This past week I came across two news articles that I would like to share with you in hope you can pertain it to your own daily life habits. The first article is from CNBC.com called "Glued to your phone? That's OK, so is everyone else" by Cadie Thompson. In this article she shares how smartphones have ultimately impacted our social life, work life and even our health. She shares some statistics according to a survey that questioned 1,000 people in the U.S and the U.K...
92% of respondents said that having a smartphone has altered how they connect with friends.
58% of people say smartphones have changed how they manage their health
49% say that smartphones have altered how they date.
55% say they check at least one app every hour.
And the top 25% of "top app users" are particularly reliant on their device.
It is so crazy that the growing attachment to our smartphones really comes from an attachment to apps. We feel this need to constantly be connected to the world via the smartphone. Not only do we use our apps to link to sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with friends, family and people around the world. We also use apps to play games, check e-mails, pay bills, check bank accounts, browse the internet, listen to music, edit pictures, GPS navigation, messaging, ordering food, calculator/tools and so much more. There are sites like Google, Bing and Ask.com that allow you to type in just about any question you can think of and find responses to it. There are apps such as Pinterest where you can browse pictures, recipes, quotes, and ideas to just about anything. Dating apps are popular as well and allow you to see a person in a picture and get to know them more without even meeting them. There are health apps to track your eating habits, fitness/exercise, period trackers for females, and other medical related apps as well. You can shop through apps-Amazon, Ebay and tons of other different stores as well. We basically have access to anything in the palm of our hands with smartphones..Now my question to you is.. Are we too addicted?
The second article that I found online was actually on huffingtonpost.com and titled "How Giving Up My Phone Forced Me To Live My Life". The author, Sarah Bourassa, says "Text. Tweet. Sleep Repeat. Text. Tweet. Sleep. Repeat. " was embedded in her head and she didn't even realize that she was living her life through a little screen. A weekend out camping with her boyfriend where there was no cell service was a realization point in her life. She said that this "detoxing" from her phone helped her as a whole and developed a healthier relationship with her phone. Here are some of the changes she recognized without her phone...
"1. It completely changed my sleep routine.
2. It made me live in the present.
3. I had more quality interactions with other people. "
In my opinion, these are completely accurate realizations. For number one, how many of you fall asleep with your phone right next to you? Personally I have the worst habit of scrolling through my feeds on social media or texting my friends right before bed. Sometimes I will literally have one eye open and be completely exhausted but I don't want to end the conversation I'm in or I find myself too caught up reading or looking at something. Number two is an important point to me and I feel like I need to work on this the most. Sometimes having your phone on you all the time gets you too caught up in who is going to text you next and what is the most updated posts on media right now. Without the phone, you are able to live and involve yourself in the moment more and not worry so much about what is going to happen next. This also leads to point number 3- quality of interactions. Without having a phone on you 24/7 you are able to better engage in conversations with the people you are physically with. You can learn more about their feelings, emotions, expressions and feel their personality. Sometimes it's hard to translate your personality via mobile devices/ technology.
Overall, from these two articles I hope you can understand that a balance needs to take place in our lives. Smartphones have been an incredible development in technology and we are a blessed generation to have all of these awesome capabilities with the touch of our fingers to a small device screen. However, we cannot let these devices take over our lives and control us. We must be able to find the median and utilize the resource but not abuse it. Take some time to reevaluate your use of the smartphone you own. Do you spend too much time on it? Try to set certain times of the day where you put your phone away completely or leave it at home. Especially if you can try to avoid falling asleep on it as much as possible. Hopefully you will notice some improved life changes- such as the ones Miss Sarah Bourassa mentioned. I encourage you to strive to live more in the actual moment and physically interact with the people you are surrounded with. :)
Article #1: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/19/glued-to-your-phone-thats-ok-so-is-everyone-else.html
Article #2: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/-sarah-bourassa/how-giving-up-my-phone-forced-me-to-live-my-life_b_7841752.html
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