Smart Phone Dependency

How dependent are you on your smart phone?

Do you suffer from separation anxiety every time you forget your smart phone when you leave your office or home? Are you constantly checking it for new notifications ? Do you feel lost if your phone battery runs out of juice?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, you are like every average person in the 21st century– completely dependent on your smart phone.

 

My smart phone is like my mother:

It wakes me up in the morning. Like me, I am sure, you set an alarm on your smart phone. I have several alarms on my phone over a period of about fifteen minutes. They are set three or four minutes apart with different ring tones. I hit the snooze button quite a few times before I finally wake up. But I can’t do that to my mother !

 

My smart phone is like my Personal assistant :

It carries my phone book. All my memos, reminders and appointments. My shopping lists, weekly menus and to do lists. I don’t think a secretary could be so efficient.

 

My smart phone is like my Personal trainer

You can download a physical fitness app on your phone that counts the number of steps you walk each day. It also analyses your activity and encourages you to keep up the good work depending on what goal you fed into the app.

 

My smart phone is my library

Ever since I learned to read, I could devour books faster than I could aquire them. In the days before the internet, bookstores and libraries were the only sources of reading material. I could never aquire books as fast as I could read them.

Now my smart phone gives me access to whatever book I want, whether for recreational or research purposes. If I want a meaning of a word I don’t even walk to my bookshelf for a dictionary. I just Google it (the way I am sure you do too).

 

My smart phone is my gaming arcade

in my young days, video games were all the rage. Electronic games where you hit virtual opponents or gunned down enemies by pushing a few buttons, while sound and lght effects made the experience almost realistic.

You had to go to video arcades or parlours where machines for playing these games were installed. You operated them by putting in special coins that you purchased from the counter. Children spent a lot of their pocket money and free time on these games.

Nowadays children don’t need to go anywhere to play video games. They can all be played on mum’s (or their own) smart phone.

 

My smart phone is my theatre/cinema

There are still people alive today who remember their only source of entertainment to be a visit to the cinema or theatre. Those of us who grew up with television remember having to wait for their favourite shows.

Then came VCRs followed by DVD players that allowed you to  play movies of your choice on TV whenever you wanted. But you needed three pieces of equipment, a television/monitor, a VCR/DVD player and of course the videotape/disc.

Then the smartphone entered and took centre stage. Now you can download or stream movies, shows, channels, from all over the world any time and any where.

 

My smart phone is my club

Sitting on my couch in my living room, I can stay in touch with friends all over the world using my smart phone. I don’t need a to join a club or go to soirees to socialize. Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups let you interact with large groups of people at a time, at any time and any place, with your trusty smartphone.

 

OMG ! My smart phone runs my life !!!

There is an app for everything you want to do. Just install it on your smart phone and you are all set. Learning a language or a musical instrument, buying cinema or plane tickets, doing academic or office work : all can be done on your phone.We have become completely dependent on our super duper, trusty rusty, handy dandy smart phone.

Will we always remain so attached to our smart phones? Or will we embrace newer technology, casting them aside like an old shoe?Human beings are fickle creatures when it comes to technology. Were this not so, we would not have progressed much further than the invention of the wheel.

But how about you? How dependent are YOU on your smart phone?

 

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Pictures courtesy Pixabay