BY DR. AATIF IFTIKHAR
When my two-year-old son denied having his lunch until he was provided with the screen, the smartphone, a realization dawned upon me. A saddening realization that no matter the age, we are all prisoners.
Other addictions have rehabilitation centers, medical science has been formulating remedies for them. Smartphone addiction falls should also be taken the same way. The only difference is that this is not socially accepted or medically coined term yet.
Nancy Colier, a New York psychotherapist pondered over these psychological effects of smartphones on an individual in her book “The Power of Off”. Most people now check their smartphones 150 times per day, or every six minutes,” Colier wrote, “and young adults are now sending an average of 110 texts per day”.
Furthermore, she added, “46 percent of smartphone users now say that their devices are something they ‘couldn’t live without”.
The near universal access to the smart phones has clenched its talons like a hawk where one refrains from contemplating a life without smartphones. The effects on the neurological development, personal relationships, cognitive abilities, and mental health are more inclined towards detrimental than benefiting.
Some studies suggest how children glued to smartphones have an increased chance of having disturbed sleep patterns, a disturbed appetite and might grow up as lazy thinkers.
In a study broached in Radiological Society of North America, researchers concluded that young adults with an increased usage time of smartphones “actually demonstrated imbalances in brain chemistry compared to a control group”.
The usage of smartphones to calm a tantrum throwing baby could be worse than anything. The researchers ask that “If these devices become the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?”. The question is open for the readers to ponder on.
The posture we acquire physically is also a great health threat to every user of smartphone. The slouched bearing, hunched back, eyes wide open, fingers on the move… have stolen from us our time to stand straight, breathe in the fresh air, close the eyes, and rest the mind.
Children, more so today than ever, have an increased chance of turning obese due to the smartphones. Engaging directly with other children is critical for a child’s social, mental, and physical development.
Similarly, adults, who did not deem it right to put their phones down while driving, have lost their lives due to this menace. Other adverse effects include digital eye strain, neck problems, sleep disturbances and anxiety.
While there’s a dire need to unplug, turn off and power off the smartphone devices, smartphone’s have radically changed our lives.
Instant communication, web surfing, education, productivity apps and GPS come under a handful of main facilities provided by smartphones. For education, the smartphone is gradually manifesting into a compelling tool for learning purposes.
For instance, students, through smartphones, can access their lectures and study materials without any hassle. Moreover, meetings, accessing academic databases and other scholarly tasks can be performed within a matter of minutes through smartphones.
This eminent breakthrough of the latest century has revolutionized, especially prior to the pandemic, the way people and students would read and write in the future. Furthermore, smartphones aid digital learning either online or offline.
A student owning a smartphone can access study materials such as PDF files, word files, excel files regardless of the geographical location. A student can carry semester’s complete syllabus and still not have a bag with them or heavy loads to carry.
When was the last time you picked up the classic newspaper in search of a job? Maybe, long ago that the memory fails to remember. By definition “The process in which some technologies are no longer useful and others are simply changed the way we use them, is known as media convergence” or to be specific, print media convergence.
Similarly, meeting would, customarily, would require files and a lot of paperwork but now, a smartphone carries everything. While this has been of revolutionary aid, disruption in information technology due to excessive use of smartphones has caused “newspapers experiencing a significant decline in revenue in terms of the number of customers and advertising”.
In a nutshell, from the advantages, disadvantages, and the converging media, it is clearly evident that the use of smartphones performed remarkable roles to transform the world. It is explicit that, the proliferation of the smartphone and internet has influenced each facet of teaching and learning, principally the sphere of learning and education.
(The writer is Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at National University of Modern Languages Islamabad. He can be massmediaisb@gmail.com)
