Smartphones: How Smart Are They Really?

Author's Note: This was written for my English class. Please ignore the citations mid essay. They're there for my English teacher to verify my statistics :) oh and I'm not saying teens shouldn't have smartphones at all, just that usage should be restricted.

Smartphones have become a part of not only American culture, but of cultures around the world. 1 in every 5 people on the planet own a smartphone (Heggestuen, 1) but what these people don’t know is how smartphones aren’t actually that smart. Adults are able to use their phones in moderation, but what about teens? How do we teach them self control on their phones? There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question, but teenagers should not have unrestricted access to their smartphones because they are physically unhealthy, socially unhealthy, and also serve as a life consuming distraction.

Imagine a teenager, somebody your age, heartbroken because he or she was bullied online. Picture the confusion when you think you can trust someone you met on the internet, only to have them betray you by posting your secrets on the internet or even just by ignoring you. Or maybe, this person wasn’t even who you thought they were. This is the problem that comes with teenagers being constantly on their smartphones. They get comfortable socializing over text, talking and sharing thoughts on facebook and twitter. Eventually, the internet seems more and more real. Then you begin to venture outside of those “safe” social networks. You want to meet more people, or do other things. Whether this is online communities for gaming, writing or various other activities, getting too comfortable with your smartphone can be dangerous and painful, especially if there aren’t any adults monitoring your activity. Not only that, but once you start socializing on the internet it gets more and more interesting. Eventually, friend’s “irl” get old. Some may scoff at this, but this does happen. Teens who are snapchatting or on instagram while at a friend’s house are just in the beginning stages of this, whether they’re interacting with people they know, or people they have never met.

One thing that people tend to value above all others is their physical health. What they don’t realize is that the population of the two thirds of Americans have smartphones (Fingas, 1) and they put their physical well being at risk every day. Smartphones can cause problems like arthritis, carpal tunnel, neck and back pain, degeneration of eyesight, loss of hearing, physical addiction and poor sleep quality. Some of these effects seem a little extreme. Take physical addiction for instance, studies show that 66% of smartphone users feel anxiety or fear of being separated from their phones. This can manifest itself from being afraid to lose your phone, or experiencing legitimate withdrawal when away from your phone with symptoms like anxiety, fidgeting and fear of isolation. Other more evident effects like neck and back pain as well as carpal tunnel emerge from hunching over smartphones as well as an excess of texting and use in general. (Hawkins, 1)

In the digital age, we’re busy and focused on work or school. For teens, it is often found that after school activities are impossible or very difficult to keep up with, especially with a heavy homework load. The thing is, teenagers actually would have time for those things if their Smartphone and internet use was restricted. Statistics show that 81% of teenagers are on some kind of Social Network be it Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. (Kaiser, 1) Today, kids ages 8-18 years old spend 7.5 hours a day on average on the internet or watching TV. (Lewin, 1) Every day kids use cell phones 60 times a day whether it’s to text, play games or check social media.(Ahuja, 1) While phones distract from daily activities, they have also been proven to lower grades. In Kent, Ohio, a study was conducted using 500 students and data taken from the study showed that frequent cell phone users had lower GPAs than students who used them less often. Smartphones are among the biggest distractions of the digital age and can be life consuming if not monitored.(Lepp, 1)

Often times, Smartphone users will argue that their phones offer not only a good source of entertainment, but are a good organizational tool as far as keeping track of names, numbers, people, events, to do lists, and homework. The thing about these devices is that they might give the illusion of helping you remember, but the reality is, they actually make you forget. “Digital Dementia” is a condition that is becoming more and more well known as the digital age progresses. Frequent Smartphone users are having problems remembering the simplest things. Why? Well, Smartphone users tend to have a more developed left side of the brain than they do the right side. The right side of your brain helps with things like concentration, attention span and memory. The instantaneous nature of Smartphones lowers attention span and takes away the challenges of everyday life like remembering phone numbers, first and last names, email addresses and even directions for how to get around town. The lack of exercise of the right side of your brain causes deterioration of simple things that may go unnoticed at first, but may soon have a big impact. It starts with little things, like forgetting about what you wanted to say or where you set your pencil down. Then it turns into bigger things, like why you walked into your room or the homework from last night. The digital age is too new to know the longer term effects, but professionals only see those seemingly “little things” just getting worse and worse. (Stewart, 1)

So, Smartphones, in truth, really aren’t all that smart. They aren’t good for you whether it’s your physical health, your social health and they don’t save as much time as people tend to think. So next time you get your next phone upgrade, or even when you have a choice between reading a book and playing on your phone, be conscious about your limits and what you need to do to keep yourself smart and safe.

Sources:

Ahuja, Masuma. "Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Media, on Mobile Devices." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Hawkins, Amanda. "5 Seriously Bad Side Effects of Your Smartphone Addiction." Good Housekeeping. Good Housekeeping, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Fingas, John. "Two-thirds of Americans Now Have Smartphones."Engadget. N.p., 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Kaiser, Tiffany. "DailyTech - Survey: 94 Percent of Teens Use Facebook."DailyTech - Survey: 94 Percent of Teens Use Facebook. N.p., 22 May 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Andrew, Lepp. "News: Frequent Cell Phone Use Linked to Anxiety, Lower Grades and Reduced Happiness in Students, Kent State Research Shows." Kent State University. N.p., 6 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

Stewart, Dodai. "Digital Dementia: Your Smart Phone Is Giving You Brain Damage." Jezebel. N.p., 6 June 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.