There is research aplenty on how we are becoming slaves of technology, more so of Social Media. The craving to check WhatsApp messages every five minutes, opening the Facebook App every half-an-hour to see the likes on your recent profile picture change, Instagramming every meal you have, are only the most common scenarios.
As our phones get smarter, we are practically doing everything online. On one hand it has given us the convenience of shopping online 24×7 from the comforts of our couches, getting in touch with our old school buddies after two decades, watching our favourite show at the touch of a button. And on the other we are constantly craving external validation, desiring instant gratification…basically losing our mind and sleep over a 6×3 inch device. Think about it! Think how wise or foolish are we. Think whether we are using the phone or is it using us.
We almost get a panic attack when we realize we forgot to carry our phone with us; for obvious reasons. Most of us don’t even remember a single mobile number we can dial by heart. What does this tell us? That we have actually been using less of our cognitive abilities than we are capable of since the ‘smart’ phone entered our lives. It is reducing our brain power and has substantially diminished our ability to remember and recall.
To justify our rising usage, we argue that mobile phones have boosted our interpersonal connections to a great extent. But think about what has actually happened. We have forgotten the art of meeting our neighbours, the fun in small talk, the picking up of phone and chatting instead of volley of message exchanges. Not only this, phones are constantly hijacking our real-time actual conversations, something know as ‘phubbing’ when we snub someone in favour of our mobiles. All in all, weakening our actual interpersonal connections.
The false sense of connectedness is also resulting in people experiencing FOMO or the ‘Fear of Missing Out’; wherein one feels a deep level of anxiety and regret arising due to a ‘missed’ interaction especially in the context of social media. Not surprisingly then, an article by Scientific American highlights that, “interacting in a neutral environment, without a cell phone nearby, seems to help foster closeness, connectedness, interpersonal trust, and perceptions of empathy — the building-blocks of relationships.”
Social media envy is another common experience, wherein the users feel envious of the activities and lifestyles of their acquaintances/ friends on platforms such as Facebook/ Instagram etc. Depression is something which usually follows; a phenomenon more commonly known as ‘Facebook depression’. This eventually leads to battered self-confidence and self-esteem. A self-awareness of emotions is required here for us to be able to identify and express our emotions in a healthy way. We need to be able to differentiate between reality vs. our perception of reality.
In 2017, New York Post reported that on an average, Americans check their phone almost every 12 minutes which is 80 times a day. Another 2016 study had brought to light the fact that we touch our cell phones 2,617 times every single day. If that’s not scary, I don’t know what is. Whether we admit or not we are not just obsessed and hooked to our mobile devices, we are actually addicted. And even the signs and symptoms of mobile withdrawal are a fact and do exist in reality including anger, irritability, restlessness, and anxiety.
Social media detox or digital detox is a very real thing and people have understood the need for it. For your mobile phone is the new cocaine. A news item from Independent points the children and teens are getting addicted to their smartphones as if they are hooked to cocaine. Even Indian parents especially those of 12-17 years old find it extremely difficult to control their children’s screen time. The results are obvious – behavioural disorders, lowered self-esteem, learning difficulties to name a few.
In how many every ways we might try and discuss the solution – the answer is actually pretty simple and straight forward – it’s easy, staring at us in the face, and we all know it – use less of social media, use less of phones. No rocket science here…give importance to ‘What’s up?’ over WhatsApp and to ‘Face time’ over FaceTime
Our smart phone is a necessary evil – there is no argument about it. But before we jump into the mad rush of Twittering and Facebooking and Instagramming and WhatsApping, let’s take a little pause. We are the most evolved race (supposedly) on planet Earth. It is up to us to decide that who’s the boss? A very old adage says, ‘Rule your mind, or it will rule you’. Guess what’s more relevant today is, ‘Rule your phone, or it will rule you.’
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