Protect Your Family from Smartphones!

Mr. Kim wakes up at the sound of the alarm on his smartphone in the morning, reads articles on his smartphone, searches good restaurants at his lunch break on the smartphone, and buys things he needs, using his smartphone whenever he has time. He often asks after his acquaintances, using his smartphone, and he has small talks with his acquaintances through it. After work, he either reads a book on the smartphone or searches information of the things he’s interested in, and on the weekends, he searches places to visit on his smartphone and uses his smartphone to find the way there.

Now, although there are people who don’t have wire telephones, it is hard to find anyone who doesn’t have one now. This shows how fast smartphones come deep in our lives and settled as a daily necessity.

But could this be a trap? Now, it is impossible to imagine a world without smartphones. There are people who depend on the smartphones so much that they say they feel anxious without their smartphones even for a moment and feel like they can’t do anything without smartphones. There are also quite many people who cannot put their smartphones down all day because there are so many interesting things in them. Using the smartphones on the bus or in the subway is a norm. Even while walking, people look at the smartphones.

Some people feel bad for this situation, saying that people have become smartphones’ slaves, not owners. Some say that the problems caused by smartphones are going to become worse.

Things Excessive Use of Smartphones Takes Away

Experts are saying that the excessive use of smartphones must be included in the list of diseases just like addiction to nicotine and alcohol. Addiction indicates the status of a person who is into something so intensely that he or she cannot get out of it. The reason people say that the excessive use of smartphones should be categorized as addiction is that it also arouses such condition and cause serious side effects, social problems, and family breakdown.

The benefits of civilization can also be poison and cause loss of precious things if they are used inappropriately. Let’s see some things that we lose if we use the smartphones indiscreetly.

① Family Happiness

On average, people spend just thirty minutes a day to talk with their family whereas they spend about three hours a day on smartphones. It is well below the time of smartphone usage. While using the smartphones, they cannot feel the necessity of having a conversation at all, nor can they have a conversation. It is no exaggeration to say that smartphones are the main cause of severance of conversations.

At the restaurant, we can often see family members looking at their own smartphones. Although the family is in one space, they are in their own world instead of talking with each other with eye contact. At this point, smartphones are no longer a necessary item, but a harmful item.

② Memory

Before cell phones were made, people used to have no problems memorizing about ten phone numbers. But nowadays, many people do not even know the phone number of their own family members. It is because they don’t have any reason to memorize them since they are stored on their smartphones. There is no reason to store information in the brain because you can always search it on the smartphone when there is something you don’t know. Because the smartphone is doing the work the brain is supposed to do, the activity of the brain is reduced and the memory of the human beings is declining. This phenomenon is called “digital dementia.”

If you have to rely on the GPS even for a route you frequently take, or you cannot handle simple mental arithmetic that you have to use a calculator, or you cannot remember the birthday of a person close to you, or you cannot remember what you ate yesterday, you have to suspect digital dementia. Digital dementia is not just mere forgetfulness, but it can weaken the brain function, which can lead to loss of control, indecisiveness, loss of language ability, stress, and so on. Therefore, it is not a matter we can overlook.

③ Health

As for adults, the weight put on the cervical vertebrae are about 5 kg [11 lb] when they keep the heads up. When the head is lowered at 30°, it is 18 kg [40 lb], and at 45°, it gives a burden of 22 kg [49 lb]. To see a smartphone, you have to lean your head forward. If you keep your head like that for a long time, the neck bone is changed and becomes a turtle neck. And of course it is followed by pain. In a severe case, it’s led to the herniated cervical disc, which can result in headache, sleep disorder, and fatigue. People tend to look at the smartphones very close because they have small screens. However, this causes vision deterioration and dry eyes.

It is extremely dangerous to look at the smartphone while driving or walking in the street. In fact, there was a case of a person who fell into the water while playing a game on the smartphone and drowned, and of a person who went off the road and hit into a tree while using the smartphone. Excessive use of smartphones threatens not only health but also life.

④ Time like Gold

It’s hard to keep track of time while being immersed in the smartphone. One or two hours go by in the blink of an eye. Then you come to miss what you have to do or you put it off until the next day. Some people call smartphones “time thief.” So we are basically letting our smartphones steal our precious time. In fact, it is unlikely that you will be able to develop yourself or spend a valuable time through smartphones. The smartphone has an advantage that it is available at any time because it is very portable, but it causes people to lose not only their free time but important time as well by arousing momentary fun and providing volatile information.

Using Smartphones in a Smart Way

We can’t completely keep away from the smartphone which satisfies convenience and rationality at the same time in the digital era that keeps on changing. Then, how can we use the smartphone in a wise way without being swayed by it? The answer is to have a balance and harmony.

In other words, you can regard your smartphone as a necessary item, but you should not entirely rely on it. There are many features on the smartphone, but do not try to solve everything with your smartphone. Instead, try to seek other methods. For example, rather than using a smartphone app when you need to take notes, you can use a notebook and a pen, and play table tennis or badminton with your family instead of playing a game on the smartphone. Games that only require your fingers to move are harmful to health, but the exercise through which you actually move and sweat is beneficial both physically and mentally.

Go to the library and read a book instead of e-books, and read the paper newspaper instead of the Internet articles. The type you read, feeling the paper texture, is more readable and easier to remember than the letters on the smartphone that are made of pixels. Let’s look at the calendar or clock rather than the smartphone when checking time or date. It may feel a bit cumbersome because we are used to things that are fast and comfortable, but it is good to feel analog emotions.

We habitually look for our smartphones when we don’t have anything in particular to do. Therefore, it’s also important to make a plan and put it into practice every day. The way to prevent addiction is to minimize the opportunities to use the smartphone.

Most people misunderstand that the time they spend using their smartphone is a break. However, the brain is constantly stimulated while using the smartphone. The brain also needs to rest after work, so that it can delete unnecessary information and create a new storage space. However, your brain cannot take a break while you are using the smartphone, which results in losing concentration and feeling mental fatigue. The cause of chronic fatigue which many modern people suffer is often caused by mental fatigue, not physical fatigue.

To use smartphones smartly, you have to endure inconvenience in some degree. If you follow only what is comfortable, you will be unable to withstand even small inconveniences and you come to lose patience. Let’s use only the features we really need, and turn on the smartphone only when we really need it.

A picture of an elderly woman, which was taken during a film premiere, went viral. When a famous actor appeared, everyone was busy taking pictures with their smartphones, but the elderly woman was looking at the actor with bright eyes and a happy smile on her face.

People who missed the chance to look at the vivid appearance of the actor, being busy taking a picture of him with their smartphones! SNS, blogs, games, messengers . . . Who knows? Maybe people who are losing their real lives while living their online lives are just like these people at the film premiere. A precious life to see the eyes of your family members who are beside you, to feel each other’s warmth, and to give ear to them! Let’s not lose this real life to the smartphone.