Smartphone Apocalypse

Saba's Snapchat selfie, circa February

We have so much to thank for Smartphones. They are incredibly beneficial, convenient, and are essentially a whole world of knowledge in your very own hands. They provide us with current news, important information, and many other tools. Apps such as Facebook, and Skype help us stay updated with friends and family; Instagram and Snapchat let us post and share what's going on in our lives; and Tumblr and Twitter help us learn about the changing world around us.

But with changing technology, our habits, manners, and lifestyles are changing as well: for better or worse. Our lives have begun to revolve around the Smartphone. Let me put this in perspective for you.

Bored? Get on your phone. Can't concentrate in class? Get on your phone. Don't want to do homework yet? Get on your phone. Tired of the conversation? Get on your phone. Want to avoid someone in public? Get on your phone. Don't want to seem like you have no idea what to do? Get on your phone. See this video for more details:

It essentially becomes an endless cycle, where every free minute of our lives are dedicated to our phones because they have become the priority. We are being a lot more more distracted and a lot less productive. Not only that, but we have become so immersed with our phones and technology that we have forgotten to look up and around and enjoy the presence of other physical human beings around us.

I can remember more than one occasion when I am completely ignored by peers, family members, customers, and other people because of their seemingly important encounters going on on their phones. Many times, when my sister is over from college I hope to be able to catch up, discuss, and just hang out together, but more often I notice that my sister is more interested in her phone than her family around her (don't worry-- we've called her out on it multiple times).

And I am not the complete victim in this situation, yes I have been too immersed in my electronic devices to notice the seemingly small yet important encounters around me.

With my electronic devices, I increasingly become more distracted from classwork and homework. Often in class, when I am bored with lectures and schoolwork, I'll get my iPod out and mindlessly scroll through Twitter. When I want to take a 5 minute break from homework, my smartphone makes that 5 minute break a 30 minute break. And I'm suddenly staying up to work on homework that would've otherwise been done a lot earlier.

Last year, because of my lack of motivation, I decided to delete all of my social media apps, and I do confess, my grades got a lot better and I became a lot less distracted. But I cannot lie, I was bored. With everyone around me immersed in their own social media, I didn't really know who to talk to or what to do. Mostly, I just tried to play games to pass the time that would have otherwise been used scrolling through social media.

Now, I'm not saying the smartphone and all the innovations that come with it are bad, because they are not. I am an avid fan of smartphones and social media and I encourage the use of it (for further interest, read my Social Media Empowers Us blog post) and the benefits of smartphones are enormous. But there comes a point where it goes too far, where we forget to appreciate everything that is physically around us, forget how to manage our time, and forget how to just turn the darn thing off.

There is a quote from a great Argentinian movie Sidewalls I watched that said this:

"The internet brings me closer to the world, but further from life."

The quote definitely spoke to me and I did relate to it.

So, I challenge you (and myself) to try to use the smartphone less. Leave it in your bag in class, keep it in a drawer while doing homework, try talking to people more face-to-face or on the phone than through text, and try going out every once in a while without it. Learn to appreciate things around you and then move on to appreciating things in a global context.