Why it’s time put the ‘smart’ back into our smart phones
Source: Pexels.com
It's a crowded train at peak hour. You're stuck standing and staring at the equally unstable people around you. What's the next thing you do?
For many, the answer, whether you'll admit it or not, is reach for your smartphone.
In fact, a woman recently did just that at a train station in the US and was hit by a train after walking on the tracks completely distracted by her device.
Australians have become similarly diverted by their smartphones with national ownership in 2016 increasing to 84 percent; three percent higher than the global average.
The now not so appropriately named smartphone has slowly but surely sucked the smarts from an overwhelming number of us with increasingly concerning consequences.
From using it to remind us about things we really shouldn't forget about like when our parent’s birthdays are to using it in the middle of conversations ; society really needs to start putting the smart back into the smartphone.
Now so engrossed by them that millions of us are literally addicted, it has become a drug we simply can’t kick.
A drug we don’t even realise we’re hooked on despite it being the first and last thing a large number of us look at each day.
So caught up in these increasingly large screens, we are literally hurting ourselves, hunched over in a never-ending need to scroll and stare.
Like a portal to another world, the smartphone has many of us forgetting the obligations of this one as we stumble into one another without our eyes ever leaving that app we don’t really know why we opened.
But despite our own growing human stupidity, these devices genuinely are smart and can make our lives easier if used in the right ways.
For people with disabilities they are able to provide a new quality of life, but for the rest of us, we’ve begun using them as a crutch we don’t really know why we’re leaning on.
Perhaps those us with a habit of texting and walking might in fact benefit from this Japanese device designed for children. While drivers who can’t go two streets without a swipe might need to get themselves a Nissan with their new anti-smartphone technology.
But rather than relying on more technology to overcome our smartphone addiction, it could simply be a case of learning how to put them down for five minutes and remembering how to enjoy a moment.
And if we can’t do that, it could be time to return to mobiles they may not have been considered smart but still kept us connected without robbing us of our wits.
Because I for one am sick of so many smart people acting so dumb under the influence of a smartphone.
If you’re brave enough to admit you need help, these links are worth a click: