For today’s young professional, our smartphones are our lifelines. We turn to these sacred devices to entertain, inform, distract and stimulate. After all, they are multi-functional; they provide us with a camera, video camera, notepad, phone, browser, gaming system, portable listening device, alarm clock, weatherman, GPS, translator and bank – all at our fingertips.
This range of functions only increases as we download the app of the hour. Like a trusted friend, we turn to our smartphones to vent about mistreatment or personal injustices to our virtual world. The moment a conversation gets dull, or we need to get out of an awkward situation, our devices are there for us like a loyal wingman. We can’t help but depend on them. So, the moment the plane lands, we frantically reach for our BlackBerries, wondering what we’ve missed in the two and a half hours between Florida and Toronto. We sneak glances down at them during movies, dinner dates and even meetings.
We can remember days when we had all the numbers of our friends memorized. Now, if we lost our BlackBerry without the foresight to back it up, we wouldn’t be able to call the majority of our friends or family. Do we depend on our smartphone? Yes. And we have recently been called out over our smartphone behavior by YP friends, one of whom took our precious BlackBerry out of our hands like a rattle from a baby, exclaiming “you’re addicted to that thing!”
Are we addicted? A recent study by University of Worcester revealed that smartphone addiction is indeed a real phenomenon. Findings show that a large percentage of adults had become so addicted to their smartphone that they suffer from anxiety and withdrawal symptoms when they do not receive any new text messages or status updates. They have also grown so obsessed with virtual socializing that they feel stressed out when their phones are inactive. Some gadget addicts even report feeling phantom rings and vibrations.
What does this information mean for Canadian young professionals? Five out of five Canadian YPs said that they would feel lost without their smartphone. This was not too surprising, but four out of five Canadian YPs said that if they left their smartphones at home, they would go home to get it at lunch. For some YPs, this even meant taking a cab or exceptionally long transit ride to do so.
Besides their mixed use, the way they enable us to multi- task by sending emails while in line or on transit and the subsequent time they save, why are we so controlled and enamored by our devices?
Our social media generation has shortened our attention spans. We expect persistent stimulation and a constant flow of information, whether in the form of status updates, instant news updates, or real-time messaging with friends and family. If we don’t have access to this, we feel left in the dust, like we are home alone on a Saturday night while our neighbours throw a hot party next door. We want the best option in terms of Saturday night plans, so we scan our “friends’” Facebook and BBM statuses to find out where that is. In fact, BBM has rendered us more in tune with the lives of our BBM friends than our friends we’ve known for years. As many BBM-loving YPs can attest, it seems that whenever anyone switches to an iPhone, we lose a friend. We expect constant access to our friends and immediate replies to our messages and check our devices repeatedly to ensure a message isn’t missed.
But the smartphone fixation expands to more than just the social aspect. Twitter has made us all news sources in a sense and everyone wants to be the first to break a piece of news or snap a coveted picture on their smartphones. We compete for access to knowledge. Being the stubborn and forward-thinking YPs that we are, we want to be the first to know about everything, from a friend’s engagement to the latest tech products and business news. So, we check our smartphones every three minutes.
Have we gone too far?
Here are some signs that you may be addicted to your smartphone:
1. You constantly update your BBM profile pictures, screensaver pictures, statuses or ringtones.
2. You check your phone repeatedly for text messages, Facebook and Twitter updates, missed calls and emails, and are disappointed when nothing has changed from moments before.
3. The thought of forgetting your phone at home is almost anxiety attack-inducing.
4. You know more about your BBM contacts and Twitter friends than the actual friends you’ve had for years.
5. You sleep with your smartphone and check it if you wake up in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning
6. At times of stress you turn to your phone.
7. You workout with your phone within arms reach at the gym.
8. Your friends and significant others commonly get annoyed that they don’t have your full attention.
9. You feel your phone vibrate or hear it ring when it isn’t.
10. You have mastered the art of covering up cell phone use in meetings, in class or at the dinner table
If you answered “yes” to the majority of these questions, the best piece of advice is to be conscious of it and take time each day or evening to rewind to the days pre-smartphone; to the days of actual uninterrupted human interaction, non-electronic hobbies and rejuvenating alone time. It may just be more liberating than you thought.