Persuasive paper: (30 points)
do personal music players such as mp3s isolate their users and hamper social interaction?

how would you start this argument off without starting with yes.
(i believe that they do so base your answer around "yes")

Let me just wander a bit, before getting serious about an answer. All personal electronic  devices do what an mp3 does.

Some years ago before cell phones became as popular as they are now, I saw 4 teen agers 2 boys 2 girls sitting at a table. All four were texting. I knew they were texting each other because when one finished another began. They were not talking about homework, nor were they talking about anything that could or was meant for the outside world. It was easy to tell that.

There was no giggling at the table. There was no flirting. There was no real interconnection of any kind. It was sad really. All 4 were at the height of their attractiveness. All 4 were (could I use) beautiful. But there was something very hollow about what they were doing. My wife, who normally doesn't see such things, noticed that as well and both of us were looking back at our late teen years and thinking we had something they didn't. Not that we knew it at the time.

MP3 players and music have the same problem only more so. The teens we saw, when they become serious about courting, are going to look back and think that at least something was happening between them

But MP3 music isolates the person even more. Who will make a comment about what they hear? No one. Who will agree or disagree with them about what they hear? No one? Who will tell them that we should go out and enjoy the sunset, and not listen to anything until we can't go out and see the sunset? No one. Who will make them feel more than the loneliness and the hollow yearning for something better? No one. Who will call them handsome or pretty? No one.

Perhaps if you begin like that, you will get what you want. They have doomed themselves to an existence of "no one" if all they do is listen. Listening is a huge skill, but it needs to be put to use by interacting with someone who needs to hear the things that make a life full and inviting.