w  rd 2 the woss

We are living in a time where technology is booming. Nearly everyone owns a smartphone and admittedly, nearly everyone is dependant on one. Whether it be using Google Maps as a guide after losing your way, snapping a photo of your lunch, or scrolling through Instagram, smartphones certainly prove to be useful and addictive. Is it possible that could ever go back to living without them?

 

     Smartphones are just about the most useful things people own nowadays. With a little click, one can get directions to pretty much any place in the world. A quick search can give you information on pretty much anything and everything. You’ve always got some source of amusement, a game, social media or scrolling through your camera roll. Smartphones are evidently great things to have.

 

     However, studies have shown that people have grown increasingly dependant on their phones over the years, in fact, people have become emotionally attached to them, experiencing anxiety when not having their phone with them. The little box of unlimited entertainment is not just a provider of an alternative to boredom, to most it is something that allows them to fit in and be connected with the entire world. With the constant notifications from social media, the ability to check emails every few seconds and easy access to not only local but global news too, smartphones are what seem to provide humanity’s much-needed sense of connection and support of globalization. It’s no wonder people have grown increasingly attached to them.

 

    Could this source of “connection” really be food for the opposite? As people spend more and more time connected to the world with their phones, could they be losing social connections closer to them? These mass sources of entertainment seem to be taking a toll on people’s everyday conversations or even lessons in class, with listeners becoming more easily bored and looking to their smartphones for a way out. Modern day citizens seem to prefer the interaction of texting someone who isn’t there, rather than talking to someone who is. Perhaps what people enjoy so much about the mini-computers we carry in our pockets is not, in fact, any connection it gives us, but the feeling of a (false) sense of validation. The constant notifications of a like or comment on any social media platform undoubtedly render a person with a sense of momentary satisfaction. The knowledge that no matter where we are, we’ll be able to access the news, get updates on anything and everything is reassuring. It makes us feel good. Unfortunately, like so many things, it comes at a cost.

 

     Multiple studies have found numerous consequences to the people’s love of the smartphone. It being a device that causes a decrease in empathy and compassion while pushing narcissism to rise is only one of the concerning effects. The problem of materialism continues to thrive every time a new product is released. With people wanting the best and newest of everything, purchasing a new model of a cell phone every year is surely not the way to go. 

 

     We as humanity have got a lot on our shoulders today. The effects our smartphones have on us is just another example of one. So can we live without them? The answer is, probably not. Despite their countless negative impacts, they are also useful in innumerable ways; and with a generation of kids raised with small devices, these innovations are bound to become inseparable from everyday life. However, there is no doubt that they will forever change the way we live.