- The device in your hands is a double-edged sword. With every click and swipe, it connects you to the world yet silently pulls you away from the life around you. What if the very tool that promises connection is the one creating the most dangerous disconnection?
The device in your hands is a double-edged sword. With every click and swipe, it connects you to the world yet silently pulls you away from the life around you. What if the very tool that promises connection is the one creating the most dangerous disconnection?
With the invention of mobile phones, people no longer need to meet to communicate since they can make calls, text, chat, and still deliver messages. However, this comes with a lot of hypocrisy and lies because, with virtual conversations, it is difficult to determine whether a person is telling the truth.
Text messages can be deceiving and may not represent feelings or opinions. Phones have brought about reduced attention span. Constant notifications and the habit of scrolling through social media have trained us to seek quick quench making it harder to focus on tasks or engage in deep conversations.
Phones have become a distraction in such a way that even paying attention for an average of 30 minutes is a problem. Whenever the phone chimes, it's hard to focus without knowing what the notification is about. Students no longer pay much attention in class; they put on their earpods and watch or listen to what they want.
It is sad, but that has become the norm of the day. In addition, mobile phones result in erosion of privacy. Most people on social media find themselves displaying their lives out there. Celebrities and prominent people publicize their lives on social media.
The issue of family also has been affected since nowadays, the trend in the family setup is "close together but still very far apart at the same time". A family gathers in the living room for breakfast, lunch or even dinner, but instead of utilizing that time to reconnect and bond, everyone is busy on their phone. Family bonds are no longer strong as the phone has brought a massive gap .
The phone has also brought about dependency on technology, for example, for navigation, memory and even basic knowledge, and has reduced our capacity to retain information or problem-solve independently.
This dependence has minimized activeness in the brain and general health. A person may spend the whole day watching videos or movies on their phone, moving from one social media platform to another, thus denying themselves room for exercise or even digital detox.
Phones have had a massive effect on sleep patterns. Excessive screen time, significantly before bed, disrupts sleep quality. Experts say adults should limit screen time outside work to less than 2 hours daily. Average screen time for kids aged 0-2 years should be 49 minutes, 2-2.5 hours for 2-4 Years, over 3 hours for 5-8 years, almost 5 hours for 8-12 hours and nearly 7.5 hours for teens.
This time includes time spent on entertainment like apps, video games, TV and movies but does not include other educational activities. As these are the averages, many children today exceed these estimates. Even though the phone has become an essential gadget for communication and much more, we cannot assume that it hasn't impacted society negatively.
Our role is to utilize the phone for its purpose while remembering the social life where we are supposed to connect and bond with our loved ones. This will have an impact on both our health and general well-being.
