Smartphones & You: Who Is (Really) In Control?
SMART PHONES
are evolving at a rate that is beyond belief, coming out in the form
of curved displays and self-healing capabilities, to changing the way we make payments and diagnosing illnesses . There are now more than 1 billion smartphone
users in the world and the numbers are still rising.
Smartphones have improved our lives with a variety of apps, for use in
FITNESS AND HEALTH in keeping us connected, and
giving us access to the latest news and info available online.
However,
there’s a negative
influence that smartphones have introduced into our lives. It has
taken over our lives so much that we cannot put it down long enough to
appreciate the world around us anymore.
It puts us in an instant gratification mode. If there is an alert, or a
notification, it is the first thing we tend to, then on to the next social
network feed, the next email, the next tweet etc. We have our eyes stuck to the
screen, our heads crouched down while on the bus, in class, at work, and even
during meals.
We
are no longer in control. Instead, we have a tech addiction that puts smartphones in
control of us. Let’s take a look
at how smartphones have interrupted our lives in more ways than one.
THIS IS WHAT IS IN REALITY!
We Can’t Live Without
It
We Lose Focus Of What’s Important
While smartphones
can be helpful in a variety of things e.g. taking
notes in class or documenting our life experiences through pictures, we almost always choose to be
less productive with our devices. We distract ourselves with games,
videos, music and social media feeds. Social notifications like a new comment,
a new Like on your photos, or a chat prompt, make us lose sight of what is
right in front of us, urging
us to instead reply or act upon the notification.
It is all fun and
games until someone crashes a car.
Life-Threatening Smartphone Use
Personal safety
takes a back seat (pun intended) when it comes to smartphone usage while
driving. It’s now common
to see public service announcements or news reports of accidents caused by smartphone use while behind
the wheel.
In Japan, there’s
even a campaign to spread awareness of ‘smartphone walking‘ accidents – involving
smartphones, very distracted users and train platform accidents (deadly combo).
Disconnecting From Work
Completely
removing ourselves from work is also getting difficult these days. It’s common
for workgroups to have group chats in messaging
apps to talk about work 24 hours
a day. Discussions
through emails give the impression that the work discussed should be completed
just as fast.Everyone demands answers almost as immediately as their
email reaches your inbox.\
Conclusion
At the end of the
day, we need to be the masters of our smartphones, and not depend on it so much
to make sense of this world (online and off). There is more to life than a retweet ,