Last Updated on April 5, 2021
In the front page of the papers today, the article titled Phone Junkies- Addiction to Smartphones is damaging the family system. Issues that arise as for example:
- people are no longer talking to one another- glued to the virtual worlds of their Smartphones
- paying huge bills from updating Facebook and Twitter accounts
- children are “talking” more to the phone than to their parents or even friends
- affairs that started because one spouse started a phone relationship with another person, where an emotional attachment is formed. If unchecked, it eventually led to a full time affair
- children hooked on Smartphone had problem handling real life
- false sense of security because less time is spend in nurturing real relationship- youths may have problem dealing in real difficult situations in their relationships
You can read the following articles online below:
- Phone Junkies- Addiction to Smartphones is damaging the family system
- 60% in poll said they cannot live without their phones
Like any form of addiction, addiction to your iPhone, Blackberry, Android, tablet or iPad are hard to break. Of course long before Smartphone came about, a member of the family would be seem reading the papers during meal time and not speaking to the family…. but of course eventually the paper would be put down and a real conversation would start. Furthermore, no one would carry a paper or a book around while going out and about.
But Smartphone and tablets are a different matter- they are so portable that we carry them around and mindlessly surf information- so much that we become so emotionally attached to it. You can just spend the whole day staring at the world of entertainment that emerges from that little gadget. One cannot imagine life without it or like what my friends said, “once you have a Smartphone, you’ll never be able to go to the normal phone again”.
However, in another online article by Daily Mail called Smartphones are taking over people’s lives as users ‘obsessively’ check their devices, scientists warn, a reader left a comment on Smartphone usage- one how he discovered back his real life after his Blackberry was spoilt:
My blackberry broke/crashed at the beginning of the month, the first week was hell as I felt I was missing out on everything but since then I’ve come to not miss it at all in fact life is better without it. I’m getting more work done, more jobs done at home and more family time. Work now finishes when I leave the office, e-mails have to wait till the next morning before being answered. I’m managing absolutely fine using my old none-smart phone and a quick phone call is easier and more productive than sending unnecessary e-mails and texts, as for tweets and facebook updates I found that I couldn’t really care less what other people are doing. If it’s important and you want to share something in your life then a phone call is far more sociable and personal or talk about it face to face.
The thing about technology gadgets is, after the initial one week or so of withdrawal symptoms, and when you start doing things that you enriches your real life, you would lose your attachment to it.
I know because there was one time that I was so addicted to blogging that I spend more than 10 years a day working on my blogs then right after I quit my corporate job in 2008. Not long later, I traveled to a place with no internet connection and after a week, I stopped missing blogging all together and enjoyed my ‘new life’ with nature and self-discovery. At times I may spend many hours working on my blogs because when you love to do something, time just flies.
But once the overindulgence start to affect my working life (like I noticed I get more easily agitated or more tired at work), I would take a break from blogging for a week or so- and scheduled my publishing of articles. Once we realised how worthless it is to be addicted, we would still be able to have the item and yet not let it run our lives.
Anyway, I have gathered some topics on how to overcome Smartphone addiction from other websites and blogs. Hope it helps you:
- Is Your Smartphone Stealing Your Life? – Huffington Post
- 10 Unbeatable Tips for Overcoming Micro-Addictions- Zen Habits
- Smartphone Addicts starting to feel the pain– at the thumbs and posture (even my friends are complaining about it)
