Can filters on apps and phone cameras change the body/beauty image of a nation? Can a technological addiction get to the level of substance abuse? Before reading “Annals of Technology: China’s Selfie Obsession” intheNew Yorkerand listening to “’Irresistible’ By Design: It’s No Accident You Can’t Stop Looking At The Screen” on Fresh Air by NPR I would have scoffed and said of course not. However, afterward, I am nodding my head. I was completely horrified by the statistics and facts that I was presented with to mull over.
Was I addicted to technology? Did I have a problem? Was I missing out on the present and life in general because of a screen addiction? My initial thought was of course not! I don’t have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. But on further reflection, I realized that I do have Pinterest, LinkedIn, and an overactive email account. To answer these questions, I went to the source – my phone. I found that I spend the most time (approximately 54 minutes per day) using my cellphone for its intended purpose – as a phone. My next largest category was FaceTime (approximately 8 minutes per day). At first, I was surprised, but then I was relieved. I am not the app robot that the article and NPR talk had assumed! I may be a digital robot of another kind though. My usage of verbal and digital face-to-face communication does say something about how my upbringing and technology have mingled.
If you have read any of my past post, you are aware by now that I grew up on a farm ten miles from a small town just north of nowhere. When I was born, my mom quit work to stay home with the kids. There were four of us by then, and she didn’t make enough to cover all of the daycare. She stayed home with me until I started kindergarten. We would only go into town once a week to get groceries and go to church. The world of a child always seems to be small compared to an adult, but mine was microscopic. I played outside about ten of the twenty-four hours in a day by myself with my imagination for company. I was my mom’s side-kick. We became best friends and still are today. I am very close to all of my family from my siblings, their spouses, my nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.
When I first decided to become a chemical engineer, I came to the startling realization that the closest top ten nationally ranked school for chemical engineering was in Minnesota – a mere five and a half hours from home. I couldn’t resist the pull of an excellent education with diverse job opportunities. Before I knew it, I was moving into my dorm Freshman year. I quickly realized that it wouldn’t be feasible to see my family even once a month with my course load. This led to a vicious case of home-sickness that was made even worse by my dorm-mate’s constant trips home as she lived in the metro area. My iPhone through both the phone and FaceTime applications allowed me to feed my “addiction” to family and helped to diminish my homesickness by releasing dopamine in my brain during conversations with my family. Obviously, four years later, my usage has only increased.
Via my phone, I can “experience” what is going on at home. As I write this blog, I know that my family is at the circus. I know that yesterday, my mom ran out of cookies from the freezer and has to make more this weekend. This device enables me to cross 332 miles in seconds.
My specific experience with my phone may be unique, but my human connection to the device is certainly not unique. Most humans globally in modern times have a close tie to a device is some way. There are of course exceptions, but the vast majority of us are infatuated with this technology.
There is a price for the magic convenience of instant verbal and digital video communications. Americans pay roughly $47 per month for a single cellphone connection; the cost is only increasing with time.[1]That isn’t counting the cost of the device. The cost is increasing because the demand is increasing. Cellular devices have become essential to humans. As an essential instrument, they act upon humans and the environment. These actions can be localized and direct such as the connection of myself to my family, nationalized and direct such as the increase in plastic surgery and redefinition of an unattainable beauty in China, or global and indirect such as through the depletion of natural resources such as metals to make devices.
Aside from the known social and environmental changes that have occurred by humans since the advancement of smartphones, there are still unknown effects about how devices impact humans. We know that since the rise of smartphones, the human attention span has decreased.[2]What other health effects will arise? Will the generation after the Millennials know how to hold a face-to-face conversation or be able to sit in a park and enjoy the scenery without obsessively checking a device? I don’t have the answers to all of the questions, but I can say that a world without individual imagination would be a sad place indeed. If individuality and human connection is the price we pay for convenience and entertainment, is it worth it?
References
[1] Davidson, J. Americans Spend More on Mobile Service Than the Rest of the World. Time.com. 15 Dec 2014.
[2] Alters, A. “’Irresistible’ By Design: It’s No Accident You Can’t Stop Looking At The Screen”. FreshAir. 2017.
I was sure Devon would take the opposite position: 'a phone's just a phone.' But this is scary smart. I'm sold. But I DO wonder about the proliferation of 'addictions.' (1) ANYTHING that confers pleasure will get our bodies to say 'more, please,' and (2) ALL our tech makes our bodies change. Do we have a special case here?
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