While reading Ellen McCarthy’s article Breaking up with your smartphone, there was one statement she said that stood out to me and that I can really relate to. She described phones as a “viselikegrip of our hands.” And it’s true. People can’t put their phones down. Even after someone sends a message their phone could still be in their hands, which only increases the urge to go back on it. Instant messaging and connecting with friends has never been quicker and easier, but it’s the other apps and social media applications that are keeping people on their phones longer than they need to be. Apps are designed not just to help people but also to keep them on their phone as long as possible. Because the longer a person is on the app and their phone the more information they are giving companies. McCarthy quotes a former Apple executive Tony Fadell who said, “The devices themselves are not addictive. That’s like saying a refrigerator is addictive. No, it’s the food inside them. The devices are not addictive, but the things they deliver can be addictive.” And addiction has only grown over the years, and as Kay Rhind, a sales director, so cleverly points out, “If everybody is an addict, no one will tell you it’s an addiction. They’ll say ‘it’s a necessity in life.’”
One of the problems of instant messaging and finding new ways to communicate quicker with things like Emoji’s is that people can easily misinterpret messages which lack context. Even with regular messaging it is difficult to tell whether a person is being serious or comical with their statement. This can happen in any normal conversation too but the person who says it can usually tell if the person is confused and they readdress what they were saying but for people seeing it as just a text it is harder. The other big problem with instant messaging is a contradiction of it. People don’t respond immediately to instant messaging. According to Julie Beck, young adults checked their phones 85 times a day back in 2015. That number has most likely only grown over the years, so why is it some people respond within seconds and others wait a day? Talking conversations that take 5 minutes could be stretched over days because people choose to ignore and not respond right away. And people take that into account and sometimes won’t ask every question they wanted to and that doesn’t help them. Some people open messages but can’t respond right away and then forget to and that can affect the other person emotionally who may think that person is ignoring them. People also sometimes have multiple conversations going on at once and then have to prioritize who they want to give their full attention to and which they want to just answer to answer.
Smartphones could also be affecting how people interact with others around them. Specifically, how empathetic they are. Emily Esfahan Smith talks about how kids who went to a Summer camp without their smart technology were found to be more empathetic than kids who did have it. And these results don’t surprise me at all. The way people act around others centers around how others respond to their actions. And without the face to face reactions that kids aren’t seeing behind screens, they are less likely to know how much they could be hurting another person’s feelings. People have also become so dependent on technology that they do not seek out others help in a time of need, so they can question why should they help someone else in a time of need. Adults who have smart technology can recall to a time to before it when they were able to interact with others and not be dependent on technology, which can help them to realize how addicted they’ve become to it. But for kids today who are born with technology in their hands, it will not seem like an addiction to them but rather a part of their normal everyday life and routine like breathing. They can’t recall back to a time without it, so it will be interesting to see how each new generation deals with it. Eric Andrew McGee talks about how people are now “Worse at being alone and worse at being together.” People being on their phones all the time can create anxiety for being alone yet they choose to ignore others around them when they are on their phones. Families have taken an impact from technology as children and parents are spending less time together. And even sitting in the same room shouldn’t count if everyone is on their phones.
