When a phone was just a phone-

 

Dopamine- sometimes known as the “feel-good neurotransmitter”.  We all need it, we crave it, we function at a much more excited level when we have it.  Would it blow your mind to know that we get a surge of dopamine when we check our phones?  It’s a pleasure.  It excites us.  What happens when we’re bored?  We pick up our phone.  When we have lost time throughout the day, it’s usually because we’ve gotten lost in a whirlwind of “stuff” on our phone.  We are a generation of addicts.  Not only are we addicted, we can’t get enough.  It’s the last thing we do at night, the first thing we do in the morning, hell when we wake up in the middle of the night we check our phones.  We have new terminology that is based solely on our phone addictions.  Words like ‘nomophobia’ which is the fear of not having your phone, ‘textaphrenia’ is the fear of not being able to send or receive texts, and ‘phantom vibrations’ which is feeling your phone alerting you when it isn’t.

Excessive cell phone use is a big problem in the world today.  It is truly no wonder that the future is the cell phone.

Did you know that in the next 5 years its predicted that ¾ of internet users will only access the internet via a smart phone?  I can’t quite figure out if that is blowing my mind or if it makes total sense.  Once upon a time a phone was just a phone.  It seems these days that little gadget we carry around in our pockets and can’t leave home without is a computer first and a phone second.

I suppose it makes total sense that at some point in the near future, consumers will solely use their smart phones to access the internet.  We are already glued to them, barely able to walk to the next room without the phone glued to our hands.  We are steadily asking “where’s my phone” and can you even remember the last time you went somewhere without it?

It is truly amazing to me to think back to a time when I never accessed the internet, like, ever.  I remember leaving the house without a phone (specifically because I didn’t even have one until I was 21) and not feeling like I had to go back for it, if I did leave it home. 

I feel fortunate to be of a generation that has witnessed all of this change and been a part of each step.  Once the internet became a thing that I regularly used, I still rarely used it on my phone.  But you yourself will notice (I think) that at this time it is at least the place that you access the internet most, if it isn’t already the only place you access internet.  Interestingly enough, my own father (who, by the way is 75) never accesses the internet except from the iPhone.  He doesn’t use a computer or a tablet, just his phone.  If it weren’t for school and work, I can’t say that I wouldn’t already be on that same level with my father just for ease and convenience sake alone.  It begs the question if the older generation isn’t the first one to make this transition (or maybe my dad is early adopter for the first time in his life)!  I really hope you laughed at that.

It is interesting that the estimated time people are predicted to spend on their smart phones is just over three hours a day.  Unfortunately, I know that my own estimated daily smart phone usage is just over four hours a day.  I used to think it was cool that our phones would tell us how much screen time we had invested, but when it rises, I feel nothing but guilt.  Like, is there a way to track my productiveness that can alert me every Sunday morning that I did a great job last week instead of an alert that says “hey, you used your phone a whole dang lot.”

 Times are changing, we get to choose whether we want to keep up with the changes or if we want to take a step back.