Smartphone Addiction

Technology is the most complex and intricate issue of the 21st century. Shun it and be left behind. Embrace it and be left brain dead. This is not true of all technology necessarily, but is particularly correct when discussing our insane addictions to smart phones.
In 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s newest invention, “A widescreen IPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and breakthrough internet communication. But these are not 3 separate devices,” he told the delirious crowd at the MacWorld Expo and Conference in San Francisco, “This is one device. And today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” Reinvent it Jobs did. And with it, he changed the entire world as we knew it. I can promise you that Steve Jobs had no idea of the monster he was about to create. That he was no better than Victor Frankenstein, about to unleash a beast so strong that man could not withstand it. I can promise you that Steve Jobs did not intend for his invention to be the cause of so many broken relationships and the reason for so many eroded social skills. Yet here we are, 10 years later, and although Jobs is no longer with us, his iPhone, his creation, his “baby”, is still here, and isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time.
I once wrote an essay about technology and its advantages and disadvantages on our society. I cannot remember now, the specifics of my essay, but I do remember saying that overall, technology is a good thing. And although it may not seem like it, I still stand by that opinion. I don’t think that technology has ruined our society. Radio, television, and the Internet all have their place in society. The phone has its place as well. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention was simply a communication device, one of the most brilliant things ever created. The point of a phone is to reach someone who you cannot in person, to speak with your son who is halfway across the world, or your grandmother who is still stuck in Mexico. The phone was not intended for you to text the guy sitting 4 feet away from you, because you’re too lazy and anti-social to actually look up and say something to his face. 92% of people answered a survey to CNBC saying that smart phones have altered how they connect with friends.
The much biggest and most impactful problem of out generation is that we are addicted to our smart phones, and the problem is becoming more and more apparent. It’s proof that we as a society are refusing to face reality, and to acknowledge other people. As a result of this, our relationships are weak, and our social skills are diminished. How often, do you try to have a conversation with someone, yet they cannot seem to pry their eyes away from the screen? This is not a problem that exists with other forms of technology. If I told you that you cannot watch TV for the next week, you would probably be annoyed, but not much more. But if I told you that you cannot be on your phone for a week, all mayhem would ensue, because you just cannot depart with your beloved phone.
The addiction is very real. When I come home from school every day, I see my sister sitting, playing on her phone and she sits like that for the entire night. This is not an isolated incident. Parents are playing with their children less, because of the addiction. Kids are communicating at a lower rate than ever. The smart phone has killed our face to face interactions. We have trouble going 2 minutes without checking our phones. A study done by Tamyra Pierce showed that there is a correlation between the amount of time spent on a smart phone, and that person’s social anxiety in face to face meetings.
There’s a reason why we are all addicted to or smart phones. Research shows that when we receive a text message or a like on social media, our brains release the same feel-good chemicals triggered by drugs and sex. We cannot stay away from our phones. Our lives are in the palm of our hand. The more we become attached to the phone, the less of a person we become. Notice how at a concert or at a sporting event, we can’t even enjoy it in first-person, we have to video it to play back later. Nobody lives in the moment anymore.
An interviewer recently asked Jennifer Aniston, star of the hit TV show “Friends”, whether or not the show could still exist in today’s world. “We were jokingly saying that if Friends was created today, you would have a coffee shop full of people that were just staring into IPhones,” she told the Huffington Post. She claims she said it jokingly, but the sad thing is that it’s true. How often do you walk into a cafe or a restaurant and see a group of people at the table just sitting there, not looking up, and not speaking, with heads buried in their phones? I see it all the time. Walk into a nearby shop and you will too. We are becoming zombies, and losing our human element in the process, conversation. The problem has gotten so big that in China, that the local government of Chongqing have introduced a 30 meter “cell phone lane” for addicted pedestrians. The rate of accidents due to texting and driving is increasing, and not just in the case of teenagers.
Smartphone addiction is dangerous, and it’s affecting all of our everyday lives, in ways we don’t even realize. Going back to that essay I wrote a few years back, I remember citing the Ray Bradbury work, “The Pedestrian.” I specifically remember the quote he uses when discussing technology, television in particular. “People sit "dead" in their tomblike homes; walking through the neighbourhood is similar to walking through a "graveyard." It’s almost as if Bradbury time-traveled 65 years, because I feel the same way.