How Cell Phone Addiction Affects Our Relationships, Our Safety, and Even Our Sanity
American’s are invested in their smartphones to the point that their cell phones are part of who they are.
Clearly, if Apple can sell a new iPhone for around $1500, they must have figured out that phones are a high priority in everyone’s life, too. Apple as well as other big corporations have been making money of our phone addictions for 10 + years.
What if you don’t care about your cell phone? You are now part of the minority since recent studies have shown that on average, American adults spend almost 3 hours daily on their phones.
How do we (as busy adults) have the energy to devote so much time to our cell phones? With time invested in work, family, friends, and health, something needs to be lacking!
1. Cell Phones Addiction Is Killing Our Relationships
Bingo. My first hidden truth. Relationships are lacking thanks to our cell phone addictions.
I’m not going to say that cell phones are monsters that steal lives. We as humans choose to be addicted to our cell phones. We are responsible for understanding the importance of moderation.
I can’t go and blame the internet or my smartphone if I spend too much time watching cat videos and ignore my spouse in the process.
We all also know that there are many advantages to having a cell phone. You can dial 911 as long as you have a battery. You can educate yourself. You can talk to someone at any point when you feel sad. You can laugh at silly videos and even connect with each other via social media.
However, with all the advantages of owning a cell phone, it is easy to see how addiction comes into play.
Cell phones are very addicting, and they can also be a gateway to negative behavior and addictive tendencies. These addictions can lead to divorce and even child neglect.
Related Content: What to Do If Your Child Is Being Bullied Though Text Message
2. Cell Phone Addiction Is A Sign of Other Addictions
When you have a cell phone addiction, your cell phone is on your mind 24/7. I bet if you are addicted to your cell phone that you even keep it next to you while you sleep.
Your cell phone is your alarm, your gateway to communication, part of your work life, and so much more.
Am I wrong?
My best bet is that I’m not.
That being said, cell phone addiction can be pretty serious. Many people can’t go five minutes without checking their email, social media, or partaking in unmentionable actions. Needless to say, cell phones can be a gateway to any sort of addiction. That’s why it’s so scary.
3. Cell Phone Addiction Causes Us to Lose Touch with Reality
Unfortunately, an important part of an American’s day involves reading through our emails, Instagram likes and responding to just about any notification that pops up on our home screen.
Naturally, because of this behavior, we are losing touch with real-world problems.
World hunger, slavery, and religious persecution are all still world problems.
Keeping up with global news is easy. Making a difference is easy. However, we choose to continue to use our four hours a day on our phone doing trivial things. We also let advertising choose what we want to buy and how to spend our money.
There is very little chance that the world will change at a global-level, even with advanced technology.
4. Cell Phone Addiction Can Affect Your Brain
Studies now show that excessive daily screen time can affect the chemistry of the brain.
Sleeping next to your phone may cause even further issues as some believe that sleeping next to your smartphone can cause disruptive sleep patterns, anxiety, ADHD, and even cancer.
Needless to say, despite these health warnings people still choose to have their phone right next to them at all times.
5. Cell Phone Addiction Is A Big Part of Distracted Driving
We all know that there is a problem with texting and driving, but it’s not just texting. It’s looking at new notifications on Snapchat, reading emails, watching a funny video, making calls that distract you from the road, the list goes on and on.
Also, we need to stop blaming just teenagers as studies now show that adults are just as distracted as teens while driving.
You can tell people to just pull-over, but most of them will ignore you. We are all just too busy for safety.
6. Cell Phone Addiction Takes Away Our Desire to Be Creative
What do we reach for when we are bored? Most of us would answer our cell phones. Not a book, or a brush, or a board game.
Sure, there are puzzles and books on your phone, but how often do we actually choose to take part in creative activities on our smartphones when there are mindless videos and beautiful images?
7. Cell Phone Addiction Leads to Careless Behavior
With our cell phones, we don’t have to do much work or careful thinking. We use our calculator for math, our GPS to get directions.
We carelessly read articles that may not be true and believe every word that is written. With our cell phones, we don’t have to think for ourselves.
Think about this:
When we go on vacation, we research the cheapest tickets. However, did you know that Expedia and Priceline own most travel websites and that you aren’t really getting a “deal” when you say you are?
On vacation, you pick restaurants and things to do mostly based on reviews. However, reviews can be fabricated.
If you choose to drive to your destination, you more than likely don’t travel the most beautiful roads, but take the road that your GPS chooses.
This thought process affects our parenting and our family life as well.
We don’t let our kids paint what we want, we do pretty projects that we found on Pinterest and make sure they look nice so we can Instagram them.
We hear about how everyone is cheating on their spouse, and we get paranoid and begin to think that we might as well too so we don’t feel as vulnerable.
These are all examples of how our phones do the thinking for us.
The 411
I know I sound like someone that believes in crazy conspiracy theories, but I promise you I am a logical person.
I will be the first to admit that our cell phone addictions are all our own fault. There is no mind control involved. We are choosing our phones over our families every day.
If we really loved technology, we would find better ways to use it. There are so many impactful ways to use technology than what we are actually doing.
The Internet is capable of doing great things. Charities and support groups are easily accessible. We can do better, but we probably won’t.