lives saved by
any application existent. This proves the point that such applications are no solution but
an inconvenient problem.

Your Second Point

My second point is about the social and mental problems related to the use of mobile
apps.

The first one is the pattern associated to the social interaction, in which people that don’t
have the qualities they mention appear to be more attractive, smart, talented or
charismatic than they really are. This appearance problem is promoted by social media
apps and is consumed by most of the people, the result is a generation that is more
susceptible to no being like the idealized body on social media.

An article in “Insider” (https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/how-

social-media-affects-body-image) mentions that such behaviour has been popularized
and the perception has been affecting young people minds, creating supremely high
expectations when meeting people in real life that are not met when the moment comes,
the results are mental health problems like depression (caused by not enough stimuli
from real life interactions), anxiety (when a person is rejected due to the high
expectations of another person), even more dangerous pathologies like dysmorphia
(perception of a defective body even when in reality it is not).

Your Third Point

My third point is related to extreme cases related to the use of mobile apps, like
accidents or even deaths caused by the use of such applications.

Recently, the mobile game Pokémon GO had a massive success between users
worldwide, the fame extended so on that people was seen walking everywhere trying to
catch their Pokémon in most places. What can be seen as an innocuous activity was the
trigger to a lot of incidents related. Robbery to people that, in their intent to catch a
creature entered a dangerous sector of their cities, Accidents caused from people in their
cars, bicycles, motorcycles when trying to catch a creature, pedestrians falling on
dangerous areas (Railway tracks, avenues, etc). These are only the top of the iceberg of
extreme cases related to the use of mobile apps. To the date there is a web page that
tracks the cases of incidents related to the use of Pokémon GO
(http://pokemongodeathtracker.com/)

Closing statement
Chairman, opposition and members of the audience, in conclusion, these are the
arguments I brought to the table, even when there are so much more that proves that
mobile apps are causing more problems than solutions in society and quality of life of
individuals, We reviewed and came to a conclusion that the irresponsible use of such
applications can derive in health, finance, mental and social issues to a person or a
community.