Our constant access to the electronic highway through mobile devices has caused the human population to develop numerous antisocial phone skills. Being a technologically advanced society, our realities have become less important than the deliberately concocted stories that we tell. The availability of mobile devices have led us to multidimensional engagement, causing us to constantly ignore people and our surroundings because we are paying more attention to the social world in which we are continuously involved. Technology has led to the rise of a culture of availability due to the continual advancements and developments of mobile devices.
As a society, we have a certain expectation of immediacy, which has become nothing but a burden to civilization. Unfortunately, our mobile devices are causing society to become less human rather than more human. Thanksgiving, an American holiday of engaging with loved ones over a highly anticipated culinary experience, had just passed. As I looked around at my family, I noticed something in which I truthfully expected, but of which I am not especially proud. The table was being set with delicious dishes: the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and iPhones.
The iPhone was part of our Thanksgiving dinner. Whether it sat on our laps or aside our plates, it was there; omnipotent and intrusive like an uninvited guest. Conversations involved showing pictures from the internet on our phones and videos were recorded when we played a game called PieFace! Although in this society this is typical, we are participating in our own societal demise. The access to our mobile devices is causing humanity and in this case, my family, to unconsciously sacrifice meaningful moments with the people who we love and adore.
We are giving our utmost attention to our mobile devices rather than our family, friends, and other human beings with whom we cross paths with every day. As humans, we have the ability to live our lives independently. Unfortunately, as a society, we have surrendered our autonomy to the technology we possess to make our lives effortless. According to a research study, founded by Ben Spencer for the Daily Mail: “And so dependent are we on our mobile phones that we check them every six-anda-half minutes, research suggests” (Spencer).
Sadly, but surely, our mobile phones have become addictions comparable to those of smoking, drinking, or even drugs. Each time we look at our phones is like an alcoholic taking another sip or a smoker smoking their nineteenth cigarette of the day. We have sparked a relationship with our mobile phones, and now, more so than ever, our relationships with others are through our phones and other accessible technology. In a new TIME Mobility Poll, “84 percent of people surveyed they couldn’t go a single day without their mobile device in hand” (Duerson).
We spend more time in the day looking at our mobile devices rather than associating ourselves with the human beings we pass by on the streets, in the hallways, or who we sit next to on the bus, the train, or perhaps even in class. As a society, our social skills and communication abilities have decreased tremendously. We, as a whole, are epically failing to interact with the people which whom are in our very presence each day. Our heads are constantly down, our fingers are continuously moving, and our eyes are always focused on nothing but a glass screen.
The obsession with our mobile devices is causing human beings to lose skills in which we should naturally possess. According to Patricia Greenfield, a distinguished professor of psychology at the UCLA College: Many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in education, and not many are looking at the costs. There is a decrease in sensitivity to emotional cues — losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people — is one of the costs.
The displacement of in-person social interaction by screen interaction seems to be reducing social skills. Wolpert) Cell phones are deviously forcing humans to be anti-social, lose patience easily, use incorrect spelling and grammar, and limit our face-to-face interactions with one another. Our mobile devices are consuming our lives and taking away from the norms and expectations of reality. Some people argue that our mobile devices and other modern technological advancements are creating a positive society full of technol hologically advanced humans that are capable of constant multi-tasking and decision-making skills.
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and Elon University: “More than half of the 1,021 respondents believe that constant multitasking and zealous decision-making capabilities will generally produce positive outcomes for young adults in the future” (Giang). Despite these numbers, many others still refuse to believe that our mobile devices are facilitating us in progression as human beings. Each day new publication for technological advancements are being released. This process is a never-ending stream of newly adapted ideas that are consumed by society.
Technology has become more than a word to us; it is our friend, a reliable source with which we turn to whenever necessary. Our mobile devices can ruin us, as it has already ruined so many once-social individuals. We have the power to control how we handle our mobile devices and other electronics. Technology can ruin your life, but only if you let it. The truth is, we are a society addicted to our phones and we have the ability to unlock our obsession to our mobile devices if we resist from typing in the passcode to this never-ending addiction.