Phones, they are taking over!!!

So this week, I am taking a more serious approach with this topic. Cell phones, I have noticed, are taking over our lives, not only with everyone I see on a daily basis, but also with my own life. We are constantly checking, tweeting, and posting. We are in a "I must have the information now" age. Before smart phones were so big we didn't receive some news until we watched it at six o'clock on the local news. Now, we can get the news from a notification on our phones the minute it happens. 

In a study done by Sarwar and Soomroo in 2013, they stated, "The prominent areas, where impacts of Smartphones are obvious include business,  education, health, and social life" (Sarwar and Soomro, 2013). They went on in their study to show that all of these areas have good and bad impacts when it comes to smartphones. 

Of course, this statement is true with just about anything.  However, my biggest personal problem with smartphones becoming so important to society, is the health-related impacts. According to Sarwar and Soomer, their targeted users checked their phones 34 times per day on average (Sarwar and Soomroo, 2013). Some health problems that come with this number can be a really big impact on social and mental health. We need to teach children to interact with others personally, not just through a screen, or text message. We need to feel secure enough with ourselves that we can put the phones down and just have normal face-to-face conversations. Unfortunately this can lead to all kinds of social anxiety disorders and even some major mental disorders. 

Ask yourself, when was the last time I had a conversation with someone and technology was not, in any way, involved. This is probably a hard question to answer, huh? For today's generation, this is pretty much all they know. My two year old niece, along with many other small children I know, can already use a smartphone to play games, watch videos, and take photos. This says a whole lot about our technology age. 

Todd Starkweather, a program director with South University said it is even affecting his college students. He said, "I see it frequently in my classes" (Jerpi, 2013). He goes on to talk with the author about how even though it is definitely affected his students' grades negatively, smartphones are a big part of him staying in contact with individuals in his life, even students. As we all know, we all want to get that morning e-mail saying, "Class Cancelled Today". 

As a whole, yes, smartphones can be very useful in keeping up with news, family, or even our teachers, but I want to give you all a challenge. Try to go one day where you only check your phones once every hour. This may seem like a lot still, but for some this will be so difficult. 

Make time to make "real" conversations!