It has long been debated that heavy smartphone use predisposes us to addiction. However, our devices are also creating other problems.
If you’ve watched the movie RoboCop, the 1980s version, you’ll know how accurate its predictions have been.
From the corporate takeover of public services, to shareholders dipping their toes in the military-industrial complex, and the commercial and privatisation of healthcare services. All these things have, or are, coming to pass in a way no one could have envisioned.
However, the biggest issue it foresaw has been the merging of our bodies with technology.
Is social media making us stupid?
The brain is a fragile, little-understood organ, and despite its physical presence it can also be thought of as a place, considering it is an object within a dimension that allows us to access the full human experience. A place where the notion of love, loss, catastrophising, and elation are made possible.
Social media, in particular, is merely a facet of various ailments biding their time to develop into full-blown addictions, thanks to the algorithmic spells of the beings in Silicon Valley. However, we also take it to a whole other level in a personal capacity when considering our participation on their platforms.
Our access to the internet has severed a connection with reality to the point we know a little about a lot, but not a lot about a little. We are voluntarily imprisoned by 6 inches of metal and glass.
It is hard for anyone to do anything, thanks to the convenience of an endless supply of nuisance applications made possible by the £1000 smartphones we feel compelled to have.
You’ll use its ‘special’ features just once before the novelty begins to wear off, never to utilise it again.
Material desires remain the same as in the past, and they all share one thing in common – the price of validation.
We engage trends, buy their accessories, and behave a certain way for a reason. That is because all want to be loved and accepted by a specific desirable tribe.
No matter how edgy you think you are, or ehat idea or belief you reject, it is largely because you’re swept away in the false-confidence of your surroundings.
You’re not happy with the family you were born into or the people you associate with by default. Not because you feel you belong somewhere else, but because of the construct of the messaging that surrounds you.
There is no doubt in my mind that if you were born in a place free of the messaging systems advertised by your favourite brand, that you would be happier. A lack of mixed signals will bring no expectation, and no expectation brings a carefree mind.
Different parts of the world have different outcomes
Different communities handle the world differently with contrasting lifestyles. We only have to look to certain tribes in Africa, whose lower cholesterol levels are thanks to their diet. They’re not bombarded by advertisements for fast food and the combination of choices brought about by restaurant competition.
In Ikaria, Greece, locals are marginally affected by the westernisation of corporate interests and as a result, live longer thanks to the lack of choice they’re given. Residents live off the land, coupled with a sense of community and belonging.
However, in the West, we don’t have this. Instead, we are spoilt for choice; food is delivered directly to our door, we fail to engage with our communities believing we are not accepted anywhere thanks to the dishonesty of the lifestyles we embrace. It’s magnified by social media, propped up by the smartphones we all carry.
Myopia increase caused by smartphone use
NHS healthcare professionals are also seeing a marked increase in shortsightedness in infants and children owing to excessive smartphone use. Many parents are leaning on it like a digital pacifier to calm or occupy them. But studies have shown that myopia diagnoses are on the rise, and should be reigned in as soon as possible.
Takeaway
Our excessive reliance on social media and an imprudent use of smartphone communication services will only serve to destroy the neuroconnections we build early on in life, numbing our psychological well-being with an increase in mental health disorders.
A balance should be struck and counteracted with non-digital activities whereby smartphones/social media are a tool, not a lifestyle.
Smartphones create a number of ways to recede our intelligence, we just don’t want to see it, and that is called addiction.
Image by SHOOT.LDN
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