“Three
billion people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online
social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every
day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms,
according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million
tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.”
– From
BBC Future’s “Best of 2018”
Everywhere I am I see so
many people, at the first available minute, choosing to bury their
noses into their smartphones. They begin accessing the web, texting
friends and relatives, and communicating with seemingly everyone
about everything. Whether at their homes, driving their cars, or at
social settings, these people automatically employ their mobile
digital assistants as if they are turning on their brains. They feel
they must connect with their extended, electromagnetic minds and
devote their attention to mobile technology. It's enough to make me
wonder if anyone is living in the moment.
Statistics gathered by Pew
Research Center in early 2018 found that 95% of Americans owned some
type of cell phone. Of them, 77% owned a smartphone. This was a 42%
increase from 2011, the first year that smartphone ownership surveys
were conducted.
Additionally, 84% of
Americans households had at least one smartphone and about 33% had at
least three smartphones.
People fiercely believe
they must have their phone with them and active all the time.
Nomophobia – no–mobile-phone-phobia – is the fear of not having
your phone with you. Just how real is this fear?
Consider …
- The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day. (Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
- 71% of users usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone. (Source: Huffington Post)
- 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving. (Source: TrustMyPaper)
I've actually seen people
freak out when they cannot get a signal. They panic and worry
something will happen without their instantaneous access. Paranoid?
I've seen other users
fall victim to “phantom phone alerts,” the mysterious phenomenon
where they think their phone is buzzing but it isn’t. Neurotic?
According to a recent Pew
Research Center study, 46 percent of Americans say they could not
live without their smartphones. Hyperbole or chronic admission of
dependency?
“The
starry sky is absolutely gorgeous tonight. Maybe I'll see a shooting
star and can make a wish … especially since I'm getting told to get
off my phone.”
– April Mae Monterrosa
For so many, smartphones
have become a habit which causes them to miss out on meaningful
engagements in the real world. They also miss the creativity that
comes in idle moments when the mind is free to wander. Spending so
much time on their smartphones, some cannot find the right phone/life
balance – they end up overly distracted and anxious as their
excessive phone use starts to affect their mental health.
People's obsessional
reliance on smartphones causes them to lose their ability to take
care of themselves in an organic and all natural way. Hyung Suk Seo,
M.D., professor of neuroradiology at Korea University in Seoul, South
Korea, and his colleagues found that people with a so-called internet
and smartphone addiction actually demonstrated imbalances in brain
chemistry compared to a control group.
Another study appearing in
the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found
that cognitive capacity was significantly reduced whenever a
smartphone was within reach, even when the phone is off.
(Maureen
Morley and Linda Brooks. “Smartphone Addiction Creates Imbalance in
Brain.” Radiological Society of North America. November 30, 2017.)
How about very young
people and their use of smartphones?
The experts are
unequivocal: Kids in this age group shouldn’t be using smartphones
(or other mobile devices), period. The Canadian Paediatric Society
(CPS) recommends limiting it to less than one hour a day for children
ages two to five years old (screen time for children younger than two
years old is not recommended at all), while the American Academy of
Pediatrics advises placing consistent limits on media consumption for
children ages six and older.
Michael Cheng, a child and
family psychiatrist at Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern
Ontario, explains that mobile devices cause the brain to become wired
from an early age to crave easy dopamine, referring to the
“feel-good” chemical released by the brain. The constant
overstimulation from mobile screens gives the brain hits of dopamine
(and adrenaline), which is why they’re so addictive.
Researchers from the
Boston University School of Medicine took a close look at the
available literature on smartphone and iPad use among very young
children. Using such devices to entertain or pacify children, they
warn, might have a detrimental effect on their social and emotional
development.
“If these devices become
the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they
be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?”
the researcher's question.
Hands-on activities and
those involving direct human interaction are superior to interactive
screen games, the experts suggest. The use of mobile devices becomes
especially problematic when such devices replace hands-on activities
that help develop visual-motor and sensorimotor skills.
Children
spend more time with electronic media than they do in any other
activity, aside from sleep. Too much screen time can be harmful to
kids. One recent study found that parental monitoring of kids' media
use – cutting screen time – led to improved sleep, decreased body
mass index, reduced aggression, and better grades.
(Douglas
A. Gentile, PhD1; Rachel A. Reimer, PhD2; Amy I. Nathanson, PhD3; et
al. “Protective Effects of Parental Monitoring of Children’s
Media Use.” JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168.)
Teens have been
dramatically affected by smartphone use.
Smartphone ownership has
expanded dramatically among teens over the past six years. According
to a national “Social Media, Social Life” report by Common Sense
Media (2018), less than half of teens (41 percent) had phones in
2012. Today, 89 percent of teens do. Pew Research Center (2018) found
45 per cent of these teens are online “constantly.”
Although some studies
disagree, San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge sees a
direct link between how much time teens spend on smartphones and
troubling signs of mental health distress.
In her 2017 book iGen,
Twenge cited national health surveys and other statistics to argue
that a generation of teens have turned to smartphones as their
preferred social outlet, and teens who spend the most time on their
screens are more likely to be unhappy. Psychological well-being was
highest in years when adolescents spent more time with their friends
in person, reading print media, and on exercise and sports.
"What you get is a
fundamental shift in how teens spend their leisure time," Twenge
told USA TODAY. "They are spending less time sleeping,
less time with their friends face to face … It is not something
that happened to their parents. It is not something that happens as a
world event."
And, some experts warn
that this over-reliance on your mobile device for all the answers
might lead to avoidance of effort. In fact, a study from researchers
at the University of Waterloo published in the journal Computers
in Human Behavior found that there is actually a link between
relying on a smartphone and mental laziness.
"The problem with
relying on the Internet too much is that you can't know you have the
correct answer unless you think about it in an analytical or logical
way," explained Gordon Pennycook, one of the study's co-authors
“Our research provides
support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered
intelligence,” said Pennycook. “Whether smartphones actually
decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future
research.”
(Nathaniel
Barr, Gordon Pennycook, Jennifer A. Stolz, Jonathan A. Fugelsang.
“The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to
supplant thinking. Computers in Human Behavior, 2015.)
Conclusion
Smartphones offer many
positive features while offering instant access to friends and to the
Internet. They can be an invaluable convenience that puts a world of
information at the fingertips. They're always at hand to help keep
people safe and to assist them with day-to-day tasks.
However, when the device
becomes a routine substitute for reality, we should understand the
dangers involved with its obsessive use. With the potential to
dehumanize users and to make them overly dependent on technology,
smartphones can hinder human development and cripple interpersonal
relationships. Like every dangerous obsession, Nomophobia can damage
and even destroy its host. The “smart” in “smartphone” is
critically dependent on its owner and his or her good judgment.
than his or her smartphone.”
– Alain
de Botton
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