With or Without Smartphones?

This conversation takes us back to the broader subject of human interaction with technology. It's one of the notable conversations on technology in relation to humans. I remember one of the popular debates in school those days as a student in the lower levels of education, which explored the positive and negative effects of technology. The topic always opened up students to the conversation and allowed them to explore the two-sided effects of this interaction.

Technology has always had its effects on humans, both good and bad. Down to the major point of discussion here, what are the effects of smartphones on humans? Would life somehow be better without it, considering that the negative effects could be weighing heavily on us? Well, I always say that with things like this, we're guilty in a sense, and can't put it up on technology alone, or in this case, smartphones.

^{Image Source.}

We ought to have control over our smartphones and their use. It's meant to be a tool that we operate and use for our advantage and good, not the reality we see today, whereby many have become addicted to their phones, so that life means nothing or less outside of it. It might not be an intentional effort, and I guess that's also where the issue is. It's an unconscious action that's affecting us.

Most times, we applaud the current times and era for the major reason of technology, using smartphones as primary examples, but we fail mostly to recognise as well how much destruction comes from this. People now play the comparison game more than ever before, there's online fraud, cyberbullying, too much screen time and doom scrolling, and other destructive actions that keep us attached to our phones.

Our smartphones are good, and certainly an invention that I'm happy to have. But I'm just being objective here to state the ways our too much attachment and dependence on our smartphones affect us. People used to have more real interaction with others, nature and time in the absence of smartphones. Our relationships were intentional. But today, you can have a whole family sit together and everyone is fixated on their phones.

^{Image Source.}

It's destroying human interactions. The lack of balance and control in our relationship with our smartphones, the destructive engagement with social media through it, and a lot more speak to how much we need to pay attention to this issue. I've been busy this week doing some important things on my phone, which was exhausting at some point. But when I took some time away yesterday from my phone, there was this refreshing feeling that felt good.

People will learn to sleep better and have better real-life social interactions when we regulate our smartphones use. The validation people seek online and comparison game, constant notifications and returning to our phones to check for what's not there is something we need to intentionally fix. Yes, we need to fix it because smartphones are meant to be helpful tools, not to have power over us. So, maybe that should be our contention rather.

Thank you for reading!