I used to love my smartphone. It’s a one-stop shop of entertainment, productivity, and procrastination. I loved being able to do it all on one device: play games, watch YouTube videos, listen to music on several different venues, take awesome pictures, answer an email within minutes of receiving it, and of course: Facebook.
I am not the most internet-inclined person in the world, but I do love me some Facebook. I would guess that about 20 percent of my entire day is spent on social media.
To clarify, that is not 20 percent of my free time, but 20 percent of my day. The other 80 percent is comprised of sleeping, doing homework, eating, transporting myself from place to place, and basic life functions. I should also mention that during four of those five activities, I am more often than not also utilizing my phone.
If you think about it, we can do almost anything with the push of a finger or the swipe of a screen. This is not a bad thing. People have worked so hard to lessen life struggles and make creations that allow for relationships to be up kept even with thousands of miles between.
The technologies we have now are able to save lives and increase productivity. That sort of power is absolutely astounding, not to mention convenient. However, it is reaching the point where it has become damaging to our natural human experience.
I feel that the world is becoming too “connected.” Instead of enjoying a fall day and taking in the sights, we have phones that we use to tweet about the scent of the breeze, Snapchat the sound of the birds, and Instagram every beautiful tree we walk by.
The concept of sitting still, in silence, and taking in every sight with nothing more than your thoughts and a cup of coffee in your hand is something that rarely happens anymore. The deeply ingrained connection we have to our technological accessibility has taken away our ability to enjoy the moment as it happens and to just “be.”
The aspect of all of this that frustrates me the most is the resulting lack of personal boundaries that exist. If someone wants to get a hold of me, for example, they can use any of the following: conversation in person, text, phone call, Facebook, email, Snapchat, GroupMe, Google Plus, Twitter, or LinkedIn. That’s ten ways in which I can be contacted, and thanks to my phone, which is always within arms reach) these methods of contact can be utilized at ANY time of day. This is certainly useful in the case of an emergency, but more often than not, there is no emergency. It can probably wait until the morning, or even until Monday.
My constant accessibility has become overwhelming. I am realizing that I spend more time responding to messages than I do responding to my own needs. It seems so simple to just get it out of the way, to just take a moment to send a text or like a picture. The benefit of the technological world is that, while it continues to change, the things that you’re “missing” stay there just as they are.
Someone’s tweet will still be the same 150 characters now as it was when they posted it last month. A picture of the sunset will still be the same picture a year later, but that sunset will never happen again. While you are scrolling through Tumblr, the world is not stopping. It continues to move, the leaves continue to change, and the sun continues to rise and to set.
People are becoming addicted to instant gratification. We have the ability to “do it now,” but that should not mean that we are obligated to do it now. Instant gratification is essentially conditioning. We post a status and it gets a “like.”
That means someone is reading, agreeing with, or, at the very least, noticing the words you wrote. This acknowledgement makes us happy and we post again looking for the same response. The more times our actions are rewarded, the more likely we are to continue that action. This is how addiction begins.
We can get rid of this addiction by making simple changes. Utilize the power of personal boundaries; make certain times when you unplug from constant communication. You can decide to turn off your phone or stop answering emails at a certain time of the day. Take one picture at a concert, and then put your phone away. Text less and call more. Post less and journal more. Listen. Be here now.
I think the world should continue to further its technologies. Their convenience has made countless things possible that people could only ever dream of before. But with this growth, we need to maintain our sense of wonder and joy in the simple things. There is no need to post your every move on the media. That world is not real. It is not something you can truly touch, taste, or feel. We need to lessen our presence in the virtual world and increase our presence in the physical world; to concentrate on our presence in the moment, put the screens down, and look at the stars that shine above us.
-Nikki Rom