In a rapidly digitalizing world, it is no wonder that we are being swept away by technology. Taking just a smartphone into consideration, things have gone far beyond the mere matter of connecting us through vast distances. Rather, technology has offered us a wide range of benefits indeed.

From entrepreneurship to expanding businesses, from online education to an insight into unexplored horizons, from making our daily tasks easier to providing us with online shopping, there is a lot more where this came from. Nonetheless, the question of this torrent of smartphones being a vice is still raised. Why is that so? And how? Well, it is an irrefutable fact that everything that comes with benefits, brings some drawbacks too.

For one primary point, according to a clinical psychologist, Dr. Suzana E. Flores a compulsive use of smartphones leads to addiction. Then again the degree of addiction may vary from one individual to another. However, the end results are more or the same often impacting us adversely. One research in 2017 suggested that when adolescents were given limited access to the internet or their phone. The withdrawal of phones led to several mental health issues including social isolation, depression, social anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and even suicidal thoughts.

That is so because there is a stark difference in the expression on and off-screen. In turn, this very difference often drives people especially adolescents towards a certain perception of themselves and others. In the heat of this perception, people tend to create personas that are often completely opposite to what their real selves offer off-screen. They tend to focus more on not being left out than on finding out their own path, paving their way to be themselves, and finding contentment with who they are.

Naturally, both personae clash with each other once they meet with their online friends and this often results in emotional impairment at either one at one end or for worse at both. Many others who study human behavior in correlation to technology like Flores, come to see its detrimental effects on our behavior and relationships. While smartphones have brought ease to our lives, they have profoundly affected real-world intimacy and the quality of face-to-face interactions.

Human beings give and receive information through our senses. Sometimes you get what you want from these gadgets, but usually, it is just the mundane that you need and you often don’t get it. Though you may dive into virtual reality through your phone, the warmth of an embrace, a few kind words, and the fresh scent of roses; you cannot receive them through the screens of your phone. Talking about phone screens, studies show how increased screen time takes a toll on your health. For instance, considering sleeping patterns. Several studies pointed out how using smartphones right before bed not only induces insomnia in the longer run. Rather than that, it also results in drained mornings often accompanied by headaches. In addition to this, one report linked compulsive screen time to eating disorders, bulimia, and morbid obesity to name a few. Of course, when a person wants to keep up with their online personas, they may turn to bulimia at one end.

On the other hand, it is likely that while one is glued to their screen they lose both track of time as well as the amounts of calories they are consuming. Altogether, anything used in excess leads to severe adverse effects. In conclusion, advancing technologies like smartphones are now an essential component of modern life. Based on how quickly they are developing, their impact on our lives will grow dramatically in the upcoming years as well. Nonetheless, simultaneously it is extremely necessary to think about and examine the issues connected to new forms of communication, particularly in the virtual world. In light of our behavioral patterns, interpersonal relationships, and our “off-screen” life in general, it is crucial to squeeze out the positive impacts of technology's rapid development to the maximum, while reducing its unfavorable repercussions.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 08 2022

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