Cell Phone Addiction is On The Rise

Nomophobia is a word that is becoming more common. What is nomophobia? It is a 21st-century term for the fear of not being able to use your cell phone or another smart device. Cell phone addiction is on the rise. Many people cannot go without checking their phone for more than a few minutes. Adam Alter (2017), an associate professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University who researches psychology and marketing, brings up a haunting truth in his TED talk: “Why Our Screens Make Us Less Happy.

” Humans are addicted to technology. Adam Alter makes compelling points about how screens have affected humans emotions and quality of life over time. Dr. Sophie Domingues-Montanari (2016), an accredited medical document or, wrote an article “Clinical and Psychological Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Children.” This article provides information on how the brain reacts to constant stimulation provided by technology.

Thus, the recurring theme of both Adam Alter’s TED talk and Dr.

Sophie Domingues-Montanari’s article is the psychological consequences of the rapidly increasing technology used in everyday life, focusing on the negative consequences. People have become too wrapped up in their phones and often miss out on the most enriching parts of life. The TED Talk, “Why Our Screens Make Us Less Happy,” gave several convincing points supporting that people today are far too immersed in their smart devices. Time is the basis of life, every human functions under time and schedules. One point made by Adam Alter (2017) was that we only have a certain amount of time during the day for ourselves and as the years are going by that time is getting more and more consumed by technology.

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He continues to make the point that the time we waste on technology, although technology is sometimes useful, can end up taking up a lot of our lives.

The TED talk went into more detail when he discusses how we spend about “twenty seven minutes a day on apps that make us unhappy”. These are anything from dating apps, social media, and games. In contrast, Adam Alter (2017) states, “we only spend around nine minutes on the apps that actually bring us satisfaction” things such as relaxation, education, and health. The TED talk also made the shocking point that even Steve Jobs, the co-founder Apple, didn’t allow his children to be on the very products he was selling everyday to other people. Steve Jobs believed in limiting the use of technology as much as possible (Alter, 2017). It is weird and ironic to learn that the high-tech gurus often tend to be low-tech parents, meaning they don’t like to use too much of the screens in their personal life. Adam Alter uses many other references to help support the overall arch of how phones often distance us from life. The TED talk is meant to challenge the actions reader’s take in everyday life.

It suggests that everyone should take the time to evaluate how much they are letting screens affect their life. Essentially, sometimes the technology we use feels almost connected to us by an invisible chain. It is always with us and becomes habitual to check it. There are many solutions discussed on how to break the chain and experience life in a purposeful way. According to Alter, people are today so engrossed by carelessly checking their devices all the time. He explores this psychology into what could be driving people in this drastic tech addiction. People are spending more time on apps that do not make them happy because it is designed to not have stopping cues. Adam Alter (2017) describes, in this TED talk, stopping cues as “basically a signal that it’s time to move on, to do something new, to do something different.” The TED talk and explains that stopping cues used to be everywhere.

Things like Twitter and Instagram have endless feeds. There is never an end, and people tend to scroll and scroll through them and when they get bored they go to the next social media entering a nonstop cycle. Adam Alter (2017) describes media today as “bottomless.” There is never an end to it, never stopping cues. Mindless scrolling due to no stop cues is almost something in relation to minimal consciousness. Minimal consciousness is a low leveled kind of sensory and responsiveness. An example learned in class was that of driving and realizing that you “zoned out” for a few minutes but nothing happened. When using our technology it is quite easy and often seen people “zoning out” and becoming consumed in the device. It is almost like the person is running on autopilot. Another psychological standpoint can be addiction. Addiction has been mostly thought of in relation to chemical substances such as heroin, cocaine, nicotine.

Today, there is a growing trend in behavioral addictions where people are spending hours a day on laptops, cellphones, and tablets. Ask any teenage boy about how much they play video games, the answer is likely to be a lot. We can get so consumed by the phone and end up searching and scrolling for hours without realizing it. People are extremely dependent of their phone. Drive-Theory explains why we continue to seek out this stimulation. When you are hungry, a message is sent to your brain so you know to eat. In comparison when you are under aroused you seek out simulations. Screens have stimulating factors that cause dopamine to release. This can make the brain light up and we go back for more. This can cause overstimulation and result in many bad consequences for the brain. Furthermore, the structures involved in mood, reward, and addiction are all affected by screens. Many habits are difficult to break.

Over time, screen time has become an increasingly difficult concept. There are many forms of technology and it grows every day. And as it grows the age at which people start to use them is lowering. In 2016, Sophie Domingues-Montanari a research publisher released an article that discusses the effect screens have on the developing mind. Screen time has had a negative impact on the development of physical and cognitive abilities. Sophie Domingues-Montanari (2016) reports research, “Thai infants showed that increasing TV exposure from 6 to 18 months of age was associated with emotional reactivity, aggression and externalising behaviors.” This shows the developmental problem screens cause at even a young age. Data from “2500 Canadian students aged 12–18 years” explained that the excessive use of screen time was associated with a severity of depression and anxiety (Domingues-Montanari, 2016). Technology can become very toxic if not used the correct way. This information supports the views in the TED talk by Adam Alter. The use of screens all together makes people unhappy. The article supports additional views by adding scientific data on the effect of technology.

The TED talk and article provide a prospective not seen by many. WIth such fast moving world and so much technology it is hard to break away and realize the problem. The point is no matter what is holding one back, you have to choice to change your life. Every morning is a new chance to start over. One decision, one choice to leave your phone in the car, put it on airplane mode, can change an entire life. Phones make it harder to connect to the things and people around us. Screens are amazing and the knowledge we can do with them is beyond anything imaginable. When we start to abuse them is when it gets ugly. Adam Alter (2017) suggests starting by picking an occasion and make it tech free, for him its dinner. He goes to say that, “when you have a stopping cue that, every time dinner begins, my phone goes far away, you avoid temptation all together.” Screens are addicting, but there is more to life if you just look up from the screen. Screens take away the valuable time we have in life. Everyone deserves to live a happy lifes, because after all it isn’t that bad when you take a look around. Lets all break away from the invisible chain.