The Smartphone as we know it today has imposed itself in our daily lives. Wherever we go, our Smartphone goes with us, at work, at leisure time, on vacation even in our intimate places. This little technological device has literally changed our lifestyles. Don’t you feel, it is too much because sometimes it takes control of our lives? We often forget that along with the benefits, there are some unrealized negative consequences. The smartphone is the cause of social imbalance and affecting our personal relationships with real people. Besides, it has long term consequences for both physical and mental health. For a better understanding, we will dig deep into the dramatic consequences of the arrival of smartphones in our lives which has changed everything including our personal and social relationships with people.
Smartphone Has Changed Human Relationships
Have you ever thought about your relationship with the people around you? Is it still the same as you had before the arrival of smartphones?
People have changed a lot in terms of communication and interaction. Because of smartphones, the level of interaction and human bonding has almost shattered. Due to the screen sickness, we pay less attention to the people in our real life and more to those we are connected to virtually. This lack of attention is felt not only in our activities but also in our human relationships.
You have all experienced these scenes at restaurants or other gatherings. If you pay attention closely, most couples sitting in restaurants do not interact with each other rather remain occupied by their smartphones. Maybe they are checking on someone’s social media profile or scrolling their timelines. Along with the lack of human interaction, the objective goal of enjoying food is also interrupted. So this is a kind of death of enjoying our moment of taste. Don’t forget food was your prime concern and Smartphone has already killed that setup. This is not the case for couples only; it also works for groups of friends, families, and other social gatherings.
The Smartphone has taken such a place in our lives that some privilege their virtual “relationships” to real relationships. Behaviors that many deplore but that do not really change.
Forget to Enjoy Present Moment
There was a time when we used to enjoy your moments with friends and family but the Smartphone has ruined it. It’s true that Smartphone has degraded human relationships into a big circle but this is also the case when it comes to spending pleasant moments. On vacation, in museums, facing marvelous landscapes, many users do not take advantage of the present moment. You remain behind the camera and you see everything through photos but you forget to enjoy the moment.
If you went to the museum recently, there is no doubt that you have noticed many people’s activities. They no longer admire the works but spend a lot of time finding the best angle to take a Selfie in front of these works. There is an unconscious goal: to stage your life on social networks. And if you doubt it, you need to take a tour of your nearby museums, you will definitely understand.
Smartphone Makes You Tired
Some may insist that this is not true, yet it is scientifically proven. Several studies have shown that the Smartphone tends to tire users enormously. Because your eyes are fixed on a screen influence your energy throughout the day. And you need to understand that it has severe consequences for our eyes.
Blue lights in particular are one of the most harmful lights for our eyes that also influence other issues. Consequences cost us enormously including tingling, fatigue, and long term vision deficiency. Though we are fortunate enough, it is quite easy to filter the blue light yet screen addiction makes us tired throughout the day.
The light is not what tires you the most. Indeed, the influx of notifications triggers several phases of stress during the day. These stress peaks trigger nervous fatigue which has physical consequences. Eventually, we feel more tired because of looking into other people’s life which really exhausted us at the end of the week.
Cause Sleeping Disorders
It’s quite ironic, but if the Smartphone causes a lot of fatigue, users tend to sleep less. It just comes from the tendency to use the Smartphone in bed before sleeping. The uses are varied, ranging from sending messages to social networks or through small gaming sessions. In all cases, if you are a bedtime user of Smartphone you will experience delays in sleep time most of the time.
In addition, the blue lights help us developing sleeping disorders and make us addicted to screens. Several studies found that they do not only make you tired but also make your nervous system excited. After encountering some sessions on your mobile phone in bed, you feel less sleepy and when you sleep, you sleep less well. It is therefore strongly advised to avoid any type of screen before sleeping. Sometimes bedtime activities are good for sleep such as a good book, a discussion or any other activity of your choice is preferable but screens.
Draws Excessive Attention during Work
The above-mentioned fact is not just a fact by a scientifically proven consequence of smartphones in bed. The Smartphone draws too much attention in our daily life and we concentrate on notifications consistently. Notifications tend to get us out of our present activity. It is very crucial that people are very focused on their work until a notification comes to interrupt our hard work. This shift in work attention leads us to become incompetent in our professional life.
And for many, it is difficult to resist the temptation to look at what this notification corresponds to. Not just the notifications but also the curiosity that occupies our mind regarding what is new in our favorite applications, most importantly the social media. This is how we interrupt our work which makes it difficult to get back to work.
You Waste a Lot of Free Time
Finally, and this is undoubtedly one of the most important points, since the arrival of the Smartphone. People tend to waste a lot of free time on smartphones. The multiple applications have triggered some strange reflexes that waste their time. They linger a little too long on social networks, sometimes playing games frantically without really enjoying it.
Our work life has occupied most of the time from our daily life and the little free time we have left is often spent on trivial matters. We postpone reading a good book, watching a good film. Many, for example, have their eyes fixed on their phones while watching a film and are not really immersed in history. These are just a few examples of our activities that are interrupted by smartphones. But the figures speak, today a user spends almost 4 hours a day on his Smartphone. World’s largest IT companies are commercially developing new features for smartphones so that they can capture even more attention from users. This competition signals a longer user time in the coming days.
Waves From Smartphone
This is one of the most debated subjects when it comes to the negative effect of smartphones. A lot of studies are done on Smartphone waves every year which varies from research to research. Scientists often face difficulties to measure the real effects of the waves from our smartphones on our health.
For most of the scientists, the waves are indisputably harmful, but we do not have enough perspective to prove it. For others, we dramatize too much. According to them, the waves of smartphones are less harmful than those emitted by a microwave. Moreover, this everyday object had also been criticized during the first years, for the same reasons.
Note, however, that a new documentary promises to prove the dangerousness of the waves of smartphones for our health. Even if it doesn’t harm greatly, we can adapt certain behaviors to limit the exposure of waves. For example, you can avoid making phone calls by sticking the phone to your ear and favoring headphones. You should also avoid keeping your mobile phone beside you while sleeping.
You can also store your Smartphone rather in a bag than keeping them in your hand or pockets. In any case, avoid puffiness if you have doubts. Some studies suggest that putting a Smartphone in your pocket can make you sterile in the long run. Besides, some companies have already surfed on these fears and have invented anti-wave briefs.
Don’t be a Slave of Your Smartphone
Far from us the idea of lecturing, we are also one of those users who tend to be “eaten” by our Smartphone. It is clear that today we have become slaves to our mobile companions, and not necessarily for the better.
Because ultimately, the experience offered by a Smartphone is never optimal. If you love to play games, play on a portable console than on a Smartphone because it is more pleasing. Similarly, taking photos with a real camera is much more exciting than with the Smartphone. The mobile phone comes with the facility of talking with distant people and other features are just backups. But in recent years it has become the norm to carry powerful machine for everything including capturing photos, playing video games and doing other works which are supposed to be done on separate devices safer than a smartphone. On top of everything we let ourselves be carried away by neglecting these appreciable moments in life.
We are not saying that every user is ultra-connected yet majority percent users are. Avoiding is a good thing since the negative effects are proven such as fatigue, stress, and the possibility of other diseases. So be connected yes, but not at the cost of your health and relationship.
