Smart Phones: A Modern Addiction
By Molly Carriero
Two weeks ago, I left my phone in an Uber, and I quite literally felt lost.
The next morning, I had to make the trip back to Connecticut from the Philadelphia 30th street train station. With four hours to kill before my train and a beautiful day outside, I grabbed my bag and made the walk to the University of Pennsylvania to walk around and grab coffee. I really was not scared to be without my phone at that moment. I was pretty confident about making my trip without it, and I remember thinking, “My parents did this everyday without phones! I can handle a day in the city without my iPhone.”
Within minutes of arriving at UPenn, it was comical how much I came to realize I relied on my smartphone. I am not a big social media user, as I am not one to scroll through Instagram for hours or hold 15 Snapchat streaks, but it is amazing, and slightly scary, how much I felt I needed this little piece of technology that day. It wasn’t Snapchat I needed, but everything else I attached to my phone to go throughout my day-to-day life to communicate, operate, and function. For example, my debit card and credit card are both attached to the back of my phone. Apple Pay is hooked up to my lock screen wallet. When I got to Philly, I realized I had not come prepared with a single dollar bill, as I am used to scanning my phone or swiping my card on the back of my case. With no Google Maps to get around, my only source of direction was asking strangers on the street. My own mother who grew up without cellphones was of course frantic that I had no way of texting her my every move. Now, this was of course not the end of the world and I figured out how to make it all work, but the point is, I was amazed how alone, frantic, and helpless I felt without my little block of metal. I guess my iPhone really is a part of me.
Modern technologies have benefited our lives, from communication, to medical care, to work efficiency. Technology has solved world problems and connected us as a global society. But I bet right now that not one person reading this could imagine their life without it anymore. I know I can’t. The rise of smartphones and the internet have made our lives more comforting, efficient, and entertaining. But with such great benefits, I cannot help but wonder about the many disadvantages.
What scared me the most about losing my phone was realizing how dependable we all are on modern technology and social media. We are permanently connected to cyberspace and we depend on it to feel connected to others and to live our day-to-day lives. Being able to call your loved ones anytime is comforting and connecting; having a map at the touch of your fingers is efficient; having a cellphone and wallet all in one is ingenious. Modern technology is revolutionary and amazing. But are we so reliant on it all that we fail to recognize we could have a real addiction, one that is making us reliant and dependent on an inanimate object rather than on our own intelligence and interpersonal skills?
Being reliant on Apple Wallet, Maps, and iMessage to get around a city is only one example, but when you think about this concept on a large scale, it gets scary. Today, egos are based off Instagram likes, adults rely on Facebook for news and entertainment, children see “fun” as playing iPad games and watching YouTube videos, friends can barely maintain eye contact without checking for a new notification, and people literally cannot put down their phones to go to the beach, watch a movie, take a walk, or enjoy a friend.
I want to leave you with a few things to think about. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was the first tech giant to admit that his own children had not used the iPad created by his own company back in 2011, and he admitted how he limits the amount of technology used at home. Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t like the idea of children using social media as well. Cook told The Guardian, “I don’t have a kid, but I have a nephew that I put some boundaries on. There are some things that I won’t allow; I don’t want them on a social network.”
Are we addicted, dependent, and reliant on our phones? And how do we distinguish between the advantages and disadvantages of technology without losing ourselves completely?
