This may seem like a lifetime ago, but remember when you didn’t own a smart phone? I know, crazy idea! Our generation was the first to ever receive a smart phone, and they were (and still are) the coolest and craziest thing ever! I still remember the phone in my old house, attached to the wall with a spiraled cord. I got my first cell phone in sixth grade, and like most of my friends, the phone slid up to reveal the dial pad. Remember when the Razor was the coolest phone out there?! Yes, technology has changed, our phones have evolved, and we are waiting for the next big thing, but when did we become so addicted?
There was a good portion of most of our lives where we did not own a cell phone. Now kids are getting their phones younger and younger. Parents use their phones to put on videos or games to keep their kids distracted. Our phones have become a form of distraction to avoid anything and everything. When you’re sitting in class, every second you feel bored, or try to avoid eye contact with someone, you look down at your phone. You may try to sit there and tell yourself that you are not addicted, that this does not apply to you, and that you can totally survive without your phone. Try leaving your phone in the car and going shopping alone. Leave it in your room and go watch TV, or walk to all of your classes for the day without it. How many times do you look down to your hand or feel uncomfortable without it? Next time, count the number of people that walk out of a lecture hall looking down at their phones, ignoring friends.
Adults, the media, everyone tries to tell us that we are addicted to our phones, and that we could not survive without it. I would like to tell all of them that they are wrong. We are not so much addicted to our phones as we are addicted to the idea of always being distracted. There are so many things going on in our lives, and it is hard to not constantly think about it. Our phones are the best way to make us feel not alone, to keep our minds off things, and procrastinate.
We fear being bored, and our phones crutch us from getting things accomplished. There are so many things that we can look at to distract us from getting work done, from social media to funny videos to games. We also do not want to feel alone, whether it is sitting around or walking to class. Our phones connect us to our friends and family, so it is almost like they are standing right there next to us. We, as a generation, need to take notice of the fact that we are not addicted to our cell phones, we are addicted to the distraction. It leads us to be procrastinators, antisocial, and mindless.
